172 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



artisans from Xortli America. Italian craftsmen and petty dealers arrive in con- 

 stantly increasing numbers, while the community of speech facilitates the settle- 

 ment of Spaniards in the country discovered by their ancestors. At the end of 

 1887 the number of Iberians entered on the consular registers exceeded 9,500 ; 

 next to them the French and Italian settlers are the most numerous. 



As in other countries where the population is steadily increasing, agriculture 

 and the industries have been developed at a still more rapid rate. Maize, which is 

 the chief crop throughout the temperate zone, and even on the plateaux, is still 

 the " corn," in a pre-eminent sense, for the Hispano-Mexicans, as it formerly was 

 for the Aztecs; with it is made the tortilla, or hot cake, in the preparation of 

 which over a million of women are constantly employed. The annual crop is 

 estimated at from £22,000,000 to £2-I,000,000, whereas wheat, grown by the side 

 of maize in the cold zone, is valued at scarcely more than £4,000,000. Barley 

 represents even a still smaller value, while rice is raised only on the lowlands, 

 together with manioc on the Pacific and Atlantic slopes. 



Thefrijoks, or haricot beans, form part of the diet of most Mexicans, and are 

 cultivated with peas, broad beans, and lentils to the extent of over £2,000,000 

 annually. Potatoes are scarcely appreciated in their original home, and next to 

 maize and haricots the most important article of food is the banana, a fruit of 

 Asiatic origin. In the warmer parts of the temperate zone a clump of bananas 

 with four or five stems yields from 620 to 720 fruits, twelve of which suffice to 

 sustain a man for one day. Thus a space of about twenty square yards growing 

 this plant produces enough food to support one person for a twelvemonth ; 

 whereas, to obtain the same result with wheat, a sj)ace of at least 160 square yards 

 would be needed. Besides the b inana, Mexico produces an immense variety of 

 other fruits, being suitable for the cultivation of almost every plant grown both in 

 the tropical and temperate zones. The orange is here found associated with the 

 cocoanut, the grape with the chirimoya, so that no fruit-markets can surpass those 

 of the capital and the other cities of the plateau for the endless variety of their 

 produce. 



Wine is not the national drink, although the vine might yield excellent results 

 in various parts of the country, and especially in Chihuahua and the other northern 

 states from Zacatecas to the American frontier. Its cultivation, already valued at 

 over 1,000,000 gallons in 1878, is even yearly increasing, but only to meet the 

 demands of the wealthy classes. The plant which yields the really national beve- 

 rage is the maguey {agave americana), of which over thirty varieties are known 

 to agriculturists. It is grown on the upper slopes of the temperate zone and in the 

 cold regions, especially on the light sandy soils of the plateaux between 6,000 and 

 8,000 feet above the sea. Between Tlaxcala, Pachuca, and the capital, the maguey 

 fields cover many thousand square miles of land. The piilquero obtains the 

 maguey wine by removing the bloom at the moment of its greatest energy. Then 

 the sap, which would have served to nourish the huge cluster of flowers, fills the 

 deep cavity caused by the excision, and this cavity is emptied from two to nine 

 times a day, according to the species and years, during the whole period of efflo- 



