56 



BANANA MAIZE RICE. 



made of its leaves ; and they have long ago used them as wrap- 

 pers for the cigarritos, which no loyal native fails to indulge in 

 hourly. 



Man and beast — dwellings, food, paper, architecture, and ci- 

 gars — are thus, in Mexico, all indebted to Indian com as one of 

 the greatest elements of comfort, sustenance, utility and luxury. 



The extraordinarily productive Banana is to the inhabitants of 

 the tierra caliente what maize is to those who dwell in the loftier 

 and cooler regions of the table land. An acre of wheat will supply 

 the wants of three men, but an acre of Bananas, ox plantains, says 

 Humboldt, will support fifty. 



The Mainoc, cassava bread, jatropha manihot, the Juca or 

 Yuca, as it is known in the West India islands, is peculiar to the 

 tierra caliente, but is more used on the western than eastern coasts 

 of Mexico. A fine flour is made of the root, which in its raw state 

 is poisonous. When deprived of all its juice by pressure, the 

 residuum is a farinacious pulp, forming a pleasant food whose con- 

 sumption, however, is not likely to increase in Mexico. 



The cultivation of Rice is not extensive. On the east coast 

 between Alvarado and Guasacualco, and on the western between 

 Jamiltepic and Huatulco, it has been grown in some few spots ; but 

 it does not appear to please the popular taste sufficiently, ever to 

 enter largely into the list of national productions either for export 

 or home consumption. 



The Olive was one of the banned and forbidden products of 

 the Spanish colonies ; but notwithstanding the inhibitions we have 

 already cited in this section, the tree was planted in various por- 

 tions of the country both previous to the revolution, and during 

 intervals of repose whilst the war of liberation was waging. The 

 archbishop of Mexico was one of the first to cultivate a plantation 

 of it at Tacubaya near the capital. At the beginning of this cen- 

 tury, Joaquin Gutierrez de los Rios, commenced the culture at his 

 hacienda de Sarabia, within the district of Salamanca, in Guana- 

 juato, and succeeded admirably; but his trees were destroyed en- 

 tirely during the revolution. At present some large plantations 

 have been made, in the same state, at several haciendas, and, espe- 

 cially, at that of Mendoza, where 30,000 olive trees were set out, 

 in 1849. 



The Vine, like the olive, was a forbidden fruit to Mexican agri- 

 culturists under the Spanish dominion, except in a region about 

 Parras whose extreme northern remoteness from the capital perhaps 

 exempted it from the general inhibition. Elsewhere, throughout 

 the colony, vineyards were ordered to be destroyed wherever they 



