Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/580

550 soil is very considerable, and cotton, wheat, barley, rye, Indian corn, indeed, every production, both of more temperate climates and of Europe, is produced in equal abundance and perfection. The prairies, in their natural state, afford a constant supply of excellent pasture. The banks of the San Marcos were selected by the Spaniards as excelling in fertility, for the establishment of a colony, projected in 1804; and those of the Colorado and Nueces are also spoken of in very high terms by all who have visited them. In the North-western-most part of the mountainous district of San Saba, the ground is in general rocky and sterile. Towards the east there are also extensive hills, covered with fir-trees. This land is poor, but would evidently produce wine, since the vine grows there spontaneously, and in great abundance. There are three sorts, two of which are small and sour, but the grape of the other, although the skin is thick, is large and sweet. The valley of the Red River is stated, by the numerous North American settlers, to contain some millions of acres, exceeding in fertility even the celebrated Missisippi bottom, the valley of the Roanoke, or, indeed, any lands to be found in the United States. They have styled it the "Garden of the West," and the cotton which it already produces, far excels the Alabama, Tennessee, or, indeed, any, excepting that of the Sea Islands. I here ought to remark, that growing cotton possesses one great advantage. Children, so young as to be unable to engage in any other occupation, can be employed in picking cotton, and at the age of nine or ten, probably do fully as much as grown up persons. Every species of grain thrives admirably in this fertile tract, and it is thought that the ribbed sugar-cane, lately introduced from the Phillippines, and which arrives at maturity a month sooner than the common sort, would answer well there. In the valleys is found the red, or pencil cedar of the largest growth, also a great quantity of the Bois d'arc, of which the Indians make their bows. It is of a beautiful yellow colour, susceptible of the highest polish, not heavy, but exceedingly tough and elastic. In addition to these, trees of all the varieties which flourish in the United States are to be met with; white, red, dwarf, or scrub, and post oaks; (of the former of which staves are made; while the latter is so strong, hard.