Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/169

Rh on the backs of donkeys or of men; that the roads in Mexico, as a general thing, are hardly deserving of the name; and that, even with good, ordinary roads and good teams and vehicles at command, a ton of corn worth twenty-five dollars at a market is worth nothing at a distance of a hundred and twenty miles remembering these things, one can readily accept the statement that, in many sections of Mexico, no effort is made to produce anything in the way of crop products, except what has been found necessary to meet the simplest wants of the producers; and for the reason that experience has proved to them that it was not possible to obtain anything in exchange for their surplus.

The plow generally in use in Mexico is a crooked stick, with sometimes an iron point. American plows are beginning to be introduced to a considerable extent; but the Mexican peasant on coming into possession of one generally cuts off one handle, in order to make it conform, as far as he can, to his ancient implement. A bundle of brush constitutes the harrow. "Their hoes are heavy grub-hoes, and grass is cut by digging it up with such a hoe."

Nothing exhibits more strikingly the present poverty of Mexico, and the present inefficiency of her agriculture—notwithstanding the natural advantages claimed for this industry, and that it is undoubtedly the principal occupation and support of her people than a brief comparison of some of the results which have been recently reported for Mexico and the United States. According to a report published in 1883, by M. Bodo von Glaimer, an accepted Mexican authority, and other data, gathered and published by Senor Cubas, United States Consul-General Sutton, and the Agricultural Bureau at Washington, the value of all the leading agricultural products of Mexico—corn, wheat, sugar, tobacco, beans, coffee, and the like—for the year 1882 was estimated at about $175,000,000. But the present estimated value of the oat-crop alone of the United States is $180,000,000. Again, corn constitutes the staple food of the Mexican people, and its product for 1882 was estimated at about 213,000,000 bushels; which, with an assumed population of ten million, would give a product of 21 bushels per capita. But for the United States for the year 1885 the product of corn was about thirty-three bushels per capita.

Although much of the soil of Mexico is undoubtedly well adapted to the cultivation of wheat, it is as yet a crop little grown or used—wheat-bread being eaten only by the well-to-do classes. Its product