112 



wheat does not form ears. At the beginning of 

 the conquest, the corn of Europe was cultivated 

 with success in several regions, which are now 

 thought too hot, or too damp, for this branch of 

 agriculture. The Spaniards recently removed 

 to America were less accustomed to live on 

 maize ; they still adhered to their European 

 customs ; they did not calculate whether corn 

 would be less profitable than coffee or cotton ; 

 they tried seeds of every kind ; they interrogated 

 nature with more boldness, because their rea- 

 sonings were less founded on false theories. 

 The province of Carthagena, crossed by the 

 chain of the mountains Maria and Guamoco, 

 produced wheat till the sixteenth century *. In 

 the province of Caraccas, this culture is very 

 ancient among the mountainous lands of To- 

 cuyo, Quibor, and Barquisimeto, which connect 

 the littoral chain with the Siewa Nevada of 

 Merida. It is still happily practised there, and 

 the environs of the town of Tocuyo alone export 

 annually more than eight thousand quintals of 

 excellent flour. But, though the province of 

 Caraccas, in it's vast extent, presents several 

 spots very favourable to the cultivation of Eu- 

 ropean corn, I believe, that in general this 

 branch of agriculture will never become of 



* Don Ignacio de Pombo, Informe del real Consulado de 

 Cartagena de Indias, 1810, p. 75. 



