Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/76

56 made of its leaves; and they have long ago used them as wrappers for the cigarritos, which no loyal native fails to indulge in hourly.

Man and beast—dwellings, food, paper, architecture, and cigars—are thus, in Mexico, all indebted to Indian corn as one of the greatest elements of comfort, sustenance, utility and luxury.

The extraordinarily productive is to the inhabitants of the tierra caliente what maize is to those who dwell in the loftier and cooler regions of the table land. An acre of wheat will supply the wants of three men, but an acre of Bananas, or plantains, says Humboldt, will support fifty.

The, cassava bread, jatropha manihot, the or , as it is known in the West India islands, is peculiar to the tierra caliente, but is more used on the western than eastern coasts of Mexico. A fine flour is made of the root, which in its raw state is poisonous. When deprived of all its juice by pressure, the residuum is a farinacious pulp, forming a pleasant food whose consumption, however, is not likely to increase in Mexico.

The cultivation of is not extensive. On the east coast between Alvarado and Guasacualco, and on the western between Jamiltepic and Huatulco, it has been grown in some few spots; but it does not appear to please the popular taste sufficiently, ever to enter largely into the list of national productions either for export or home consumption.

The was one of the banned and forbidden products of the Spanish colonies; but notwithstanding the inhibitions, we have already cited in this section, the tree was planted in various portions of the country both previous to the revolution, and during intervals of repose whilst the war of liberation was waging. The archbishop of Mexico was one of the first to cultivate a plantation of it at Tacubaya near the capital. At the beginning of this century, Joaquin Gutierrez de los Rios, commenced the culture at his hacienda de Sarabia, within the district of Salamanca, in Guanajuato, and succeeded admirably; but his trees were destroyed entirely during the revolution. At present some large plantations have been made, in the same state, at several haciendas, and, especially, at that of Mendoza, where 30,000 olive trees were set out, in 1849.

The, like the olive, was a forbidden fruit to Mexican agriculturists under the Spanish dominion, except in a region about Parras whose extreme northern remoteness from the capital perhaps exempted it from the general inhibition. Elsewhere, throughout the colony, vineyards were ordered to be destroyed wherever they