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.