CULTIVATED IN NEW SPAIN. 383 
taro and Leon, the wheat-harvest is 35 and 40 for 1 ; 
and several farms can even reckon on 50 or 60 for 
1. At Cholulo the common return is from 30 to 40, 
but it frequently exceeds from 70 to 80 for]. In 
the valley of Mexico maize yields 200, and wheat 
18 or 20. The mean produce of the whole country 
may be stated at 20 or 25 for 1. M. Abad, a ca- 
non of the metropolitan church of Valladolid de 
Mechoacan, took at random from a field of wheat 
forty plants, when he found that each seed had 
produced forty, sixty, and even seventy stalks. The 
number of grains which the ears contained frequent- 
ly exceeded 100 or 120, and the average amount ap- 
peared to be 90. Some even exhibited 160. A few 
of the elevated tracts, however, are covered with a 
kind of clay impenetrable by the roots of herbaceous 
plants, and others are arid and naked, in which the 
cactus and other prickly shrubs alone vegetate. 
The following table exhibits the mean produce 
of the cereal plants in different countries of both 
continents :— 
In France, from 5 to six oor for I. 
In Hungary, Croatia, and Sclavonia, from 8 to 10 grains. 
In La Plata, 12 grains. 
In the northern part of Mexico, 17 grains. 
In equinoctial Mexico, 24 grains. 
In the province of Pasto in Santa Fe, 25 grains. 
In the plain of Caxamarca in Peru, 18 to 20 grains. 
The Mexican wheat is of the very best quality, 
and equals the finest Andalusian. At Havannah 
it enters into competition with that of the United 
States, which is considered inferior to it; and when 
greater facilities are afforded for exportation it will 
become of the highest importance to Europe. In 
Mexico grain can hardly be preserved longer than 
two or three years; but the causes of this decay 
have not been sufficiently investigated. 
