We shall here pass over the subject of mines, regarding which we have said enough under the head of Cerro Pasco; though there is no province in the whole department in which silver and even gold mines are not to be found; but the chief source of production at present is Cerro Pasco. AGRICULTURE. Of the agriculture of the Vale of Huanuco we have already treated; and, from what has been said, enough may be conceived of the general state of agriculture in the Sierra. We have also alluded to Jauja, in the preceding pages, as most productive in wheat; and abounding, as it does, in maize, lucern, peas, beans, &c. it is considered not only as the granary of the department to which it belongs, but also of all the central Sierra of Peru between the two great chains of the Andes. In the Vale of Jauja, as on the plains of Cajamarca,[13] vegetation is subject to blight from hoar-frost, which in some years is much more destructive to the crops than in others; but, upon the whole, the average wheat crops are very good and abundant. Huaylas, again, like Huanuco, produces excellent sugar; nay, that of Huaylas appears to be the finer-grained and purer of the two; for, though the sugar-refiners in Huanuco are generally brought from Huaylas, yet, in the hands of the same workmen, the sugar of the former locality does not equal that of the latter in the beauty of its crystallization. MANUFACTURES. The manufactures, we may cursorily remark, are in a very backward state; and though the natives, especially of Huanuco, have shown no small share of ingenuity in some of their mechanical contrivances, yet they want proper masters; and, however we may admire the progress they have made with such slender means of instruction, we cannot compare their performances with those of Europeans in the same line. In Tarma they make _ponchos_, or loose cloaks, of great beauty and fineness; and, on the colder table-lands, warm but coarse blankets and ponchos, &c. are still made by the Indians. In the valleys, goat-skins are made into cordovans; cow-hide is made into saddle-bags, and almofrezes, or travelling-cases for bed and bedding; mats too are manufactured from rushes, and are very generally used as carpeting under the name of _esteras_. But the work of silversmiths is generally in a rude state even in Pasco; for the fine filigree work, for which inland Peru is celebrated, is made, not in the department of Junin, but at Guamanga, in the department of Ayacucho,—where the natives have also shown a decided talent for sculpture, though their works cannot be said to exhibit, as yet, much elegance or expression. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.