PLANTS CULTIVATED IN MEXICO.

325

CHAPTER XXV.

Statistical Account of New-Spain continued.

Agriculture of Mexico-Banana, Manioc, and Maize-Cereal PlantsNutritive Roots and Vegetables-Agave Americana-Colonial Commodities-Cattle, and Animal Productions.

A COUNTRY extending from the sixteenth to the thirty-seventh degree of latitude, and presenting a great variety of surface, necessarily affords numerous modifications of climate. Such is the admirable distribution of heat on the globe, that the strata of the atmosphere become colder as we ascend, while those of the sea are warmest near the surface. Hence, under the tropics, on the declivities of the cordilleras, and in the depths of the ocean, the plants and marine animals of the polar regions find a temperature suited to their development. It may easily be conceived that, in a mountainous country like Mexico, having so great a diversity of elevation, temperature, and soil, the variety of indigenous productions must be immense; and that most of the plants cultivated in other parts of the globe may there find situations adapted to their nature.

There, however, the principal objects of agriculture are not the productions which European luxury draws from the West India islands, but the grasses, nutritive roots, and the agave. The appearance of the land proclaims to the traveller that the natives are nourished by the soil, and that they are independent of foreign commerce. Yet agriculture is by no means so flourishing as might be expected from its natural resources, although considerable improvement has been effected of late years. The depressed state of cultivation, it is true, has been attribEe

uted to the existence of numerous rich mines; but Humboldt, on the contrary, maintains that the working of these ores has been beneficial in causing many places to be improved which would otherwise have remained steril. When a vein is opened on the barren ridge of the cordilleras, the new colonists can only draw the means of subsistence from a great distance. Want soon excites to industry, and farms begin to be established in the neighbourhood. The high price of provisions indemnifies the cultivator for the hard life to which he is exposed, and the ravines and valleys become gradually covered with food. When the mineral treasures are exhausted, the workmen no doubt emigrate, so that the population is diminished; but the settlers are retained by their attachment to the spot in which they have passed their childhood. The Indians, moreover, prefer living in the solitudes of the mountains remote from the whites, and this circumstance tends to increase the number of inhabitants in such districts.

In describing the vegetable productions of NewSpain, our author begins with those which form the principal support of the people, then treats of the class which affords materials for manufacture, and ends with such as constitute objects of commerce.

The banana (Musa paradisiaca) is to the inhabitants of the torrid zone what the cereal grasses-wheat, barley, and rye—are to Western Asia and Europe, and what the numerous varieties of rice are to the natives of India and China. Forster and other naturalists have maintained that it did not exist in America previous to the arrival of the Spaniards, but that it was imported from the Canary Islands in the beginning of the 16th century; and in support of this opinion may be adduced the silence of Columbus, Alonzo Negro, Pinzon, Vespucci, and Cortes, with respect to it. This circumstance, however, only proves the inattention of these travellers to the productions of the soil; and it is probable that the Musa

presented several species indigenous to different parts of both continents. The space favourable to the cultivation of this valuable plant in Mexico is more than 50,000 square leagues, and has nearly a million and a half of inhabitants. In the warm and humid valleys of Vera Cruz, at the foot of the cordillera of Orizaba, the fruit occasionally exceeds 11.8 inches in circumference, with a length of seven or eight. A bunch sometimes contains from 160 to 180, and weighs from 66 to 88 lb. avoirdupois.

Humboldt doubts whether there is any other plant on the globe which, in so small a space of ground, can produce so great a mass of nutriment. Eight or nine months after the sucker has been inserted in the earth the banana begins to form its clusters, and the fruit may be gathered in less than a year. When the stalk is cut, there is always found among the numerous shoots which have put forth roots one that bears three months later. A plantation is perpetuated without any other care than that of cutting the stems on which the fruit has ripened, and giving the earth a slight dressing. A spot of 1076 feet may contain at least from thirty to forty plants, which, in the space of a year, at a very moderate calculation, will yield more than 4410 lb. avoirdupois of nutritive substance. Our author estimates, that the produce of the banana is to that of wheat as 133: 1, and to that. of potatoes as 44: 1.

