SOG M E X 
the returns of wheat being, in fome fituations, 30, 40, and 
even 50, for 1. Even in New California, the produce of 
wheat may be reckoned at the rate of 16 or 17 for 1; being 
double the average produce of the foil of France. Barley 
and rye thrive very well in New Spain ; oats are very lit¬ 
tle cultivated. The potato is a great objeCt of culture 
in the high and cold parts of the country. Rice is but 
little attended to, though well adapted for the marfhy 
lands on the coaft. 
The tree which produces the favourite drink called 
pulque is cultivated with great care by the Indians. This 
tree, the Mexocotl or mavguci of Hernandes, by others 
called pita, or American aloe, is, we believe, the Bro- 
melia acanga. It often becomes tit to yield juice at the 
age of eight years ; and an incifion being once made, 
the running may be continued for two or three months. 
The quantity obtained is furpriling, particularly when 
we coniider the bare and arid grounds on which this plant 
is generally cultivated. Its firm and vigorous leaves are 
not affeCted either by drought or hail, nor by the excellive 
cold which is prevalent in winter on the higher Cordil¬ 
leras of Mexico. The juice is an agreeable acid, and is 
eafily fermented on account of the fugar and mucilage 
which it contains. Its odour, when fit for drinking, is 
by no means agreeable ; but, when this objection is re¬ 
moved by time and habit, its ftrengthening and nourilli- 
ing qualities are fuch as to procure for it with many per- 
fons a preference over all other liquors ; and its confump- 
tion in New Spain is carried to foconfiderable an amount, 
as to render the tax on it an objeCt of importance to the 
revenue. The fame tree alfo furnilhes thread ; and the 
ancient Mexicans prepared from it a fort of paper. Next 
to the maize and potato, Mr. Humboldt confiders it the 
moll ufeful production bellowed by nature on the moun¬ 
tainous countries of America, fituated within the tropics. 
The lalt of the efculent roots that we have to notice is 
the Iatropha manihot, eatable-rooted phylic-nut, or caf- 
lava. The farina of the caflava-root, called manioc, is 
made into bread 5 which the natives, to diftir.guilh it from 
the bread of maize, call pan de tierra calicnte. The flour 
of manioc has this ineftimable advantage, that, wdien dried, 
it is fecure from the depredations of worms and infeCts. 
The caflava-root is not cultivated in New Spain at a greater 
height than 600 or 800 yards above the level of the fea. 
Its poifonous juice becomes harmlefs by boiling, and fe- 
parating the feum that riles to the top ; and is then uled 
by the natives for feafoning their food. The original in¬ 
habitants of Hayti, (St. Domingo,) after the conqueft of 
their country by the Spaniards, ufed to poifon themfelves 
with this juice, and for that purpofe aflembled in parties 
of fifty or more to take it together. 
The Spanilh government has always difeouraged in its 
colonies the cultivation of the vine, the olive, the mul¬ 
berry-tree, and the plants producing hemp and flax. 
While Humboldt was in New Spain, an order came from 
Madrid to grub up all the flocks of vines in the northern 
part of the kingdom, where they had been cultivated with 
fomuch fuccefs as to give alarm to the merchants of Cadiz, 
by the diminilhed confumption of wane from the mother- 
country. There is but one olive-plantation in New Spain, 
and that belongs to the archbilhop of Mexico. Tobacco 
is another branch of culture, which has been in a great 
meafure facrificed to political conliderations. Since 1764, 
when the royal monopoly was eftablilhed, no tobacco can 
be plan ted except in particular diftriCts, and none can be 
i'old except to the king’s officers. Parties of foldiers are 
employed to go about the country in i’earch of tobacco- 
fields ; and, where they find one on forbidden ground, 
they irnpofea fine on the owner, and direbt the plantation 
to be deftroyed. This odious and vexatious monopoly 
produces to the king of Spain, in Mexico alone, a clear 
revenue of more than twenty millions of livres annually. 
Of fugar, Vera Cruz exports annually more than half a 
million of arrabas; (the arroba is equal to 2531b. avoir¬ 
dupois j) and Mr. Humboldt eflimates the confumption 
ICO. 
of that article in NewSpaih at more than twice as much. 
