furnish useful and ornamental timber, dye-woods, gums, and resins. Broad plains and rich valleys afford pasturage for immense herds of cattle and horses, and on the mountain slopes flocks of sheep might feed by the hundred thousand.[1]
Nevertheless, agriculture in many parts of Mexico is still in its infancy. The peasant, content with obtaining at cost of little labor the mere necessities of his simple life, has in some places not yet cast aside the rude implements of his forefathers; but the time is not far distant when the Mexican farmer will adopt the improved agricultural implements of foreign countries.[2]
Although the development of this industry is greatly retarded by the absence of facilities of transport, the greatest drawback to its progress is probably the ownership of land in vast tracts by individuals. It is a monstrous injustice that one person should be allowed to possess a dozen haciendas of a dozen square leagues each in extent; that one man should withhold from his fellow-men enough of this earth's surface to support a nation.[3] But this is not all. The laboring peon on these large estates, as well as in the mines, as I have elsewhere shown, is little better than a slave. As long as this system prevails, whether in
- ↑ The principal productions of the three regions are as follows: In the hot region, cotton, vanilla, indigo, dye-woods, cacao, maize, rice, hemp, caoutchouc, sarsaparilla, chile peppers, anise-seed, cassia, oranges, plantains, bananas, and other tropical fruits. In the temperate region, coffee, sugar, tobacco, maize, cotton, frijoles, pease, cereals, vegetables, and fruits of northern latitudes thrive, the forests abounding in camphor-trees, oaks, and cypresses. The cereals, the maguey, and the hardier vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, beans, and turnips, are cultivated in the cold region. Here, too, are found deciduous trees, and conifers, namely, the pine, spruce, fir, and cedar; also all the different species of cactus.
- ↑ American iron ploughs are already in general use, but are provided with one handle, 'only to suit the long-timed habit of the Mexican tiller.' Groso, dex. Phot., MS., 4-5.
- ↑ The unequal distribution of land, and the grasping and oppressive procedure of estate-owners, was deprecated early in the century. Bustamante, Med. Pacific, MS., 97-108. A writer in 1821 thus describes them: Ó por error de entendimiento. . . . ó por maliguidad del corazon, son unos tigres en dos piés, son unas sanguijuelas insaciables del sudor de los pobres, polilla del estailo peor que los usureros, causa de la miseria, despoblacion y casi de todos los males del Reyno.' Pensador, Tapatio, 1-2, in Pap. Var., 159, no. 3.
