COLONIAL PRODUCTS.
ESTATES IN THE VALLEYS OF CUERNAVACA AND CUAUTLA--MEXICAN
HACIENDAS.--SUGAR REGIONS--COFFEE--ITS
YIELD.--TOBACCO--ORIZABA--CHIAPAS,
ETC.--INDIGO--COTTON.--MANUFACTURES ENCOURAGED IN MEXICO.--NO NEW
AGRICULTURAL POPULATION--NEW MANUFACTURING POPULATION.--PRODUCTION
OF COTTON--VAINILLA--JALAP--CACAO--COCHINEAL--ITS PRODUCTION AND
QUANTITY.--SILK--FRUITS--AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS.--GRAZING, AND NOT
AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS CONTINUED.--COLONIAL PRODUCTS.
SUGAR.
It is generally admitted that the cultivation of SUGAR commenced in
China. The cane became first known, through Marco Polo, in the middle of
the thirteenth century; and it was soon after introduced into Nubia,
Egypt and Ethiopia; whence, about the 15th century, it reached Europe.
It was first planted in Sicily, and carried to Spain, Madeira, and the
Canary Isles; and, twenty-eight years after the discovery by Columbus,
it was introduced into Hayti, by Pedro Atienza, and speedily spread over
the West Indies and other parts of America.
THE SUGAR CANE is one of the most valuable agricultural products of
Mexico, and we are convinced from personal observation that the estates
in the _tierra caliente_, where it is chiefly raised, are the richest,
as well as most beautiful, in the republic. There is scarcely a lovelier
prospect in Mexico than that which spreads before the traveller as he
descends from the northern mountains into the valley or Cuernavaca,
which lies south of the valley of Mexico, and may be reached easily in
the course of a day. On every side, as far as the eye can reach, fields
of the freshest verdure are spread out, dotted with the white walls and
towers of the magnificent _haciendas_, which have been founded in this
valley ever since the conquest. Screened from the cold winds of the
upper table land by the protecting barrier of mountains which hem in the
vales of Mexico and Puebla, the valley of Cuernavaca basks, on their
southern slopes and feet, in a tropical climate. Winter never destroys
the foliage in this sheltered region. Pleasant streams gurgle through
its midst and afford sufficient supplies for irrigation. On the plain
the tender green of the young cane, waves in the sun-light like a mass
of purest velvet; whilst the palm and the plantain mingle their
[Illustration: MEXICAN FOREST SCENE.]
pensile and massive foliage amid the densest groves of oranges, aloes,
and forest trees. The valley of Cuernavaca is one of those picturesque
regions which are so well calculated to bring back a fanciful beholder
to the scenes he has conjured up in youth whilst perusing the story of
Paul and Virginia, or the glowing descriptions of the Arabian Nights.
It is in this charming region that some of the opulent citizens of the
republic, have succeeded the wealthy Spaniards in the princely domains
and _haciendas_ of the _tierra caliente_. In the neighborhood of
Cuernavaca we find the estates of Temisco, San Gabriel, Trenta Pesos, El
Puente, Meacatlan, San Gaspar, San Vicento Chiconcuac, and Atlajomulco.
The valley of Cuautla unites with that of Cuernavaca, on the east, and
contains, among others, the prominent estates of San Nicolas, Atlihuyan,
San Carlos, Acotesalco, Pantitlan, Cocoyöe, Calderon, Casasana, Santa
Iñez, Coahuistla, Mapastlan, and Tenestepango.
