CHAPTER X
RANCHING MEXICO
Until the middle of last century, agriculture in Mexico was in a very backward state indeed, and in many of the more out-of-the-way neighbourhoods still remains as it was at the time of the Conquest—indeed as it was long before the Conquest. In ancient Mexico, agriculture was greatly venerated. Most of the deities connected with it were feminine, and shared in those terrible and sanguinary festivals which the gods of war and similar divinities seemed to find necessary to their well-being. This connection of agriculture with religion made it almost a sacred thing, but since the time of Cortes the tilling of the soil has taken second place to mining. Other causes, too, exist to account for its backwardness. The Mexican peon adheres lovingly to his primitive methods; and the general character of the country, which is mountainous and rugged for the most part, is by no means favourable to agricultural pursuits. Internal communication, too, hampered the tiller of the soil in his efforts to introduce his produce to suitable markets; and, lastly, the aridity of many Mexican neighbourhoods has rendered their cultivation impossible until suitable irrigation is introduced.
But all these difficulties the Department of Fomento, for the encouragement of internal enterprises, has attacked with excellent results: for not only has it undertaken the technical education of the peon, but it has practically assisted him by distributing among his class the necessities of modern agricultural endeavour. A great deal of Mexican agricultural land, however, is occupied by large holdings, and especially is this the case in the South, in Oaxaca and Soconusco, where coffee-growing is the principal industry. The other staples of agriculture in Mexico are tobacco, sugar, cotton, and
