CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



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the surface of the ground; others in which the wheat is in full leaf and heading 

 out; and still others with ripened grain ready for the harvest. This is a very 

 common sight. Bread made from this wheat is extremely good, so much so that 

 it can be said the people of this city eat nothing but pan de hoda (wedding bread). 

 The riches of this favored region are increased by the mulberry trees which have 

 been planted and are continuing to be planted, for great preparation is being made 

 to produce silk. So fertile is this plain on which is situated the district w^hich I 

 have called the Val de Cristo, that I doubt if there is another better, or even 

 equal to it, in all New Spain; farmers versed in their calling and those who are 

 competent to recognize good soil say that this plain is better than those of Granada 

 and Orihuela. 



"The Spaniards call this plain the Val de Atlixco; among the Indians it has 

 several names, since it is a large region. Atlixco means spring, or source of water; 

 in the spot properly known by this name, two leagues above the Spanish settlement 

 of Val de Cristo, is a large and beautiful spring, whose waters give rise to a river 

 which irrigates a large part of the broad and very fertile valley; there are also 

 other streams and many springs and brooks. Close by this large spring is a town 

 which bears the same name, Atlixco, or San Pedro de Atlixco. 



"Aside from the crops grown by the Indians on this plain, among which are 

 some of great value, especially fruits and centli or maize (vv^hich produces two or 

 three crops a year), peppers, garlic, beans, cotton and other crops succeed here. 

 It is a valley in which many mulberry trees have been set out; an estate is being 

 planted for the King with a hundred and ten thousand trees, more than half of 

 which are already in place, and they make as much growth here in one year as 

 they do in Spain in three. Some of the Spaniards who live in Puebla have five 

 or six thousand trees, each one planting as many as he can care for. The silk 

 which will be produced here will yield immense wealth. 



"This valley produces melons, cucumbers, and all the vegetables which can 

 be grown in iierra fria. It should not be called iierra caliente, inasmuch as it only 

 resembles the latter zone in the absence of killing frosts ; in other respects it is as 

 temperate as other regions, including that in which the Spaniards have settled. 

 There is a characteristic of the valley often noted by Europeans, which is that a 

 pleasant breeze, known as the marera, always springs up at midday; I call this 

 the auram post meridiem, after the grateful breeze which is said to have blown 

 in the terrestrial paradise. Surely such a region as this, a delightful garden in 

 which there is an abundance of running water, roses, and fruit trees, deserves to 

 be called a paradise, and for this reason it is termed the Val de Cristo." 



The mulberry, which Motolinio considers so promising, appears never to 

 have added to the wealth of the valley in the manner which he prophesied, for 

 silk-culture was suppressed by the Spanish government in New Spain in order to 

 encourage the industry in the Orient. At the present time, there is scarcely a mul- 

 berry tree in the valley. The custom of planting and harvesting wheat at all 

 seasons of the year also seems to have gone out of date, if it ever existed to the 

 extent which Motolinia describes. Upon inquiry, I was told that only one crop 

 was produced a year, but that the time of sowing may be varied two or three 

 months. 



According to Betancourt, the Spaniards who first arrived in this valley were 

 filled with admiration at the sight of the groves of fruit trees. It is not stated 

 what kinds of fruits these groves contained. Many of the species at present 

 grovm in Atlixco, such as the cherimoya, the sweet lime, and the peach, have been 



