90 



HACIENDA SAN ANTONIO. 



called terra firma, the traveller is appalled by the sterility 

 of the surrounding plain ; at the same time that the signs 

 of a past system of careful drainage, and the ruins of 

 huts and haciendas, show you that this curse of barren- 

 ness has not been always the dowry of the soil. In 

 truth, owing to causes which it is difficult to explain, 

 some of the finest estates in the immediate vicinity of 

 the capital have become absolutely desert, from the rapid 

 spread of saline offlorescence formed upon the surface, 

 which is more or less a main feature of all these great 

 elevated plains. 



About six miles from the city, we traversed the dry 

 bed of the Chorubusco, passing along a ridge raised 

 several feet above the general surface of the country, 

 and formed by the debris brought down by the river from 

 the mountains in the rainy season. 



We now approached the noble estate and hacienda 

 of San Antonio, covering a large tract of fertile country 

 in advance, and admirably cultivated and governed by 

 its noble proprietor, to whose family we had the advan- 

 tage of being known ; and I shall take occasion at once 

 to make use of the knowledge gained by subsequent 

 visits here, to allude to a few points of interest connected 

 with agriculture in this part of Mexico. 



The Hacienda San Antonio is situated at the distance 

 of eight miles from the city, in the centre of a body of 

 land of great fertility, extending from the line of the road 

 far into the plain to the east and south, while exactly op- 

 posite a small picturesque church, surrounded by trees, 

 marks the limit of a vast field of hard black lava of re- 

 volting sterility, deforming the country in the vicinity of 

 San Augustin, and along the base of the neighbouring 

 mountain of the Ajusco. It is known by the name of 

 the Pedrigal. 



The road and a rivulet in front of the hacienda are 

 shaded by fine silver poplars, and other well-known 

 trees; in addition to the schinus or Peruvian pepper 

 tree, of which the bright green foliage, and pendant clus- 

 ters of red berries, form such a graceful ornament of the 

 upper regions of the country. 



