IT is to be regretted that no very accurate census of Mexico has ever been made, and that since the year 1831, no effort has been persistently pursued by the government to enumerate its citizens and collect such statistical data as may always be easily gathered by persons engaged in this important task. The irregularity of the central or executive power; the instability of all governments since the establishment of independence; the intestine quarrels, not only in the capital but in the departments or states, have all contributed to, and even partially compelled, this neglect of a great national duty.

In the absence, therefore, of official statistics and reports, we are obliged to rely upon approximate results, founded on the partial enumerations of preceding years and the calculations of experienced statesmen and writers. In the following table we shall exhibit all the most trustworthy statements existing either in Mexican works or in the writings of reliable authors:—

Variances between the different Calculations and Censuses of the Population of Mexico.

In the year 1838, Señor Jose Gomez de la Cortina,—ex-Conde de la Cortina, one of the most enlightened citizens of Mexico, published a carefully prepared essay upon the population of Mexico, in the 1st No. of the Bulletin of the National Institute of Geography and Statistics of the Mexican Republic; and his opinion was that the number of inhabitants greatly exceeded any of the above amounts. By observing the increase of population in different periods of five years, he considered it satisfactorily proved by the Tablas Geographico-politicas, of 1803, that the augmentation, in favorable years, was at the rate 1⁴/₅ per cent. By applying this ratio to the census of the Tablas, which gave in 1803, 5,764,731 inhabitants, we shall have an increase of about 105,000 yearly; and if we calculate at this rate of augmentation for the 46 intervening years, we find in 1850 an increase of 4,830,000, or a grand total of 10,594,731.

In the year 1842, however, when an estimate was made of a basis of population, upon which to found a call for a Congress to form a new constitution under the plan of Tacubaya, in 23 Departments or States and Territories, exclusive of Texas, the government calculated that there were 7,015,509 inhabitants.

Table of Population in 1842.

This population may be relatively classed among races and castes as follows:

As Mexico, since the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, possesses 798,402 square miles, this will give nine inhabitants and a fraction, to the square mile.

From these calculations we deduce some very important facts as to the physical and intellectual condition of Mexico, which are very significant in the illustration of history. It appears that the total number of pure whites in the republic, is, in all probability, not more than 1,100,000; while the Indians, Negroes, Zambos, Mulattoes, Meztizos, and all the mixed bloods, amount to 6,526,831. During our residence in Mexico we ascertained from reliable authority that among the Indians and negroes but two per cent. could read and write, while among the whites, and castes, but twenty per cent. were estimated to enjoy those benefits. Thus we have:

or, only seven hundred and forty thousand, two hundred and ninety-eight individuals, either completely educated or instructed in the simplest rudiments, out of a population of more than seven and a half millions. These are startling statistics in regard to the citizens of a nation whose government is theoretically and practically based on the culture of the people or their capacity for self-rule; and, when considered in connexion with the historical details presented in the first volume of this work, they will show that the distracted condition of Mexico is a mingled cause and consequence of her intellectual darkness.[7]

One of the most interesting investigations in Mexican statistics would be to compare the number of births in the regions called the tierras calientes—or hot country, with those in the tierras frias, or cold region. From calculations made by Cortina in 1838, from data derived from nine departments, he concluded that the excess of births in the warm regions or tierras calientes was 1⁵/₁₀ per 100, over the tierras frias.

He gives the following actual statistics in evidence:

1st. Result of the general census of the department of Zacatecas since the year 1824, and progressive increase of population therein before the separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes:—

RESULTS.

Of not less importance are the investigations upon the excess observed in one sex over the other. Before the appearance of Humboldt's work it was the opinion that in the New World nature did not follow the same law of equilibrium in the difference between the sexes as in Europe, and especially that in the tropical regions, the number of females exceeded greatly that of the males. Baron Humboldt combated this notion and demonstrated its error. He presents in his political essay upon New Spain a table of the population of eight Intendencies, in which it appears that out of 1,352,835 inhabitants there were 687,935 males and 664,900 females, which establishes a relative proportion of 100 to 95. In the Tablas Geografico politicas, already cited, it is expressly said that in New Spain, in the Intendencies of the tierras frias, or cold regions, as well as in those of the tierras calientes, or hot regions, the population inclines to a preponderance of males. Don Fernando Navarro y Noriega gives in his tables of population 71,642 more males than females; and, in the account of the taxes made by order of the government in 1781, it appears that the excess is still in favor of males, though in a much less proportion than assigned by Baron Humboldt. We present the following table, prepared in Mexico for the purpose of throwing more light on the subject:

Table of Population in various Departments in different years—Relative exceses—Births and deaths.

