chased in the North at a price much below that at which they must be disposed of, had not the payment of the duties upon them been eluded.
In addition to its foreign trade, San Luis supplies the neighbouring States of Lĕōn and Cŏăhūīlă with home-made goods of various descriptions. The town abounds in tailors, hatters, leather-dressers, and smiths; a tannery, too, has been lately established there, and, on a small scale, the whole population seems industrious. With the exception of the capital, the State contains no large town. It is divided into Haciendas, few of which exceed thirty "Sitios"[1] in extent, while the general average is about fourteen.
Many of these Haciendas would be valuable from the extraordinary fertility of the soil, but the want of a market renders the agricultural produce a mere drug. Maize sells, in ordinary years, for four and six reals the Fanega, (one, or one and a half dollar the carga of 300lbs.) and even at this price purchasers are not always to be found.
In 1826, the dryness of the season had given an unusual value to the stock upon hand, (nearly the whole crop of the year being lost,) and maize was selling at twenty reals the fanega in the vicinity of San Luis, and at thirty, and thirty-six reals near Catorce, where the demand was great, and the sup-
- ↑ The "Sitio de ganado mayor," of Mexico, comprises a square of five thousand varas, or a superficies of twenty-five millions of varas.
