Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of that Country from the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.Mayer, Brantz
History
Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of that Country from the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.
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.
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