330 PRODUCTIONS. Book Ti- 
to an intelligent inhabitant of the place, and his reply was 
remarkable, " We, in Mexico, think that the' green colour 
is more for cows than for men ;" and every trader knows 
that, in Mexico, stuffs and other materials of that colour 
find no sale. 
Some of the garden and field products of El Paso 
deserve especial notice. Wine is made from their excel- 
lent grapes_, which only requires better management and an 
improved process to be first-rate ; at present it tastes like 
a mixture of Malaga and vinegar : but the grapes are 
mostly used to make brandy. The raisins of El Paso 
are eaten in the country stewed like dried plums in 
Europe. Quinces abound in the orchards. Pears are only 
good for cooking, but then are excellent. Apricots, which 
are unknown in the United States, grow here, but are small 
and poor. Peaches are but ordinary, and apples thrive 
best in the cooler localities of the Sierra Madre ; all these 
fruits, however, might easily be improved. Of vegetables 
there is a great variety ; the onions are remarkable for size 
and delicacy of flavour, and in these respects surpass even 
those in California. 
Excepting the fruit trees in the gardens and fields, and 
the poplars and willows by the river, there are no trees 
near El Paso. The chaparral of the hills is the same I 
have already described, and is found, with slight variations 
iri character, in corresponding situations as far as, and 
beyond Chihuahua. But the mountain chain to the north- 
east of El Paso has pine forests on its eastern declivity, 
and North American woodcutters have settled there, who 
saw the planks by hand. Poplar is the sole timber here 
for building and joiners' work. The mountains on each 
side of the valley are said to be rich in argentiferous lead- 
ore. A North American worked a mine in the above- 
