SUGAR REGIONS COFFEE. 



65 



rate of interest is high, the roads bad, transportation costly and 

 unchanged, and the condition of the country unsettled, these vast 

 and valuable rural districts will, in all likelihood, remain untenanted 

 and unwrought. 



Baron Humboldt, whose analytical mind always strives to clas- 

 sify, systematize and tabularize his investigations, has endeavored 

 to ascertain and limit the maximum height at which the cane may 

 be cultivated ; but it is probably true that all such attempts, are al- 

 together visionary, in a country of great inequalities of elevation, 

 shelter and exposure. Many local causes, altogether independent 

 of relative elevation may produce the degree of heat requisite to 

 bring cane to perfection, yet it is generally conceded that the pro- 

 duce of a plantation in the table land would not equal that of an 

 estate near the coast. The valley of Cuautla, for instance, is 

 bounded on the north by the lofty peak of Popocatepetl, against 

 whose snows the fresh verdure of the cane, and the graceful 

 branches of the palm are constantly relieved' In an hour or two 

 after leaving the plantation of Santa Inez, the traveller who passes 

 thence towards the valley of Mexico, finds himself obliged to put 

 on his cloak or serape, after having suffered from tropical heat 

 during the preceding day. It might reasonably be supposed that 

 the vicinity of such immense masses of ice and snow would na- 

 turally affect the temperature of the adjacent valley; but the frosty 

 peak of Popocatepetl only serves to condense the vapors that drift 

 inland from the sea and to set them free over the low and warm 

 valleys which border its southern base, whilst its broad shoulders 

 protect the plains from the cold blasts of the north wind. 



Coffee. 



The soil of Mexico has been found adapted for the cultivation of 

 coffee as well as sugar ; but under the old Spanish dominion it 

 never formed one of the articles of export, although it did not in- 

 terfere with the productions of the mother country. In 1818 and 

 '19 extensive plantations were commenced near Orizaba and Cor- 

 dova, to which additions have since been frequently made. The 

 plant was likewise introduced into the valleys of Cuernavaca and 

 Cuautla by Antonio Velasco and the administrador of the estates of 

 the Duke of Monteleone. The large hacienda of Atlajomulco, in 

 the immediate neighborhood of Cuernavaca still pertains to the de- 

 scendants of Cortez ; and here the experiment of coffee culture has 

 been long and successfully tried. The average produce of each 

 i 



