Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/79

 M EX ICO. 74 is thought that the sugar-cane requires a mean temperature of 19 or 20 degrees of the Centigrade thermometer, (68 or 69 of Fahrenheit). Mexico possesses upon her Eastern and Western line of coast, a vast extent of country in which this temperature may be found ; but as exportation was only per- mitted, before 1810, through the port of Veracruz, while the great body of consumers was concentrated on the Table- land, but little attention was paid to those situations, which were not within reach of one of these markets. It is to the constancy of the demand in the Interior, that we must attribute the choice of the valleys of Cuernavaca and Cuautla Amilpas, (within twenty leagues of the Capital,) as the seat of the principal sugar plantations of the country ; and the fact, that these plantations have maintained them- selves during the whole of the revolutionary war, while those of Orizava and Cordova, on the slope of the Cordillera, which depended more upon the foreign market, fell into de- cay, as soon as the progress of the Insurgents put an end to their freedom of communication with the coast. In the course of time, the increasing intercourse with foreign countries will, probably, create a change in this respect, and render the value of a sugar estate upon the coast at least equal to that of one in the Interior. The number of vessels that now return in ballast from Vera- cruz insures a ready market, and although the rate of wages upon the coast is higher, the superior fertility of the soil will more than compensate this disadvantage. Humboldt gives 2800 kilogrammes, or 224 Arrobas (of 251bs.) of raw sugar, as the produce of a hectare of the best land in the province of Veracruz, in situations favour- able to irrigation. That of Cuba does not exceed 1400 kilogrammes ; so that the balance is as two to one in favour of Veracruz. The immense amount of the capitals withdrawn from the country since 1822, and the distrust still inspired by a re-