300 CULTIVATION OF MAIZE. 
temperature is less than 44° or 46°; and on the 
cordilleras of New Spain rye and barley are seen to 
vegetate vigorously where the cultivation of maize 
would not be attended with success. On the other 
hand, the latter thrives in the lowest plains of the 
torrid zone, where wheat, barley, and rye, are not 
found. Hence we cannot be surprised to hear that 
it occupies a much greater extent in equinoctial 
America than the grains of the Old Continent. 
The fecundity of the Mexican variety is astonish- 
ing. Fertile lands usually afford a return of 300 or 
400 fold, and in the neighbourhood of Valladolid a 
harvest is considered defective when it yields only 
130 or 150. Even where the soil is most steril the 
produce varies from sixty to eighty. The general 
estimate for the equinoctial region of Mexico may 
be considered as a hundred and fifty. 
Of all the gramina cultivated by man, none is so 
unequal as this in its produce, as it varies in the 
same field according to the season from forty to 
200 or 300 for one. If the harvests are good, the 
agriculturist makes his fortune more rapidly than 
with any other grain ; but frightful dearths some- 
times occur, when the natives are obliged to feed on 
unripe fruit, cactus-berries, and roots. Diseases 
arise in consequence ; and these famines are usually 
attended with a great mortality among the children. 
Fowls, turkeys, and even cattle suffer, so that the tra- 
veller can find neither eggs nor poultry. Scarcities of 
less severity are not uncommon, and are especially 
felt in the mining districts, where the vast numbers 
of mules employed in the process of amalgamation 
annually consume an enormous quantity of maize. 
Numerous varieties of food are derived from this 
