of the plant will probably become extensively developed. In the United States frosts necessitate the annual labor and expense of forming new plantations. In the tierra caliente of Mexico, the cotton plant is perennial, and only requires being kept clear of weeds and other vegetation.
Sericulture has made little progress during the present century. About the period from 1830 to 1850 some attention was given to this industry. Treatises were published from time to time,[1] and societies formed for the promotion of it, and establishments were erected in different parts of the country,[2] and by the year 1845 some little progress was perceptible. At the present time, only a small quantity of silk fabrics is manufactured out of the native article, the bulk of them being imported from foreign countries.[3]
The vanilla plant is a parasitic evergreen creeper, indigenous to Vera Cruz, Tabasco, and Oajaca. Its aromatic flavor and perfume were known to the Az-
- ↑ Mex., Col. Mem. Instruct., nos. i., vi., and vii.
- ↑ Particularly in Michoacan and Guanajuato. Pap. Var., xi. nos. 3 and 4; Bustamante, Diario Mex., MS., xliv. 3; Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, iii. 518-19; Soc. Mex. Geog., iii. 285.
- ↑ Mexico in certain parts seems to be exceptionally adapted for the production of silk. The mulberry-tree thrives in the country to perfection, and there are indigenous trees, the ailantus and palma christi, which have been considered superior to it as nurturers of the worm. Jimenez, in Id., 2a Ep., ii. 504-9. Ramon Martinez, in a letter to Bustamante dated Alvarado, August 24, 1830, called attention to an extremely prolific silk-worn which matures and propagates upon the encino prieto, rejecting the mulberry-tree in preference to it. Bustamante, Voz de la Patria, no. 24, 2-5. During the last few years, much attention has been attracted to this industry throughout Mexico, and the government has done much to encourage it. Between 1870 and 1875, sericulture was introduced with success into the state of Puebla, and in 1882 a concession was granted to José Fulcheri to enable him to organize a company for the purpose of growing the mulberry-tree and erecting twenty establishments in different parts of the country, the government engaging to grant a subsidy of $12,000 annually for the term of ten years to each establishment that should be founded. In the following year a favorable concession was also granted to Juan Fenelon for the production of silk in Oajaca, and a society was established in Monterey, for the same purpose, in Nuevo Leon. In 1885 the governor of Guerrero secured 100,000 mulberry plants from Italy, in order to introduce silk culture into that state. Consult Puebla, Var. Ley., no. 75; Diario, Ofic., 5 Jun., 1875; 5 Feb. 1878; 28 Mayo, 21 Ag., 1883; 28, 29, 30 En., 1 Feb., et seq., 1884; Estad. de Sin., 28 Ab., 1883, p. 1-2; Anderson, Mex. Stand-point, 92–3; Mex. Financ., May 2 and June 13, 1885, pp. 70-1, 165-6.