In the state of Oajaca there are the fine haciendas of Guendolein,
Arragon, Chicomastlahuaca and Ayotla, besides smaller plantations; and,
in the state of Vera Cruz there are many valuable estates in the
neighborhood of Orizaba and Cordova. The last mentioned establishments
produce annually from 40,000 to 50,000 arrobas of sugar; whilst those in
the valleys of Cuernavaca and Cuautla de Amilpas, (calculated in all, at
forty-eight, in number,) yield about 800,000 arrobas of sugar and
syrup--besides 50,000 barrels of rum. These products, together with some
indigo and coffee, raised in these two last named valleys, swell the
value of agriculture in these branches to two millions and a half
annually. On the estate of Guendolein, in Oajaca, 40,000 arrobas of
sugar were yielded every year, which sold in the federal capital at
about $160,000. At Atlajomulco, in Cuernavaca, 880,000 square yards of
land were cultivated in cane, which produced 4,600 cwt. of refined
sugar, 7,800 cwt. of molasses, and 300 cwt. of syrup. From the syrup is
distilled the common _chinguerito_, or a superior species of beverage
known as _aguardiente de cana_. At the estate of Santa Iñez, near
Cuautla, 4,000 barrels of this spirit are annually distilled and sold in
Mexico at $32 each, which, with a deduction of eight dollars for
transportation and duties, will leave a return for the planter of 24
dollars per barrel. In addition to this production of ardent spirits,
the estate produces annually about 40,000 loaves, of twenty-three pounds
each, or 920,000 pounds of refined sugar; and here, as elsewhere
throughout the planting districts, it is calculated that the molasses,
syrup, and in some places, the aguardiente, pay all the expenses of the
estate. The chief difficulty encountered by the proprietors, and their
_administradors_, is in the worthlessness of the Indian laborers, whose
character as agriculturists we have noticed in the section of this work
treating of the classes of Mexican society. Three hundred hands are
employed at the _hacienda_, who are paid a _per diem_ of two and a half
or three _reals_, according to their qualifications or work.
The hacienda of Temisco, in the valley of Cuernavaca, is one of the
oldest establishments in the republic, and, within a few years, has
passed into the possession of its present owners for the sum of
$300,000. The extensive buildings, consisting of a commodious dwelling,
constructed in the old Spanish style, and a large chapel, were erected
soon after the conquest. The domain extends over eleven leagues of land
in length, and three in width. Two hundred and fifty laborers produce
yearly about fifty thousand loaves of sugar, of an average weight of 23
pounds. The annual expenses of the farming and management amount to
thirty thousand dollars, which are repaid by the molasses, syrup, and
spirits, as at Santa Iñez, while, in addition to the crop, about four
thousand cattle are raised on the premises. On all these large estates a
store is kept by the owner, at which nearly the whole amount of the
Indian laborer's wages is received back in the course of the year. The
planters, in many parts of the country, are no longer contented with the
old system of extracting and preparing sugar; but, notwithstanding the
enormous cost of transporting such large masses of heavy machinery, they
have introduced all the modern improved engines used in the United
States and the West Indies. The profits must be large that will warrant
so extravagant an expenditure. The great haciendas disburse, in wages
and other current charges, from 800 to 1,200 dollars weekly. The
establishment of a _Trapiche_, or all the works required for a sugar
estate, is so costly an enterprise, that it is not likely the
cultivation of the article will become greatly extended by the opening
of new estates in the most productive regions. Labor, as well as
engines, will be required for this purpose, and it is quite improbable
that the few indolent Indians in the neighborhood will be prevailed on
to abandon their life of laziness for the toils of a sugar plantation.
Besides this, the present production fully supplies the home market, and
although the revenues and profits are extraordinarily tempting, it is
doubtful whether the Mexicans are sufficiently enterprising in
agriculture to adventure such enormous sums as are necessarily expended
before a single cane is planted or a pound of sugar manufactured. As
long as the
[Illustration: HACIENDA.]
rate of interest is high, the roads bad, transportation costly and
unchanged, and the condition of the country unsettled, these vast and
valuable rural districts will, in all likelihood, remain untenanted and
unwrought.
* * * * *
Baron Humboldt, whose analytical mind always strives to classify,
systematize and _tabularize_ his investigations, has endeavored to
ascertain and limit the maximum _height_ at which the cane may be
cultivated; but it is probably true that all such attempts, are
altogether visionary, in a country of great inequalities of elevation,
shelter and exposure. Many local causes, altogether independent of
relative elevation may produce the degree of heat requisite to bring
cane to perfection, yet it is generally conceded that the produce of a
plantation in the table land would not equal that of an estate near the
coast. The valley of Cuautla, for instance, is bounded on the north by
the lofty peak of Popocatepetl, against whose _snows_ the fresh verdure
of the cane, and the graceful branches of the palm are constantly
relieved. In an hour or two after leaving the plantation of Santa Iñez,
the traveller who passes thence towards the valley of Mexico, finds
himself obliged to put on his cloak or _serape_, after having suffered
from tropical heat during the preceding day. It might reasonably be
supposed that the vicinity of such immense masses of ice and snow would
naturally affect the temperature of the adjacent valley; but the frosty
peak of Popocatepetl only serves to condense the vapors that drift
inland from the sea and to set them free over the low and warm valleys
which border its southern base, whilst its broad shoulders protect the
plains from the cold blasts of the north wind.
