NATURAL RESOURCES, AGRICULTURE, GENERAL CONDITIONS
Principal cultivated products—Timber—The three climatic zones—General agricultural conditions—Waste of forests—Irrigation—Region of the river Nazas—Canal-making—Cotton and sugar-cane—Profitable agriculture—Mexican country-houses—Fruit gardens—Food products, cereals, and fibrous plants—Pulque production—India-rubber and guayule—List of agricultural products and values—Fruit culture and values—Forestry and land—Colonisation—American land-sharks—Conditions of labour—Asiatics—Geographical distribution of products—The States of the Pacific slope—Sonora—Lower California—Sinaloa—Tepic—Jalisco—Colima—Michoacan—Guerrero—Oaxaca—Chiapas.
With its remarkable variations of climatic zones and great wealth and variety of vegetation, it might have been supposed that agriculture, not mining, would have been the great mainstay of Mexico. But the fame of silver has overshadowed that of corn, wine, and oil, to the country's detriment, in a certain sense. Agriculture must be the foundation of greatness, in the long run, of any country, especially of those which are not manufacturing communities—or even of those as time goes on, and Mexico is beginning to recognise this fact. The mines are valuable sources of wealth, but there will come a day when the mines are worked out, leaving gaping holes in the ground, and the silver and gold, or copper they contained, dispersed or enriching the private pockets of aliens. It has been well said that if the capital expended on mining in Mexico had been applied to the cultivation of the soil the country would have been four times as rich as at present. Fortunately those who come to mine often remain to till the ground, as happened in California and elsewhere. I had almost said "fools who came to scoff remained to pray!"
In former chapters the differences of the climatic zones have been set forth; the hot lowlands, the temperate zone, and the cold regions respectively, with their elevation limits above sea-level. These may be further described by their main agricultural products as—the sugar- and rubber-bearing zone, the coffee-bearing zone, and the cereal-producing zone, the last being the great plateau.
It is to be recollected that, rich and varied as Mexico's vegetable products are, some of the most useful to mankind were not indigenous, but were introduced by Europeans. Among these are sugar-cane, oranges, the cereals, as wheat, &c. (except maize), olives, the grape-vine, and coffee.
Cotton, of course, was native, and if Europe gave Mexico great benefits of staple plants, Mexico also gave of hers to Europe, as the chocolatl—our well-known chocolate—the banana, and other fruits.
Beginning with the tropical region, the main natural and cultivated products are: sugar-cane, rubber, coffee, oranges, bananas, limes, cacao or chocolate, tobacco, pepper, vanilla, henequen or hemp, rice, cocoanuts, ahuacates or "alligator-pears," yucca, indigo, maize, alfalfa.
Mahogany and other cabinet woods, and timber for constructional purposes, abound in the various zones, and some seventy-five kinds are enumerated, as shown on another page. The enormous tepehuajes, or cypresses, are famous—one near Oaxaca has a trunk of a diameter of 50 feet, 6 feet from the ground.
The temperate zone, into which the former merges insensibly, is less fertile, less well-watered, but much healthier, and produces matters of equal value to the foregoing, among them the grape-vine, maize, coffee, and various of those above enumerated.
Timber for constructional purposes is found freely in this zone, reaching far up to the higher region of the cold lands. Ranging from 8,000 to 14,000 feet above sea-level, the coniferous forests are one of the most characteristic features of Mexico.