an extent, as to prevent the Mexican land owners from being undersold in their own market by their northern neighbours, unless they are protected, (as it is called) by prohibitory laws. They have indeed, in the extraordinary fertility of their soil, and the cheapness of labour, some compensation for the difficulties of communication, with which they have to contend; but the amount of produce on good land, however much it may exceed that of Europe, is not much superior to that of the most productive districts in the United States.
Humboldt gives, twenty five bushels for one, as the average annual produce of the whole of the corn lands of Mexico. In France, the maximum of the ratio of increase would be as ten to one: in England, perhaps twelve.
In the poorer parts of Germany, from five to six bushels for one is reckoned a very good crop. In Kentucky, twenty-two is, I believe, the maximum; but in Mexico, where irrigation is properly conducted, and the year good, from sixty to eighty bushels for one, have frequently been produced. At Chŏlūlă the common ratio of increase is from thirty to forty for one. At Zĕlāyă, Sălămāncă, Lĕōn, and Sāntĭāgŏ, from thirty-five to forty, communibus annis. In the valley of Mexico it varies from eighteen to twenty; and even as far North as New California, from fifteen to seventeen is not at all uncommon. Humboldt affirms too, that the proportion between the seed and the produce, would