COFFEE.
The soil of Mexico has been found adapted for the cultivation of coffee
as well as sugar; but under the old Spanish dominion it never formed one
of the articles of export, although it did not interfere with the
productions of the mother country. In 1818 and '19 extensive plantations
were commenced near Orizaba and Cordova, to which additions have since
been frequently made. The plant was likewise introduced into the valleys
of Cuernavaca and Cuautla by Antonio Velasco and the _administrador_ of
the estates of the Duke of Monteleone. The large _hacienda_ of
Atlajomulco, in the immediate neighborhood of Cuernavaca still pertains
to the descendants of Cortéz; and here the experiment of coffee culture
has been long and successfully tried. The average produce of each plant
is estimated at about two and a half pounds throughout all parts of the
republic where the berry is cultivated; though there are districts of
Mexico in which it is said that three or four pounds are yielded. This
probably depends very much on the size, age, or quality of the tree. Mr.
Ward states that he knew of a single tree, in the garden of Don Pablo de
la Llave, at Cordova, which produced _twenty-eight pounds_! The slope of
the eastern Cordillera is supposed to be best calculated for coffee
estates, and it is believed that Yucatan and Tabasco will ultimately,
under favorable circumstances, become the centres of a lucrative trade
in this article, if the Indian population can ever be trained to
agricultural labors, or made productively industrious in a land where
the wants of nature are so few and so easily supplied. The plantations
in the interior must long be excluded from foreign markets for the same
reason that we have assigned in regard to sugar. Roads and improved
transportation are the fundamental and primary elements of commercial
civilization, and until these are obtained permanently, Mexico must look
chiefly to her domestic market for agricultural recompense.
TOBACCO.
In a country in which all the men, and nearly all the women are habitual
and even constant smokers, tobacco, must necessarily be an article of
national importance. So valuable is its production that the government
has continued to maintain the monopoly of its sale, and, previous to the
revolution, managed to obtain an annual _clear_ revenue of from one to
two millions and a half of dollars, with a _gross_ income, occasionally,
of over seven millions and a half. In the cigar factories of Oajaca five
millions of packets of paper _cigarritos_ of thirty in each were
prepared, besides sixty thousand packets each containing seven _puros_
or ordinary cigars.
Tobacco grows well in a small district near Orizaba and Cordova, but the
best article produced in the republic, comes from Simojovel in the state
of Chiapas and from some districts of Oajaca. In Yucatan and Tabasco,
the plant is also cultivated successfully, and produces a mild and
fragrant leaf which is not included in the national monopoly. A large
portion of the tobacco sold in the republic is contraband; for the
ridiculous and greedy restrictions and exactions with which a plant of
such universal consumption is surrounded, necessarily dispose the people
to violate laws which they feel were only made to impair their rights of
production and trade under a constitution professing to be free.
INDIGO.
Indigo was cultivated and used by the Mexicans previous to the conquest.
The plant was known by them under the name of Xiuhquilipitzahuac, and
the particles from which the dye stuff was made, as Mohuitli or
Tlacohuilli. At the close of the seventeenth century the production of
this article had already greatly decreased. The chief part of it,
required for dyeing the cotton cloths which are generally used for home
consumption by the Indians and lower classes of Mestizos, has been
brought from Guatemala. It is found in Yucatan, Chiapas and about
Tehuantepec in the state of Oajaca, and grows wild in some very warm
localities in Tabasco. In this last named region there is every reason
to believe that it may be profitably cultivated, inasmuch as the indigo
plantations of San Salvador, in the neighborhood of Guatemala have been
known to produce one million eight hundred thousand pounds of the
article, valued at two millions of dollars.
* * * * *
The production of WAX, according to the Memoria Sobre el Estado de la
Agricultura y Industria, of Don Lucas Alaman in 1843, is gradually
augmenting in the republic. Attempts have also been made to cultivate
FLAX and HEMP. The first of which has been successfully raised by
Mariano Aillou in the neighborhood of Tenancingo, and the latter, in the
southern districts of the state of Michoacan, where it grows even
spontaneously and is known under the name of _guinary_. The product is
very large, the extent of territory covered by it very great,--and the
thousands of pounds annually raised in that district, are made up into
garments whose quality is highly approved throughout the republic.
