In this mountainous and extensive country, whose geometrical position and geological configuration con tribute in producing the greatest diversity of climate, the variety of indigenous productions is immense ; and scarcely a plant exists in the rest of the globe, which is not capable of being cultivated in some part of New Spain. Much has been done by distinguished botanists, employed by the government, to examine the vegetable riches of the country ; but still many tracts remain to be explored, and new plants are daily discovered even in the central table-land, and in the very vicinity of the capital. The mines are by no means the principal sources of Mexican wealth ; neither have they proved in general such obstructions, as has been imagined, to the progress of agriculture, which has been gradually ameliorating since the end of the 17th century. On the contrary, they have contributed powerfully, in many cases, to promote the cultivation of the soil. The subsistence required for the labourers and cattle em ployed in mining operations, has occasioned the esta blishment of farms in their neighbourhood, and brought under culture every spot of earth in the adjoining de clivities and ravines. Nor do the natives easily forsake these settlements after the subterraneous operations have ceased, but continue rather to prefer these retired situations, and preserve a strong attachment to the resi dence of their forefathers.
The vegetable productions, which constitute the chief support of the Mexican people, form the great ob ject of their agriculture. Among these the banana is one of the most important, corresponding in utility with the grain of Europe, and the rice of Asia ; and scarce ly any other plant is capable of producing so great a mass of nutritive substance on the same space of ground. The fruit is ready for being gathered in the tenth or eleventh month after the suckers are planted ; and the plantation is perpetuated by fresh shoots, without any other trouble than merely cutting the stalks on which the fruit is ripe, and digging slightly around the roots once or twice a-year. A spot of 1076 square feet, con taining from 30 to 40 plants, yields about 4414 pounds avoirdupoise of nutritive food, while the same space in wheat is calculated to yield only 30 lbs. and in pota toes not more than 90 lbs. ; so that the produce of ba nanas is to the former as 133 to 1, and to the latter as 44 to I. In fertile regions, a legal argent, (about 54,998 square feet,) planted with the large banana, will maintain 50 individuals ; while the same extent sown with wheat would furnish subsistence only to two per sons. The fruit is prepared in a variety of ways ; be ing dressed like the potatoe, or dried and pounded into flour, or preserved like figs, by exposure to the sun, when it acquires the aspect' and odour of smoked ham. In the same region with the banana is cultivated the juca, which yields the flour of manioc, the bread of which is known under the name of cassave. This bread is very nutritive, perhaps on account of the sugar which it contains ; but, Irom a deficiency of gluten, it. is very brittle, and inconvenient to be carried. The fc cula of manioc, however, when grated, dried, and smoked, is unalterable, and is neither attacked by in sects nor worms. Even the juice of the bitter root, which, in its natural state, is an active poison, may be converted, by boiling and skimming, into a nutritive brownish soup. The cultivation of the manioc requires
more care than that of the banana, resembling rather that of the potatoc, and yielding its crop about seven or eight months after the plantation of the slips. Maize, an indigenous American grain, occupies the same re gion with the two last mentioned, and is of still greater importance than either. Excepting a species of rye and of barley, maize is supposed to have been the only kind of grain known to the Americans before the arrival of the Spaniards, and is capahle of being cultivated over a much greater extent of latitude than the cerealia of the old continent. Its fecundity in Mexico is above any thing that Europeans can imagine. When favoured by heat and humidity, the plant acquires a height of from 6-1 to feet, and yields at an average in the equinoxial region of New Spain. 150 grains for one. In fertile lands, one fanega of maize produces from 300 to 400, and, in the beautiful plains between San Juan del Rio and Que retaro, sometimes even 800 ; but, under the temperate zone, it produces in general only from 70 to 80 for I, though, sometimes, from 180 to 200.
The maize is the principal food of the Mex:cans, and its price modifies that of all other provisions. There is no grain more unequal in its produce, according to the changes of moisture or of temperature, varying in the same field in different years from 40 to 300 for I ; and when the harvest is poor, either from want of rain or from premature frost, the greatest distress is experienced. Its mean price is 5 livres in the interior ; but as there are no magazines in the country, to make the super abundance of one year supply the deficiency of another, it has been known to fall as low as 23 livres, and to rise as high as 25 The natives, in these cases, feed on unripe fruit, berries, and roots, which occasion many diseases and great mortality among the children. Some kinds of maize ripen in six weeks or two months ; so that in warm and moist districts, two or three crops are raised in the year. This grain is eaten boiled or roast ed, and its meal employed in grads, or made into bread. By partly malting and infusing the grain of maize, the Indians prepare a great variety of spiritous, acid, and sugary drinks, generally known by the name of chicka, some of which resemble beer. and others ci der. The juice pressed from the stalk, which contains a considerable quantity of saccharine matter in the tro pical region, yields a rough sugar, or may be ferment ed into a spiritous liquor, called pulque de mahis, which is an important object of commerce in the valley of Toluca. This grain will keep, in the temperate cli mates, for three years ; and, where the mean tempera ture is below 57° of Fahrenheit. for five or six, provided the crop is tr,l cut too early. The whole of New Spain is calculated to produce at an average 17 millions of fa negas of maize, or 1765i millions of lbs. avoirdupoise ; and, in good years there is more reaped than the coun try can consume; but, as it almost never succeeds in the warmer and in the colder regions, much of the in terior commerce consists in the conveyance of this grain, great quanti•ies of which also are sent to the Spanish islands in the West Indies.