The cerealia of Europe, viz. wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye, are no where cultivated in t equinoxial part of Mexico, unless in elevations of 2600 or 2900 feet ; and on the declivity of the Cordilleras. between Vera and Acapulco, these grains are not sown under an elevation of 3900 or 4200 feet ; but it appears that wheat will ripen in much smaller elevations, even of 1600 or 1900, under latitude 10°. These grains, in most parts of New Spain, suffer chiefly from the defi ciency of rain, and much use is made of irrigation in their culture. The wheat is watered when the young plants begin to spring up in January, and again in the beginning of March, when the ear is becoming visible ; sometimes the whole field is inundated before sowing. In the more fertile parts of the table land, such as be tween Queretaro and the town of Leon, the wheat re turns 40, and even 50 or 60 for I ; and the mean pro duce over Mexico is from 25 to 30 for 1. The whole produce of wheat in New Spain is estimated at 331,000,000 lbs. avoirdupoise, and its mean price is from I 7s. to 21s per carga. which weighs 331 lbs. avoir dupoise ; but the high price of carriage frequently raises it to 37s. or 43s. The Mexican wheat is of the best quality, large, white, and nutritive ; but is with difficulty preserved more than two or three years. Rye and barley are cultivated in the highest regions ; and the latter yields abundant crops in places where the thermometer is seldom above of Fahrenheit. Oats are little cultivated, and seldom seen in the country. The notatoe appears to have been introduced into Mexi co along with the European grains, and to have been brought from Peru or New Grenada. It is cultivated in the highest and coldest regions of the Cordilleras, and grows in some places to the size of nearly one foot in diameter, while the quality is excellent. It is pre served by the natives for whole years by exposing it to the frost, and drying it in the sun. Otner nutritive roots are, the oca, which grows only in the cold and temperate regions ; the iguame, a root which, in a fer tile soil and warm climate, grows to so enormous a size as to weigh not less than 55 or 60 lbs.; and the batate, which also requires a warm country. Among the use ful plants of Mexico may also he mentioned the caco mite, a species of tigridia, the root of which yields a nu tritive flour ; the love-apple ; the earth-pistachio ; and the different kinds of pimento, the fruit of which is as indispensable to the natives as salt to the whites.
Ti.e M= xicans possess all the fruit trees and garden stuffs of Europe; but it is not easy to ascertain which of these existed among them before the arrival of the Spaniards. It is certain that they were always ac quainted with onions, terricots, gourds, and several va rieties of deer ; and Cortez expressly mentions onions, leeks, garlic, cresses, borrage, sorrel, and artichokes; but no species of cabbage or turnip appears to have been cultivated among them. The central table land produces in the greatest abundance, cherries, prunes, peaches, apricots, figs, grapes, melons, apples and pears. The ecclesiastics, and particularly the missionaries, contribute greatly to spread European fruits and vegetables from one end of the American continent to the other. Even the orange and citron trees are now cultivated throughout all New Spain, nay on the cen tral table land, and there can be little doubt that the olive and mulberry, with hemp and flax, would equally flourish in New Spain, were not their cultivation dis couraged by the jealousy of the mother country. Be sides extracting liquors from the maize, manioc, bana na, and the pulp of different kinds of mimosa, the Mexicans cultivate a species of agaue, called maguey de pulque, for the express purpose of preparing a spi ritous liquor from its juice, which is carefully collected by cutting the central leaves at the period of efflores cence, and of which one plant, about five feet in height, will yield, in the course of five months, a quantity equal to 67 130 cubic inches. Even in an ordinary soil, 150 bottles may be procured from one maguey in the season, and the value of each day's juice is es timated at 10 or 12 sols. The plant multiplies with
great facility, and resists the cold of the higher re gions ; and its cultivation is found to be a sure mode of gain. The juice has a very agreeable sour taste, and so very easily ferments, that in three or four days a viscous beverage resembling cider is procured. It has a fetid odour like putrid meat ; but, after custom has surmounted this obstacle to its use, it is generally preferred by Europeans to every other liquor, and is accounted stomachic, strengthening, and nutritive.— There are plantations in the north of Toluca, where the best is produced, which annually bring in more than 16001. sterling ; and this cultivation is so profitable to the revenue, that, in 1793, the duties which it paid in the three cities of Mexico. Puebla, and Toluca, amounted. to the sum of I78,88u1 sterling. A very intoxicating brandy is procured trom a different species of the same plant, which is prohibited by the govern ment as prejudicial to the Spanish brandy trade, hut which is manufactured in an illicit manner to a great extent. The leaves of this agaue are also manufactured into thread and paper ; and its prickles were formerly employed as pins or nails by the Indians; so that, next to the maize or potatoe, it may be considered as the most useful production in the mountainous districts of equinoxial America. The vine is little cultivated, in consequt.nce of government restrictions; but might be raised with great success in all the mountainous and temperate regions.
The cultivation of those productions which supply the raw materials of commerce and manufactures has recently increased in Mexico to a considerable extent. The profit of raising cotton is more than double that of grain, and that of sugar more than four times; but it is only in the warmer districts that these crops can be cultivated. In these districts there are already plantations cultivated by free Indians, whicb yield an nually about a million and a half pounds of sugar ; and in process of time the continent of America is likely to supplant the West India Islands in the culti vation of sugar, coffee, and cotton.
Cotton was one of the ancient objects of cultivation in o. and some of the fiiiest quality is raised on the western coast ; but as the inhabitants of these places are still Midi the use of machines for separating the cotton from the seed, the price of carriage is a great obstacle to this branch of Mexican agriculture. Flax and hemp may be advantageously cultivated, wherever the climate does not admit the growth of cotton ; but their culture has hitherto been discouraged. COrec is little used in Mexico ; and is only beginning to be cultivated in the country. The cocoa tree was generally cultivated before the arrival of the Spaniards, by whom it was conveyed to the Canaries or Philippines, but is now almost totally ne glected. Its seeds were formerly used as money, and in some places are still applied to that purpose by the common people, at the rate of six grains for one sol. Vanilla, though bearing a high price in Europe, is Little cultivated in Mexico, except in the intendancies of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca. It thrives wherever there is heat, shade, and moisture, and is planted so as to climb along the trunks of trees. It principally abounds on the eastern slope of the Cordillera of Anahuac, be tween the 19° or 20° of latitude, and in the same lati tude is procured the sarsaparilla and jalap (or purga de Jalapa,) of which last between two and three thousand quintals are annually exported from Vera Cruz. Tobacco, anciently used by the Mexicans both in smoking and snuff, might become an important branch of agriculture, if the trade were ft ec ; but it is entirely prohibited, except in a few licensed spots, or rather is grown only by the government. Indigo is very little cultivated in Mexico; and the plantations along the western coast do not raise what is sufficient for the few manufactures of home cotton cloth. The article is annually imported from Guatimala, where it is raised in considerable quantities.