Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/113

Rh are grown extensively. Chilé pepper is cultivated on numerous large tracts of land. The wild potato of small size appears in some districts, but its nurture has been generally neglected. Onions (xonacatl), artichokes (tagarninas), water-cresses, gourds, sorrel, and haricots (ayacotli), are all cultivated in great quantities. Among productions of the soil of another kind, must be mentioned the agave, or maguey, upon the culture of which great care and much time are bestowed, as it furnishes the national drinks. Cotton also must be named, though it is not grown to a tithe of the extent which the country would admit. A species of wild flax is to be found in abundance at the bases of many mountains, yet no attempts are made to rear it. Tobacco, though cultivated in considerable quantities in a few districts, does not occupy a portion of the attention which might profitably be devoted to it. Sugar plantations are to be encountered in some fine neighbourhoods; they are most numerous on the plains in the direction of the Pacific. Bees'-wax is produced in great quantities, and its consumption, in the shape of church candles, is enormous. But the most flourishing production of the country,