COTTON.
In consequence of the high price of imported goods, owing to restrictive
tariffs as well as to the costliness of transportation a number of
intelligent persons began some years ago to establish factories for
cottons and woollens. The stimulus of domestic factories it was supposed
would naturally increase the culture of the raw materials, and,
accordingly, the national industry was aided from the beginning by
prohibitions or excessive duties, which either excluded the foreign raw
material altogether, or fostered the contraband introduction of cotton
twist and woollen thread.
Cotton was among the indigenous products of Mexico at the time of the
conquest; and the early adventurers not only found it to constitute the
common vesture of the masses of the people, but also that the most
delicate and luxurious articles of dress were made of it. The Aztecs
possessed the art of spinning it to an extreme degree of fineness and of
imparting to it the beautiful and brilliant dyes for which they were
celebrated; but both these mysteries were entirely lost in the general
destruction of aboriginal arts and records by the Spaniards.
Notwithstanding the natural anxiety of Spain to furnish her colonists
with her manufactures, she could never prevent the people from weaving
and wearing this spontaneous product of their soil. And, although the
cultivation of the raw material was neglected or not pursued with the
ingenious industry that would have made it a great staple product, it is
nevertheless estimated that the annual value of the domestic manufacture
in Mexico amounted to about $5,000,000. After the consummation of
national independence, foreign nations hastened to seize the trade of
Mexico and to fill the markets with an abundant but costly supply of
European and American stuffs. The drain of the precious metals which
this caused from a country that possessed no other article of export to
pay for the imported merchandize by exchanges, soon alarmed the
financiers of Mexico, and accordingly a higher scale of duties was
adopted for the encouragement of domestic manufactures. This, for a long
time, served only to augment the cost of apparel to the Mexican
consumer, whilst it had no other material effect upon the fabrics of the
country except to seduce a number of wealthy landholders into the
erection of factories, which have cost them, at least, ten if not twelve
millions of dollars. Unluckily, however, this amounted merely to the
creation of vast establishments which could not rely upon the resources
of the country for their supply, for the factories were built _before_
the farms were opened by which they were to be furnished with the
staple!
It is a fact, therefore, not very generally known, that Mexico has
become a manufacturing country. The water power which is abundant in
many parts of a mountainous region like that of Mexico, affords great
facilities for such establishments.
In 1843 there were 53 cotton factories in the republic with a total of
131,280 spindles, and it was estimated that,--looking to Mexico alone
for the supply,--there would be an annual deficiency of a large quantity
of the raw material. This calculation, it must be remembered, does not
include the consumption of cotton by hand looms, an immense number of
which are in constant use through the republic.
In consequence of this evident deficiency, and the prospect of the firm
establishment of a manufacturing system, many persons were induced to
commence the cultivation of cotton. But their failure was signal. It is
true that in Mexico the proportion of small farmers and rural tenants is
small, and that the great majority of the owners of the soil are large
landholders who might sometimes change the character of their
cultivation. But these men belong to the pastoral rather than the
agricultural age, and delight in the easier tending of their flocks and
herds. In addition to this we must take into consideration the well
known characteristics of the southern races enervated still more by the
genial climate of Mexico. Those races are governed by traditions. As
their fathers wrought--so _they_ work. Their antipathy to change is
proverbial, and it is by no means uncommon to see the spirit of an
anecdote related by Bazil Montague, realized every day in Mexico.
"In a particular district of Italy," says he, "the peasants loaded their
panniers with vegetables on one side, and balanced the opposite pannier
by filling it with stones, and when a traveller pointed out the
advantages to be gained by loading both panniers with vegetables, he was
answered that their forefathers, from time immemorial, had so carried
their produce to market; that they were wise and good men, and that a
stranger showed very little understanding or decency who interfered in
the established customs of a country." Such are the difficulties to be
encountered in the habits and prejudices of all old nations, and the
embarrassment, in the present instance, would not be so much in creating
a body of gentlemen planters, as in finding laborers to work the
plantations when they had been acquired.