It may, generally, be said that the excess of one sex over the other is in inverse proportion to the latitude; or, in other words, that, as we advance from the equator, the excess of females over males decreases, until the reverse occurs as the degrees of latitude augment. We must, however, except from this rule the department or state of Tamaulipas, in which the constancy with which nature sustains the excess of males, is somewhat extraordinary. The most ancient document possessed upon the subject, relative to this State, is of the year 1793, and from this we discover that, from that year until 1807, 124 more males than females were born therein, and that 30 more females than men died during the period—

CHAPTER IV.

Agriculture—Agricultural Products

The curving shores of Mexico along the gulf and interior highlands gather and hem in an immense body of vapor, which is carried on by the trade winds and condensed against the cold and lofty inland mountain peaks which rise above the limit of perpetual congealation. This occurs during the dry season whilst the sun is at the south. But when the power of that luminary increases as it advances northward, and until it has long turned back again on its southern course, these vapors are dissolved by the hot intertropical air and descend, almost daily, in fertilizing showers. The

formation of rain clouds and the precipitation of their moisture usually begin on the coast near Vera Cruz, and the course of the rain storms advances from east to west, inundating the tierra caliente along the eastern coast fifteen or twenty days before the table lands are moistened. There have been seasons in which it did not begin to rain until a month or two after the usual period. In 1802 such an event occurred; and, again in 1826, the vapors did not begin to form and descend until the end of July, in consequence of which the corn was totally lost. If the rains are withheld beyond the middle of June, all the cereal products are either destroyed or suffer greatly from the drought. The power of the sun, by that time, becomes so great that the ground is scorched and the air filled with clouds of dust which seem to gather and concentrate the blazing rays, until the falling particles surround or fall upon the traveller over the plains as if he were passing through a shower of heated cinders. The heat, and the masses of burning dust, are almost overpowering not only to vegetable but almost to animal life.

The agricultural prosperity of Mexico, accordingly, depends either largely upon the relative duration of these two seasons, or on the power of the landed proprietors to supply the loss of water from the clouds, by IRRIGATION derived from the rivers or slender streams that meander through the interior of Mexico. Seldom, indeed, is the Mexican planter or farmer obliged to complain of too much moisture. Between the parallels of 24° and 30° the rains are of shorter duration, and the intervals between the showers greater. But, fortunately, beyond the 26th°, a copious supply of snow, during the winter, compensates for the want of rain at the regular season. Irrigation, therefore, is universally resorted to, wherever there is an adequate supply of water, and large sums are expended by the possessors of the principal estates, in the construction of acequias, or canals; presas, dams or reservoirs; and norias, or water wheels, by which the refreshing element is forced up and distributed over the thirsty fields.

Such is a brief review and summary of the soil and seasons of Mexico. The average annual yield of the corn lands throughout Mexico is estimated at twenty-five bushels for one. In portions of the country, during favorable years, and where the irrigation is good, from sixty to eighty bushels for one have been produced. At Cholula, near Puebla, the increase is stated at forty for one, while at Zelaya, Salamanca, and Santiago, further north, from thirty-five to forty are produced on an average of years. In the valley of Mexico, proper, the yield is from eighteen to twenty; and even in the old possessions of California, it is set down at from fifteen to seventeen. The best writers consider, however, that notwithstanding the extraordinary fertility of their soil, the Mexicans do not produce in ratio of quantity, superior crops to the best agricultural portions of the United States.

