Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/651

Rh in the capital, and 6,000 in the village of Veta Grande, in its immediate vicinity. The rest are distributed throughout the eleven "partidos," or districts, into which the territory is divided; viz. Zacatecas, Aguas Calientes, Sombrerete, Tlāltĕnāngŏ, Villanueva, Frĕsnīllŏ, Jĕrēz, Măzăpĭl, Nīēvĕs, Pinos, and Jŭchĭlīpă.

Many of the towns, as Sombrerete, Fresnillo, Jerez, Pinos, and Nŏchĭstlān, have a population varying from fourteen to eighteen thousand souls; and in the highly cultivated district of Aguas Calientes alone, (South of the Capital,) 35,000 inhabitants are registered. But North and East of Zacatecas, the country is divided into vast breeding estates, like Sierra Hermosa, the Mezquite, and others, which we visited on the road to Sombrerete. There, the population is thinly scattered over an immense tract of country, and a few spots of cultivation are lost amidst the deserts that surround them. Yet the total agricultural produce of the State is very considerable. By the statistical tables annexed to the Report of 1827, it appears that 18,084 fanegas of maize are sown annually, and 670,956 reaped; 19,933 cargas of wheat are raised from 1,396 cargas sown; 24,346 fanegas of frijol (haricots,) from 2,071 fanegas sown. The crop of Chile is usually about twelve thousand arrobas. By this statement, which is compiled from reports transmitted by the different Ayuntamientos, it appears that the increase of maize is as thirty-seven to one,