Brought up as most of the Indians are, on small pieces of land, or in
little villages among the mountains, they find that the fruitful soil
produces, almost spontaneously, enough for their frugal support. A skin
or two, together with a few yards of cotton or woollen cloth, suffice,
every few years, for their requisite covering. The broad leaves of a
plantain, or, a palm with its matted vines, afford them shelter during
the day, whilst a kennel on the ground, keeps off the rains or night
dews. And thus, a servile contentment with traditionary occupations or
idleness, roots them to the soil where they were born, and makes them,
in fact though not in name, the hereditary slaves of the estates on
which their ancestors have worked for centuries. These men are, of
course, not to be suddenly diverted from their tastes; and the worthy
persons who have commenced the cultivation of cotton in suitable
districts of the country where the Indians are numerous and unemployed,
have been obliged to abandon their enterprises from the fact that their
laborers speedily deserted under the plea that they were not used to
such occupations, and, with less toil, had ample food and raiment in
their goats and gardens at home. The reasoning of the Indians is quite
natural and even wise under the peculiar circumstances of their actual
life. _Money_ is no object to them, for they have no object upon which
to expend it, and their isolated existence affords them no comparative
scale of society in which they might advance to a higher degree of
civilization by the possession of wealth. Why then should they toil to
acquire that which to them has not even the value of a _counter_?
Possessing without labor all that is needed for mere existence, their
toil can only be beneficial to their employers. In this, they perceive
by their native sagacity, that there is no recompense and no equality of
interests.
Whilst such are the reasons why a new agricultural population cannot be
created in Mexico, the reverse is precisely the case with regard to a
new manufacturing population. Factories are generally erected in the
neighborhood of large towns, or in populous districts where the surplus
of _females_ is continually in the greatest indigence. These people have
neither pieces of land, nor gardens, nor goats, nor means of livelihood
except beggary or the prison, and consequently they flock with eagerness
to every factory that affords the hope of employment and support. Thus,
whilst the tendency of the agriculture of Mexico is to produce
servitude, that of its manufactures is to create a feeling of honest
independence.
These speculations seem to indicate clearly, first, that the fixed
policy of Mexico is to establish a national system of manufactures; and,
secondly, that the cultivation of the staple which is to supply these
factories will not be largely increased; or if it be increased at all,
its augmentation will not be proportionate to the number and demand of
the factories.
* * * * *
The connexion between the production of cotton and its use is so close
that we have been unable in the preceding passages to avoid anticipating
some statements which will be more amply set forth in our section on
Mexican manufactures. We shall now turn our attention to the cultivation
and annual production in the republic.
* * * * *
Throughout the cotton growing districts of the United States the cotton
plant is of annual growth. Frost destroys it, and the planter is obliged
to renew the seed for every crop. But, in the tierra caliente of
Mexico, this is not requisite, as the tree propagates itself, and the
laborers are only required to keep the fields clear of extraneous plants
which spring up so rapidly and luxuriantly in tropical climates.
Notwithstanding the advantages offered by the erection of the factories
in Mexico, the best data obtained by Don Lucas Alaman in 1843, presented
only the following meagre returns of the proximate quantity of cotton
raised in some of the states of the republic, excluding, of course, the
small parcels raised by Mestizos and Indians for their private
consumption:
ARROBAS. LBS.
In the state of Jalisco, 1,000 or 25,000
" " Sonora, 3,500 " 87,500
" " Durango, 3,044 " 76,100
" " Oajaca, 21,583 " 539,576
" " Puebla, 3,738 " 93,450
" " Vera Cruz, 14,496 " 362,400
------- ---------
47,361 " 1,184,025
In this estimate the cleaned and uncleaned, or ginned and un-ginned
cotton are averaged together. It is generally considered, however, that
the whole country really produces at present about seventy thousand
quintals or seven millions of pounds.
The quantity, and consequently the value of the Mexican cotton crop has
been very variable. At Tepic on the west coast, in whose vicinity there
are many valuable factories, it has been sold as low as fifteen dollars
per quintal; while at Vera Cruz on the east coast it has risen to
twenty-two and twenty-four dollars, and, in Puebla and the city of
Mexico it has reached even to forty and forty-eight dollars. Cotton gins
have been established at Alvarado, at Cosamaloapan, and Tuxtla on the
northern and eastern coasts, and at Tepic, on the west; but they are not
sufficiently numerous throughout the country to supply even the present
limited production.
VAINILLA.
