Page:Memoir of a tour to northern Mexico.djvu/56

[ 26 ] the relative dryness of the atmosphere, my observations for the dew point will give some information.

The productions of the cultivated soil in the State of Chihuahua are maize, wheat, beans, peas, red pepper, apples, peaches, onions; and in the less elevated regions, figs, granates, melons, grapes, &c. Cotton, too, has been tried with success in the southern part of the State. Generally taken, the country seems to be more fit for raising stock than for agriculture, as a great portion of it is either too mountainous, or too scantily supplied with water, to become very productive. But notwithstanding, the State has sufficient arable land in the valleys and plains along the water courses to produce all the crops that are wanted for a much denser population than the present. In the mountains of the Sierra Madre there is an abundance of pines, which grow the finest and tallest, at an elevation of from eight to nine thousand feet above the sea; while in an elevation of five and six thousand feet more,feet, more [sic] oak and cedar are found, and in the plains mezquite and shrubbery furnish the necessary fuel. In the city of Chihuahua oak is used, carried there on pack mules from the mountains.

The annual produce of agriculture in the State is estimated at the value of $880,062. The following is a list of the items:

More important is the raising of stock in the State. Horses and mules, cattle and sheep, thrive and increase very rapidly, and the wealth of the proprietors of large "haciendas" consists mostly in their innumerable stock, which is never kept in the stables, but during the whole year is allowed to roam about. In former years, it is said, the stock was so numerous that large proprietors never knew the extent of their own herds; and whenever it was necessary for them to realize some money, they would send droves to the south, even as far as the city of Mexico; and they often cleared as much as $100,000 in one such trip. But since the last 20 years, the wild Indians have become so hostile, and committed so many depredations, that the stock is diminishing every year. An official but rather incomplete account valued the stock of the State, in 1833, at $3,848,228.

Another most important branch of industry in the State of Chihuahua is mining. Its many and rich silver mines have been celebrated for several centuries. They are principally found in the western part of the State, throughout the length of the Sierra Madre, and in a mean breadth of 30 leagues. The silver ores occur generally as sulphurets, with iron or lead, sometimes as native silver and muriate of silver, and are found either entirely in porphyritic rocks, or in stratified rocks, (limestone,) passing in greater depth into igneous rocks. They are worked either by amalgamation, or by fire in common furnaces. For the latter process they need generally an addition of greta, (litharge, or oxyde of lead,) which forms,