In America numerous preparations are made of this fruit, both before and after its maturity. When fully ripe it is exposed to the sun, and preserved like our figs; the skin becoming black, and exhaling a peculiar odour like that of smoked ham. This dry banana (Platano passado), which is an object of commerce in the province of Mechoacan, has an agreeable taste, and is a very wholesome article of food. Meal or flour is obtained from it, by being cut into slices, dried in the sun, and pounded.

It is calculated that the same extent of ground in

328

MANIOC-MAIZE.

Mexico on which the banana is raised is capable of maintaining fifty individuals, whereas in Europe under wheat it would not furnish subsistence for two; and nothing strikes a traveller more than the diminutive appearance of the spots under culture round a hut which contains a numerous family.

The region where it is cultivated produces also the valuable plant (Jatropha) of which the root, as is well known, affords the flour of manioc, usually converted into bread, and furnishes what the Spanish colonists call pan de tierra caliente. This vegetable is only successfully grown within the tropics, and in the mountainous region of Mexico is never seen above the elevation of 2625 feet. Two kinds are raised, the sweet and the bitter. The root of the former may be eaten without danger, while that of the latter is a very active poison. Both may be made into bread; but the bitter is preferred for this purpose, the poisonous juice being carefully separated from the fecula, called cassava, before making the dough. Raynal asserted that the manioc was transported from Africa to America to serve for the maintenance of the negroes; but our author shows that it was cultivated there long before the arrival of Europeans on that side of the Atlantic. The bread made of it is very nutritive; but, being extremely brittle, it does not answer for distant carriage. The fecula, however, grated, dried, and smoked, is used on journeys. The root loses its poisonous qualities on being boiled, and in this state the decoction is used as a sauce, although serious accidents sometimes happen when it has not been long enough exposed to heat. The husbandry of it, we may observe, requires more care than that of the banana. In this respect it resembles the potato; and the roots are ripe in seven or eight months after the slips have been planted.

The same region produces maize, the cultivation of which is more extensive than that of the banana

CULTIVATION OF MAIZE.

329

and manioc. Advancing towards the central plains, we meet with fields of this important plant all the way from the coast to the valley of Tolucca, which is upwards of 9186 feet above the sea. Although a great quantity of other grain is produced in Mexico, this must be considered as the principal food of the people, as well as of most of the domestic animals, and the year in which the maize harvest fails is one of famine and misery to the inhabitants. There is no longer a doubt among botanists that this plant is of American origin, and that the Old Continent received it from the New.

It does not thrive in Europe where the mean temperature is less than 44° or 46°; and on the cordilleras of New-Spain rye and barley are seen to vegetate vigorously where the cultivation of maize would not be attended with success. On the other hand, the latter thrives in the lowest plains of the torrid zone, where wheat, barley, and rye are not found. Hence we cannot be surprised to hear that it occupies a much greater extent in equinoctial America than the grains of the Old Continent.

The fecundity of the Mexican variety is astonishing. Fertile lands usually afford a return of 300 or 400 fold, and in the neighbourhood of Valladolid a harvest is considered defective when it yields only 130 or 150. Even where the soil is most steril the produce varies from sixty to eighty. The general estimate for the equinoctial region of Mexico may be considered as a hundred and fifty.

Of all the gramina cultivated by man, none is so unequal as this in its produce, as it varies in the same field, according to the season, from forty to 200 or 300 for one. If the harvests are good, the agriculturist makes his fortune more rapidly than with any other grain; but frightful dearths sometimes occur, when the natives are obliged to feed on unripe fruit, cactusberries, and roots. Diseases arise in consequence; and these famines are usually attended with a great