Mexico is generally considered the native country of the delicious
vainilla bean, which grows wild along the eastern coast amid the endless
variety of parasitic plants with which the forests are filled. It is a
native of Vera Cruz, Oajaca and Tabasco. On the wooded mountain or hill
slopes of the latter it has been discovered in great quantities; but
throughout Mexico this pleasant and valuable product has been left
almost entirely to the care of Indians. Its cultivation is exceedingly
simple. A shoot of the plant is inserted in the ground at the foot of a
tree intended to support the future vine, which, if properly freed from
the encumbrance of other parasites, soon embraces the trunk, and yields
beans during the third year. This hardy and fruitful plant lasts from a
quarter to half a century, according to the attention that is bestowed
on it; and it is remarkable that its cultivation has not engaged the
attention of foreigners who might safely reside in the beautiful and
healthy regions of Jalapa.
JALAP.
JALAP, like vainilla, is a parasitic plant; but its root instead of its
fruit is used for medicinal purposes. Its leaves resemble the ivy and
its beautiful red flowers open only at night. Growing plentifully in the
neighborhood of Jalapa, whence it takes its name, it is usually sent
abroad through Vera Cruz, where the commercial returns show that more
than three thousand quintals are rarely exported.
CACAO.
The use of chocolate is so universal in Mexico and throughout Spanish
countries, that it might naturally be supposed the cultivation of cacao
was largely and carefully attended to in the republic. Such, however, is
not the case. The cacao of Soconusco, and of the low grounds of
Caraccas, Guatemala and Guyaquil, was found to be so superior to the
Mexican article, that its production has been almost abandoned except in
the neighborhood of Colima, or on the Isthmus and in the states of
Tabasco and Chiapas.
COCHINEAL.
The OPUNTIA, or Indian fig, a species of cactus is the food in Mexico
which supports an insect from whose body the dye known as COCHINEAL is
made. It is found also in Brazil where it nourishes the _grana
sylvestre_ which affords a dye that is greatly inferior in color as well
as durability to that produced by the _grana fina_ of Mexico.
The _grana fina_ resembles a small bug in size and color, covered with a
whitish mealy powder, through which the rings or cross stripes on the
back of the insect are distinctly visible; the female alone produces the
dye; the males are smaller, and one is found sufficient to impregnate
three hundred females.
The cochineal bug feeds only on the leaf of the _opuntia_. The process
of rearing is complicated and attended with much difficulty. The leaves
of the nopal upon which the seed is deposited, must be kept free from
all foreign substances, and, in the cochineal districts the Indian women
constantly tend the plants, brushing them lightly with a squirrel's
tail.
In a good year one pound of seed deposited upon the plant in October,
will yield in December, twelve pounds of cochineal, leaving a sufficient
quantity of seed behind for a second crop in May. The plantations of the
cochineal cactus are confined to the district of the Misteca, in the
state of Oajaca and in the valley of Oajaca at Ocotlan.
Some of the Haciendas de Nopales contain from fifty to sixty thousand
plants, arranged in lines like the aloes in the Maguey plantations
already described, and cut down to a certain height, in order to enable
the Nopaleros to clean them more easily.
In the year 1758, a government registry-office was established in
Oajaca, in consequence of the complaints of British merchants, who had
received cargoes of adulterated cochineal. This bureau kept an accurate
account of the production and value of the article, within its
jurisdiction, and a tabular statement of the result has since been
published in the Memoria Estadistica de Oajaca, &c. &c., of Don J. M.
Murgnia y Galardi, who was a deputy to the Cortes from that province. By
this document, and subsequent returns, it appears that from 1758 to
1832, inclusive,--or in 75 years,--44,195,750 pounds of cochineal were
produced in the state of Oajaca alone, which were worth $106,170,671 at
the market price.
SILK.
After the independence of Mexico was secured the Mexicans in the
neighborhood of Zelaya, and in a few other places, attempted the
cultivation of the mulberry tree, for the purpose of feeding silk worms.
But this agricultural speculation failed. The planters did not possess
the Chinese mulberry, which is universally adopted as the best in all
silk producing countries.
