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 Señor 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 213⁄10 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.
