The vegetable productions of the best peopled di visions of New Granada are similar to those of Eu rope. They have abundance of apples, pears, peach es, plumbs, figs, cherries, &c. and they are in bear ing through the whole year. Wheat is both good and productive, and might be reaped in every month, but by a kind of understood agreement between the cultivators themselves, and between the masters and servants, it is sowed but twice, and they base one wheat harvest in January and the second in Anzio. Humboldt, after diligent inquiry into the increase of wheat in different countries, states it in France, Germany, and Poland, to be from 5 to 6 for 1 ; in Hungary, Croatia, and Sclavonia, 8 to 10 for 1; in La Plata 12 for 1; in Northern Mexico 16 for 1, in Equinoxial Mexico 24 for 1; and in the province of Pasto, in New Granada, he says they commonly pro duce 25, and, in fertile years, 85 for 1.
Barley is sowed in every month of the year. It is not used as food for man, but is grown near the cities, and cut in a green state for the horses of the richer class. None is suffered to stand till harvest, except sufficient to furnish seed for the green crops of the following year. The markets of the cities of Santa Fe, Quito, and Popayan, are furnished with varieties of fruits which can meet in no other coun tries. The apples and pears of Europe, cherries and strawberries, are to be seen with plantains, bananas, guavas, pine=apples, and the other productions of the tropical regions.
The potatoes, for which Europe is indebted to New Granada, are there of two species, though of the same genus. One, called Papas de Anno, is the same as has been transplanted and diffused through America and Europe, and which has numerous va rieties. The other is called Papas de Criollas ; they are more delicate of flavour, easier to be applied to various kinds of cookery, and so abundant in their increase as to obtain a general preference over every other vegetable as food for the inhabitants. These criollas are to be found in every altitude of the cold regions, even in those situations which are too cold for human existence. The seed from high er regions is necessary every year to renew them in the lower, when produced there will not grow. The primitive stock maintains itself in the highest si tuations in all the openings of the woods: it is known as the Papa Silvestris, and is probably the origin of all the different species of that useful plant, which has become diffused throughout the world.
A most important vegetable production to the in habitants of Santa Fe, is a root known there by the Indian name of Arracacha. It resembles somewhat
the European celery, but grows to a much larger size, is of various colours, and branches out, in differ ent directions, in shoots which, both in shape and size, resemble the horn of a large cow. Its flavour is pleasant, and it is accounted most nutritious, and is given to the sick and the convalescent on account of its lightness of digestion.
Olives, vines, oranges, and lemons, do not arrive at perfection on the elevated lands, and the inha bitants have no inducement to force the& by arti ficial means, as they are abundantly and cheaply supplied from the warm regions which are within a few leagues of them. Such is the bounty of nature in • dispensing her fruits, that little :Men. dun is given or required by man : the trees are never grafted nor the fields manured. Although Cocoa is very generally produced in every warm cli mate, yet from peculiarity of situation in the pro vince of Guyaquil, one of the divisions of New Gra nada, it is raised with more facility, in greater span tides and of better quality than in any other part of the world. It delights in a moist soil, a warm cli mate,. and requires shelter from the direct rays of the sun to bring it to full perfection. No other care is required in its cultivation, than to keep the ground clear of weeds, and to plant the shrub under the shade of some high trees. It usually grows from ten to sixteen feet in height, and occasionally attains to eighteen feet. It is divided into four or five branches as soon as it shoots up. The leaf is from four to six inches in length, and in breadth two thirds the length, in colour like the orange, but somewhat lighter. The pods which contain the cocoa grow both from the stem and the branches, to about six inches in length, sometimes singly, but sometimes two in a cluster, when the smaller of the two does not ripen, the larger one appearing to extract the whole nutritive matter. The pod at first is of a deep green, but as it advances to ma turity, gradually changes to a yellow colour. The pods are considered pleasant fruit, containing a sub stance of a viscid kind, in which the seeds are found. When first gathered, the seeds are very soft, being contained in a thin and transparent skin : they are dried in the sun, and in a short period become fit to be packed for the various markets which they are destined to supply. The cocoa trees yield two crops in each year, and both of equal goodness and abundance.