152 STAPLE PBODUCTIONS. 



L 



uneven ground he will hardly be able to get 

 over half of that amount^ 



All the acequias for the valley of the Rio del 

 Norte are conveyed from the main stream, ex- 

 cept where a tributary of more convenient wa- 

 ter happens to join it. As the banks of the river 

 are very low, and the descent considerable, 

 the water is soon brought upon the surface 

 by a horizontal ditch along an inchned bank, 

 commencing at a convenient point of con- 

 stant-flowing water — generally without dam, 

 except sometimes a wing of stones to turn 

 the current into the canal. 



The staple productions of the country are 

 emphatically Indian corn and wheat The 

 former grain is most extensively employed 

 for making tortillas — an article of food great- 

 ly in demand among the people, the use of 

 which has been transmitted to them by the 

 aborigines. The corn is boiled in water vaih 

 a little Ume : and when it has been sufficiently 

 softened, so as to strip it of its skin, it is 

 ground into paste upon the metate,^ and form- 

 ed into a thin cake. This is afterwards spread 

 on a small sheet of iron or copper, called 



I- 



• There is no land measure here correspondent to oiur acres. 

 Husbandmen rate their fields by the amount of wheat necessary to 

 sow them ; and thus speak of a fanega of land— /an^g-a being a 

 measure of about two bushels — meaning an extent which two 

 bushels of wheat will suffice to sow. Tracts are usually sold by 

 the number of leguas (leagues), or varas front of irritable lands; 

 for those back from the streams are considered worthless. The 

 mra is very nearly 33 English inches, 5,000 of which constitute 

 fte Mexican league— under two miles and two-thirds. 



t From the Indian word metatl, a hollowed oblong stone, used 

 is a grinding machine. 



