Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/107

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MEXICO IN 1827.
81

interest, not only to Mexico, but to all the manufacturing countries of the Old World. Twenty-five thousand Arrobas of Cotton is the utmost that has yet been exported from Veracruz in the year; but the supply must increase with the demand, since no great exertion or capital are required to produce it. In Texas, Austin's colony already makes large remittances of cotton to New Orleans; and I doubt not that this branch of agriculture will soon be everywhere duly appreciated.

In the United States, the production of cotton increased, (according to Humboldt,) in six years, (from 1797 to 1803,) in the ratio of three hundred and seventy-seven to one.

Were it possible to communicate a very small portion of similar activity to Mexico, the effect upon her external trade would be considerable; for, in 1824, the value of the cotton exported from the United States, amounted to 21,947,404 dollars, (vide Mellish's United States,) one-tenth, or even one-twentieth part of which would form no unimportant item in the exports of a country, which, at present, is forced to cover the amount of its importations, almost entirely with cochineal and bullion.

VANILLA.—( Epidendrum Vanillœ.)

This is one of the endless variety of parasitic plants, with which the forests of Vĕrăcruz Veracruz abound. It was long thought to be confined, almost entirely, to the district of Mĭsāntla, at the foot of the mountain of Qŭilātĕ, (in Vĕrăcruz,) and to the vicinity of