Such is a brief review and summary of the soil and seasons of Mexico. The average annual yield of the corn lands throughout Mexico is estimated at twenty-five bushels for one. In portions of the country, during favorable years, and where the irrigation is good, from sixty to eighty bushels for one have been produced. At Cholula, near Puebla, the increase is stated at forty for one, while at Zelaya, Salamanca, and Santiago, further north, from thirty-five to forty are produced on an average of years. In the valley of Mexico, proper, the yield is from eighteen to twenty; and even in the old possessions of California, it is set down at from fifteen to seventeen. The best writers consider, however, that notwithstanding the extraordinary fertility of their soil, the Mexicans do not produce in ratio of quantity, superior crops to the best agricultural portions of the United States.
The agricultural advantages of New Spain were early pointed out by some of the colonial authorities to the Spanish Home government; but the very fact of their existence seems to have alarmed the Court and to have originated those restrictive laws which, as we have shown in our historical narrative, so long ensured the dependence of the colony. The King, the Cabinets and the Council of the Indies united in believing that if the internal resources of the nation were developed, fostered, and placed upon a firm basis, the political as well as the industrial independence of America might naturally ensue; and accordingly, these authorities resolved at once to adopt the narrow system of restrictions which retained the essentially productive power in the hands of Spain. Zumarraga, the first bishop and second archbishop of Mexico, addressed urgent letters to the Emperor Charles V., exhibiting the agricultural value of the country, and solicited laborers, plants, seeds, cattle, and all the usual means for the development of Mexican resources. The Bandos published in the year 1524, by Cortéz, which are yet preserved in the Hospital of Jesus, in the capital, contain wise decrees for the encouragement of industry, and prove that the military life of the Conqueror had not made him forgetful of his early agricultural labors in the West Indies when he first emigrated from Spain. But the policy of Spain was constantly declared to be adverse to this wholesome and reasonable encouragement. When Luis de Velasco, the second of that name who was viceroy in New Spain, passed thence to the viceroyalty of Peru, he was instructed by the King and Council of the Indies to be careful not to "foster manufactures, nor to allow the cultivation of vines, inasmuch as there was already ample provision of these things and the commerce of the kingdom should not be impaired by such colonial products." At the same epoch, his successor in Mexico, the Conde de Monterey, was also required to be equally vigilant and restrictive in the region confided to his government. These orders, however, were not always faithfully complied with throughout such extended and sparse jurisdictions as those of Mexico or Peru; and accordingly in 1610, through the Marques de Montesclaros, who replaced the Conde de Monterey in those colonies, the royal prohibitions were repeated, with the addition of the following emphatic language:—"Inasmuch as you understand perfectly, how much the observance of these rules is necessary for the dependence of the colonies upon the parent state, we charge and command you to see to their faithful execution." Wine and oil, two of the most important products of Spain, and two of the absolute necessaries of a Spaniard's life, wherever he may happen to live, where thus protected from competition, and formed the means of preserving the colonial vassalage. Nothing was left to the New World, therefore, either to manufacture extensively, or to cultivate, except some of the coarser cotton cloths, for ordinary garments, or a sufficiency of the cerealia for domestic consumption. It was necessary to preserve an equilibrium or a reasonable ratio between the supply of food and the production of the mines; and thus the common agricultural and horticultural home markets for the necessaries of life were alone left unencumbered for the Mexicans.
We are not aware that Spain encouraged, more than was absolutely demanded for political ends, a system of internal improvement by national roads, with lateral branches thridding and binding together all parts of the country. Highways were opened and horses and mules imported. But these were only suitable for the internal transportation of the country; and, even to the present day, the whole of Mexico is traversed by miserable roads, whose channels are often cut up into deep ravines by the unceasing attrition of caravans. The stubborn but useful mules, moving about the country in large bodies, under the guidance of Arrieros, follow each other in single file over the same path for centuries, and there is scarcely a highway in Mexico that is not worn by their footsteps to the depth of several feet. Bad roads, royal restrictions, and the want of transportation except by mules, all combined to impede rural industry, waste the people's time, destroy internal intercourse, and to force the consumption of agricultural products either upon the spot where they grew or in its immediate neighborhood. The independence of Mexico since 1824, has of course relieved the nation from the foreign restrictions upon her commerce; but the agricultural habits of the people were not to be changed by a constitution or industrial laws. Improved roads and improved modes of transportation have scarcely been attempted by the modern republicans. Constant revolutions have destroyed concert of action among the people in the different states through which the new highways would pass, at the same time that they have impaired the unity of system or policy upon which the national government might have acted for the general improvement of internal communication or development of agricultural resources. Some of the best citizens have written and labored in behalf of national industry in all its usual or possible manifestations; but we fear that many years of profound peace must be ensured to Mexico before the farmer will be able to share in the blessings of commerce by means of exportation.
The great CORN LANDS of Mexico are those of Puebla;—the Bajio, which comprises portions of the state of Guanajuato, Queretero, Valladolid, Zacatecas, and Guadalajara, in the vicinity of the Rio Santiago;—the valley of Mexico, in the state of Mexico;—the valley of Poañas, in Durango;—and it is calculated that the cleared ground in these districts is capable of producing cerealia for a population five times greater than that of Mexico at present. Corn, in the states of Mexico and Puebla is worth two dollars the fanega of one hundred and fifty pounds; in Oajaca about one dollar for the same quantity. Its value is every where irregular, and no general tariff of prices can be assigned to Mexican breadstuffs until some great national market shall be established or Mexico becomes an exporting country. Neighborhoods, at present establish prices.
Maize or CORN, is a gift from the New World to the Old, and is unquestionably the favorite food of the great mass of the inhabitants of our continent. In Mexico, every household is furnished with it abundantly, and all classes use it habitually.
Although this plant is a native of America it is never found growing wild in the republic. Single stocks may be occasionally seen in remote or uninhabited districts, but they are rarely met, and, in all likelihood, have been sown by the flocks of robber birds who ravage the Mexican milpas or corn fields during the ripening season.