7o 



AGRICULTURAL AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



Agriculture in Mexico. 



The Board have received through the Foreign Office a 

 summary, prepared by Sir Henry Dering, Ker Majesty's 

 Envoy at Mexico, of a volume of statistics concerning the 

 value of the yearly agricultural productions of Mexico, as 

 well as the value of urban and rural property throughout the 

 country, in 1897. Much of the information contained in this 

 publication is novel, and while it is admitted that the usual 

 difficulties have been encountered in obtaining, from pro- 

 prietors and cultivators of the soil, an exact estimate of the 

 value of their land or of the crops raised on it, it is thought 

 that an addition of something like 20 per cent, to the figures 

 referring to the crops raised, and to the actual value of rural 

 property, will probably represent their value with tolerable 

 accuracy. 



An official investigation has for the first time been 

 published of the number of estates (" haciendas ") in the 

 Republic, with an indication of the branch of agriculture to 

 which the land is chiefly devoted. From one State 

 (Chihuahua) the returns have not been received in time for 

 inclusion with the total ; but apart from this the number of 

 principal haciendas numbered 8,100. Of these, 3,400 were 

 chiefly under cereals ; 1,560 were mainly devoted to cattle 

 raising, 1,385 to sugar-cane, 395 to henequen hemp, 373 to 

 coffee, 239 to cacao, 135 to cotton, 413 to agaves, 92 to tobacco, 

 and 5 to the vine. With regard to cereals, the first place is 

 takpn by the State of Guanajuato, with 364 haciendas princi- 

 pally under grain ; Puebla having 328, and Jalisco 275 ; 

 while at the other end of the scale the small States of 

 Morelos and Colima, and the Federal District, have four, 

 five, and six properties, respectively, claiming cereals as 

 their chief crop. 



