Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/461

Rh, from the refuse fiber is manufactured fine Chinese paper, and coarse wrapping-paper.

"The State of Puebla has a variety of climates, from that which is oppressively hot to one cloudy and cold. In some northern districts are produced cotton, tobacco, vanilla, coffee, rice, sugar cane, and all the fruits of the cold zones and the hot; in the southern districts the fruits of the hot zones, cotton, tea, coffee, and the Mexican agave of the species oyamee, which produces the mezcal liquor. The best sugar plantations are in the south, and they produce molasses, aguardientes, and sugar of various grades. In this zone are the immense grazing lands of cattle, goats, sheep, and horses; the salt mines of Chiautla, Chinantla, and Piaxtla, and the purgative-salt of Chietla. In Atlixco are produced pease, rice, corn, beans, chile pepper, barley, benne-seed, and some wheat. The districts of the north yield the same products, excepting the wheat, the salt mines and the grazing on a large scale; in exchange, Zacatlan produces apple-brandy superior to the Spanish Catalan, and delicious wines from the orange, quince, and blackberry. In the central districts grows the best wheat raised in eastern Mexico, all the fruit and grain of cold climates, the mulato chile, whence comes a soda refined here, and another which is treated in France; also wool and bristles.

"The flora of this State is abundant and varied, as known to the scientific commission exploring the territory, and its products would supply the perfumeries and drug-shops of the world.

"The races and classes inhabiting Puebla are as follows: The Hispano-American, which is the principal one; the Aztec, the Chichimeca, the Tatonavue, the Cuatocomaque, the Tepounga, and the Mizteca, whose tongues and dialects to-day, as well as a great part of their customs, are of the primitive people. The capitals of the most populous and cultivated districts outside the State capital are: Tehuacan, preeminent in agriculture and commerce; Teziutlan, under the same conditions, where live some capitalists, almost millionaires. The city of Chalchicomula is agricultural and industrial, in the line of mills. Atlixco and Matamoros are beautiful, rich, and productive of utensils.