Most of the estates of Durango are devoted to breeding horned cattle, mules, and sheep, of which last 150,000 are sent every year to the Mexican market. The Hacienda de la Sarca alone possesses a stock of 200,000 sheep, and 40,000 mules and horses. That of Ramos, (which consists of four hundred sitios,) has 80,000 sheep; that of Gūātĭmăpe 40,000 oxen and cows. The valley of Poānăs, again, (about fifteen leagues East of the capital,) contains nothing but corn-lands. It is watered by a river which runs through the centre of the valley, and on the banks of this river are nine Haciendas de trigo, (corn estates,) in immediate succession, which supply the capital with flour, of the very best quality, at from six to eight dollars the fanega.
The natural advantages of Durango are not yet fully turned to account. Sugar might be cultivated to any extent in the valleys of the Sierra Madre, where water abounds, and climate might almost be selected at pleasure; but it is, at present, brought from the valley of Cūĕrnăvācă, at a distance of 250 leagues. It sells, of course, at an enormous price, five dollars per arroba, and, in a moment of scarcity, often rises to ten.
Indigo and coffee might likewise be reckoned amongst the natural productions of the soil. They are found wild in the barrancas of the Sierra Madre, but no attention is paid to them.
Iron abounds within a quarter of a league of the
