100
GENERAL INFORMATION.
the land will be best developed by the immigration of skilled farmers from Europe and the United States.
The following table, copied from Busto's Estadistica de la Republica Mexicana, gives a list of the agricultural productions of the Republic. It will be seen that the proportion of maize is about four fifths of the total product, while that of wheat is but one twentieth. Oats are rarely cultivated, and rye not at all.[1]
| PRODUCTS. | Pounds. | Value in Mexican dollars. |
| Chickling vetch (a kind of pea). | 27,831,012 | 543,283 |
| Cotton | 55,391,072 | 6,605,831 |
| Bene-seed | 6,710,308 | 153,643 |
| Canary-seed | 2,467,025 | 57,410 |
| Anise-seed | 2,477,090 | 127,268 |
| Indigo | 422,941 | 358,002 |
| Rice | 33,366,493 | 1,248,244 |
| Sugar and molasses | 154,199,210 | 8,761,317 |
| Cocoa | 3,174,605 | 1,140,050 |
| Coffee | 17,514,877 | 2,060,382 |
| Barley | 511,134,850 | 4,403,742 |
| Cumin-seeds | 225,141 | 23,500 |
| Peppers of all kinds | 119,081,908 | 4,196,482 |
| Brown beans (frijoles) | 508,656,233 | 8,406,211 |
| Peas | 25,277,928 | 471,075 |
| Beans | 34,589,634 | 477,610 |
| Hemp | 88,176,000 | 3,352,000 |
| Ixtle (a kind of hemp) | 4,910,158 | 154,053 |
| Lentils | 4,625,775 | 83,043 |
| Maize (Indian corn) | 11,681,140,666 | 112,164,424 |
| Potatoes | 23,227,024 | 457,592 |
| Straw | 431,740,320 | 1,962,879 |
| Tobacco | 16,510,980 | 2,006,153 |
| Wheat | 747,349,004 | 17,436,345 |
| Vanilla | 121,248 | 651,958 |
| Sarsaparilla | 1,073,648 | 149,489 |
| ———————— | ——————— | |
| Total | 14,452,954,787 | 177,451,986 |
- ↑ Compared with the United States, the annual corn-crop of Mexico is one ninth of that of the sister Republic; the wheat-crop is one forty-first, and the cotton-crop is but one forty-fifth. Maize being the principal article of food, the failure of the crop causes great suffering, as the poorer classes must then subsist on unripe fruit, berries, and roots.
