Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/63

 M K X 1 C. 33 known it lower than two dollars the fanega, (of ISOlbs.) ; but it sometimes rises to three and a half, as was the case a short time before my departure from Mexico, (April 1827,) in con- sequence of the total failure of the crops, after the unusually dry season of 1826. In the Interior, from three to four reals, (of eight to the dollar,) is the ordinary price ; but in 1826, it rose to two dollars, and two and a half, to the great distress of the Indian population. Maize may be cultivated to almost any extent in Mexico. but a great deal of the land which was devoted to this pur- pose before the Revolution, has been neglected since 1810, in consequence of the suspension of mining operations, which regulate the demand everywhere, except in the immediate vicinity of the great bishopricks, and the capital. Some idea of the consumption in the raining districts may be formed by the fact, that, in Guanajuato alone, fourteen thousand mules were in daily use, all of which were fed on maize, straw, and zacate, (the maize-stalk dried,) of which most animals are fond. There was a similar demand, in a more or less extended circle, around each of the other mining- towns, so that the agricultural prosperity of the country depended, in a great measure, upon the prosperity of the mines ; while the labours of the miner, on the other hand, were never carried on with such facility, or to such an extent, as when a succession of favourable years, by placing an abundant supply of agricultural produce, at moderate prices, within his reach, enabled him to augment his establish- ment in such a manner as to reduce even the poorer ores with profit. A great rise in the price of maize, affected the mining interests almost as nmch as a rise in the price of quicksilver ; and, were a table drawn up of the years most productive in mineral riches, they would be found to tally exactly with those which are recorded as most abundant in the agricultural annals of the country. But upon this sub- ject I shall have occasion to enlarge in a subsequent part of VOL. I. D