Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/583

Rh Mexico or any other country, the highest progress and prosperity can never be attained. To pass laws forbidding land to be held except in small parcels would doubtless be an arbitrary measure, which would meet with the violent opposition of a wealthy class, and probably be found impracticable. It would be a step too far in advance of the other highly respected civilizations, such as England and the United States, to meet with general favor. But the Mexican government can and ought to discourage future sales or grants of land to any but occupants, and such conveyances should be limited to the transferrence of ground in small lots.

One cannot rightly judge of Mexico by seeing certain localities only. Never was a country so widely different in different parts, not only in its construction by nature, but in its development by man. With so many varieties of soil and climate, local specialties are broadly marked. In one district the cultivation of corn predominates, in another that of pulque, and in another barley, which in the cities is the principal fodder for horses and cattle. The crops in certain localities are more dependent upon irrigation than the rainfall, the wet season on the table-lands north of the 20th parallel being of short duration, and periods of drought not unfrequently occurring. Want of water, indeed, is the great drawback to agriculture on the table-lands; so fertile is the soil that production would be almost unlimited if systems of irrigation were established by means of artesian wells, and by damming up the barrancas of the sierras where suitably situated for the storage of water-supplies.