Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/599

Rh been established; botanical gardens have been laid out, and exhibitions held of the floral, horticultural, and agricultural productions of the country. Nevertheless, the mode of cultivation in many districts remains in the backward condition which prevailed a century ago. The causes of this tardy progress have been, the facilities for raising on a small patch of land all the wants of a household, the decadence of the manufacturing industries, and the absence of means of cheap transportation. This last is the principal one. The cultivator would not extend his labor when he knew that the result would be that he could not convey his surplus crop to a market. Improvidence and shiftlessness followed, and the inhabitants in many parts of Mexico have frequently suffered great misery from failure of the crops through drought or floods, the devastations caused by hurricanes, and the ravages committed by locusts. Another cause is a chronic disinclination to change. The introduction of steam and other improved machinery is regarded by the lower orders as an innovation fatal to the means of support. But Mexico's prospective rise in the scale of nations will elevate her working-classes, and vast tracts of land will be put under cultivation, affording well-paid employment to a rapidly increasing population.

The value of agricultural real estate and lands, exclusive of forests and uncultivated wilds, as supplied by Busto in 1880, was estimated at $583,000,000.0 What it will amount to at the end of the next generation it would be vain to conjecture.