In 1841 an association under the style of the "Michoacan Company," was
organized, in the capital of Michoacan, for the encouragement of silk
culture. The members of this body labored diligently to introduce the
Chinese tree, and spread it far and wide through the states of Vera
Cruz, Puebla, Mexico, Queretaro, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, San Luis
Potosi, Sonora and Michoacan. These labors were performed by thirty-six
_Juntas de fomento_, or committees of encouragement, and although the
trees have most generally grown well, it is to be feared that the
enterprise resembled the wild speculations in that species of mulberry
which, about the same period, both made and lost so many fortunes in the
United States. The cultivation of silk has been warmly urged by Don
Lucas Alaman, as exceedingly suitable for the state of Oajaca, where, in
the course of time, it may replace the cochineal whose product it is
said is beginning to fail in that district.
FRUITS.
The finest fruits of Mexico are commonly found in the _tierra caliente_.
The orange, lemon, lime, pine apple, banana, chirimoya, sapote,
ahuacate, tuna, granadita, are produced in great perfection. The apples,
peaches, cherries, grapes and gooseberries do not possess the high
flavor, nor are they found in the same varieties, as in the United
States; but the pears, especially those known as Gamboa pears, are
exceedingly delicious. Nearly all these fruits are consumed in their
natural state, yet immense quantities are preserved and form the
extraordinary varieties of _dulces_ without which no Mexican table is
considered properly set forth. It is very probable that if horticulture
and agriculture were scientifically studied by Mexicans, or if North
American and European gardeners were to emigrate to the country, even
the fruits which are now inferior to ours, would improve in quality,
size and flavor under their skilful management.
AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS.
From all that we have already stated in regard to the Indian or laboring
population of Mexico, the nature of the seasons, and the want of
irrigation in many districts, except by artificial means, it will be
perceived that the agricultural progress of the country is extremely
doubtful. In addition to this, the land belongs to a few proprietors,
many of whom own estates of twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and even a
hundred leagues square, which are chiefly devoted to _herds_ instead of
_agriculture_. Mexico is thus rather in the _pastoral_ than the
_commercial_ age, and must pass through the transition state of
independent sub-divided labor before she can stand, naturally, upon the
same platform with northern and European nations.
The early Spanish settlers were eager monopolists of mines and land.
Their object was to realize fortunes speedily; and by a liberal
_repartimiento_ of Indians they were enabled to found large estates upon
which those Indians either toiled as husbandmen or tended uncounted
herds. The prolific soil soon yielded, with little labor, the required
quantity of vegetables and cereal products; domestic markets were wanted
for the sale of the surplus, and the Spanish government did not open its
harbors for exportation. Agriculture was thus early limited to the mere
animal wants of the _glebœ adscripti_ and emigrant Spaniards, and as
the Indian never labors except when compelled by force or necessity, he
soon preferred the idle and wandering life of a herdsman to that of a
farmer. Many of these estates now number from ten to twenty thousand
head of cattle. Besides this the Spanish laws presented the Indian no
prospects of independent agricultural rights. The foreign landholder
enjoyed the exclusive ownership of the vast freehold. There was no
encouragement or hope given to small farmers who might emerge from the
servile race, and the consequence is that Mexico, until she becomes an
exporting country, receives an augmented population by immigration, and
sub-divides her immense territorial manors, under the demands of trade,
will, in all likelihood remain stationary in every thing pertaining to
agriculture. It is the multiplication of freeholders under the stimulus
of commerce, that promotes freedom, industry, and personal independence.
Competition is continually excited by the wants of a numerous nation, or
by the prospect of selling the results of our labor to others abroad who
are not so well supplied or do not produce the articles we cultivate and
manufacture. But Mexico, as at present constituted, is an exceedingly
small white _civilized_ nation, if we exclude her four and a half
millions of Indians. She is not increased annually by immigration from
the crowded countries of the Old World, nor does she encourage the
advent of strangers. Her population therefore is substantially confined
within the narrow limits of natural increase by birth alone. These
singular facts exhibit the anomalous condition of all the Spanish
settlements upon the virgin and inviting soil of America; and until the
Chinese exclusiveness of these various western nations is abandoned as
an absurdity in the nineteenth century, we do not believe that the Arab
plough will be replaced by the civilized implements of North American
agriculture, or that the Mexican shepherd will turn into an enlightened
farmer. We have seen that even the stimulus of domestic demand for
cotton, has been unable to produce a new agricultural class among those
who were devoted to other traditionary toils. What hope, then, can there
be of an improvement in cereal cultivation, when the country is already
supplied, and owns neither a navy nor merchantmen?