Cuba, as he informs us, exported, in 1803, 2,576,000 ar- 
robas of fugar, and ufed for her internal confumption 
440,000 more. We have feen a ftatement of the export 
of fugar from the Havahnah, from 1801 to 1810 inclulive, 
by which it appears, that the average for the laft ten years 
has been 2,850,000 arrobas, or about 644,000 cwt. a-year. 
Cotton, indigo, coflee, and cacao, are not cultivated to 
any extent in New Spain ; though the Mexicans, like all 
other Spaniards, are great confumers of chocolate. Mr. 
Humboldt was at pains to afeertain the quantity of cacao 
exported annually from the Spanilh fettlements ; and, 
taking the average of four years, from 1799 to 1803, he 
found it as follows : From Venezuela and Maracaybo, 
145,000 fanegas ; (a fanega is a buthel and a half;) from 
Cumana, 18,000; from New Barcelona, 5000; and from 
Guayaquil, 600,000 ; total, 228,000; but in this calcula¬ 
tion he omits the cacao of Guatemala, which is the moll 
efteemed of all.' The whole of the vanilla confumed in 
Europe, comes from the provinces of Guaxaca and Vera 
Cruz in New' Spain. But the demand for it is lefs than. 
w r e fliould have expedited : the quantity annually prepared 
for ufe, does not much exceed 900,000 pods, the value of 
which, at Vera Cruz, is from 30.000 to 40,000 dollars. 
Cochineal is another article of commerce, which till lately 
was the foie production of New Spain. According to 
Mr. Humboldt’s information, the province of Guaxaca 
furnilhes, annually, 32,000 arrobas of cochineal, worth 
2,400,000 dollars. 
The whole of the annual produce of the agriculture of 
New Spain, is valued by Mr. Humboldt at twenty-nine 
millions of dollars ; and as this calculation is founded on 
accurate returns of the amount of the tithes, and has been 
revifed and corrected by a very intelligent body, the mu¬ 
nicipality of Valladolid, it may be confidered as a near ap¬ 
proximation to the truth. The value of the precious 
metals, annually extracted from the mines of the fame 
kingdom, may be eftimated at about twenty-two millions 
of dollars; and confequently, the wealth which New 
Spain derives from agriculture, exceeds the wealth which 
it derives from the extraction of the precious metals in 
the proportion of 29 to 22, or nearly of 4 to 3. 
The wages of labour in New Spainare 2| reals de plata 
a-day, on the coaft, and 2 reals, or i dollar, on the table¬ 
land. The average price of maize on the table-land', 
where it is the principal food of the people, is eftimated 
by Mr. Humboldt at 5 livres the fanega. The fanega is 
fomewhat more than buffiel; and confequently a la¬ 
bourer, on the table-land of Mexico, earns about i§ peck 
of Indian corn a-day. The ordinary price paid for w'heat 
upon the farm, in New' Spain, is about 4 or 5 dollars, the 
cargo, or load, which weighs 150 kilograms; (a kilogramme 
is 2lb. 30Z. 5dr. avoirdupois ;) but the expenfe of carriage 
raifes it, in the city of Mexico, to 9 or 10 dollars ; the ex¬ 
treme prices being 8 and 15. The ordinary price of 150 
kilograms of wheat at Paris, according to Mr. Humboldt, 
is 30 francs, or 5^ dollars. Wheat is therefore nearly 
tw'ice as dear in the city of Mexico as it is at Paris. But, 
on the other hand, it muft be confidered, that wheat is 
not fo much an article of the firft neceffity in New Spain 
as it is in France. According to Mr. Humboldt, not 
more than 1,300,000 perfons in the kingdom of Mexico 
ufe wheat habitually as an article of fubfiftence. There 
is, to be fure, a greater proportion of wheat-eaters in the 
city of Mexico than in any other part of the kingdom ; 
but one half of its population, and that the poorer part, 
confifts oflndiansand of mixed calls. 
It will furprffe the generality of our readers to be told, 
that the filver-mines of New Spain, the molt productive of 
any that have been ever known, are remarkable for the 
poverty of the mineral they contain. A quintal, or 1600 
ounces, of filver ore, affords, at a medium, not more than 
3 or 4 ounces of pure filver. The lame quantity of mi¬ 
neral, in the filver-mines of Marienberg in Saxony, yields 
from 10 to 15 ounces. It is not, therefore, the rkhnels 