The agricultural advantages of New Spain were early pointed out by some of the colonial authorities to the Spanish Home government; but the very fact of their existence seems to have alarmed the Court and to have originated those restrictive laws which, as we have shown in our historical narrative, so long ensured the dependence of the colony. The King, the Cabinets and the Council of the Indies united in believing that if the internal resources of the nation were developed, fostered, and placed upon a firm basis, the political as well as the industrial independence of America might naturally ensue; and accordingly, these authorities resolved at once to adopt the narrow system of restrictions which retained the essentially productive power in the hands of Spain. Zumarraga, the first bishop and second archbishop of Mexico, addressed urgent letters to the Emperor Charles V., exhibiting the agricultural value of the country, and solicited laborers, plants, seeds, cattle, and all the usual means for the development of Mexican resources. The Bandos published in the year 1524, by Cortéz, which are yet preserved in the Hospital of Jesus, in the capital, contain wise decrees for the encouragement of industry, and prove that the military life of the Conqueror had not made him forgetful of his early agricultural labors in the West Indies when he first emigrated from Spain. But the policy of Spain was constantly declared to be adverse to this wholesome and reasonable encouragement. When Luis de Velasco, the second of that name who was viceroy in New Spain, passed thence to the viceroyalty of Peru, he was instructed by the King and Council of the Indies to be careful not to "foster manufactures, nor to allow the cultivation of vines, inasmuch as there was already ample provision of these things and the commerce of the kingdom should not be impaired by such colonial products." At the same epoch, his successor in Mexico, the Conde de Monterey, was also required to be equally vigilant and restrictive in the region confided to his government. These orders, however, were not always faithfully complied with throughout such extended and sparse jurisdictions as those of Mexico or Peru; and accordingly in 1610, through the Marques de Montesclaros, who replaced the Conde de Monterey in those colonies, the royal prohibitions were repeated, with the addition of the following emphatic language:—"Inasmuch as you understand perfectly, how much the observance of these rules is necessary for the dependence of the colonies upon the parent state, we charge and command you to see to their faithful execution." Wine and oil, two of the most important products of Spain, and two of the absolute necessaries of a Spaniard's life, wherever he may happen to live, where thus protected from competition, and formed the means of preserving the colonial vassalage. Nothing was left to the New World, therefore, either to manufacture extensively, or to cultivate, except some of the coarser cotton cloths, for ordinary garments, or a sufficiency of the cerealia for domestic consumption. It was necessary to preserve an equilibrium or a reasonable ratio between the supply of food and the production of the mines; and thus the common agricultural and horticultural home markets for the necessaries of life were alone left unencumbered for the Mexicans.

We are not aware that Spain encouraged, more than was absolutely demanded for political ends, a system of internal improvement by national roads, with lateral branches thridding and binding together all parts of the country. Highways were opened and horses and mules imported. But these were only suitable for the internal transportation of the country; and, even to the present day, the whole of Mexico is traversed by miserable roads, whose channels are often cut up into deep ravines by the unceasing attrition of caravans. The stubborn but useful mules, moving about the country in large bodies, under the guidance of Arrieros, follow each other in single file over the same path for centuries, and there is scarcely a highway in Mexico that is not worn by their footsteps to the depth of several feet. Bad roads, royal restrictions, and the want of transportation except by mules, all combined to impede rural industry, waste the people's time, destroy internal intercourse, and to force the consumption of agricultural products either upon the spot where they grew or in its immediate neighborhood. The independence of Mexico since 1824, has of course relieved the nation from the foreign restrictions upon her commerce; but the agricultural habits of the people were not to be changed by a constitution or industrial laws. Improved roads and improved modes of transportation have scarcely been attempted by the modern republicans. Constant revolutions have destroyed concert of action among the people in the different states through which the new highways would pass, at the same time that they have impaired the unity of system or policy upon which the national government might have acted for the general improvement of internal communication or development of agricultural resources. Some of the best citizens have written and labored in behalf of national industry in all its usual or possible manifestations; but we fear that many years of profound peace must be ensured to Mexico before the farmer will be able to share in the blessings of commerce by means of exportation.

The great CORN LANDS of Mexico are those of Puebla;—the Bajio, which comprises portions of the state of Guanajuato, Queretero, Valladolid, Zacatecas, and Guadalajara, in the vicinity of the Rio Santiago;—the valley of Mexico, in the state of Mexico;—the valley of Poañas, in Durango;—and it is calculated that the cleared ground in these districts is capable of producing cerealia for a population five times greater than that of Mexico at present. Corn, in the states of Mexico and Puebla is worth two dollars the fanega of one hundred and fifty pounds; in Oajaca about one dollar for the same quantity. Its value is every where irregular, and no general tariff of prices can be assigned to Mexican breadstuffs until some great national market shall be established or Mexico becomes an exporting country. Neighborhoods, at present establish prices.

Maize or CORN, is a gift from the New World to the Old, and is unquestionably the favorite food of the great mass of the inhabitants of our continent. In Mexico, every household is furnished with it abundantly, and all classes use it habitually.

Although this plant is a native of America it is never found growing wild in the republic. Single stocks may be occasionally seen in remote or uninhabited districts, but they are rarely met, and, in all likelihood, have been sown by the flocks of robber birds who ravage the Mexican milpas or corn fields during the ripening season.

The best cultivated varieties in Mexico, are:

1st. Maiz de padus; with small ears, of eight rows, and the most unimportant of all the varieties raised in the country.

2d. Maiz manchado, or chiniesco; a productive species with white, yellow and red grains;—sometimes also entirely blue, in which case, it is called pinto.

3d. Maiz blanco; a very productive kind, yielding a fine sweet meal.

4th. Maiz amarillo; this is sub-divided into:—1st, maiz amarillo grueso, which is very generally cultivated and rarely yields less than two or three ears each, with from three to six hundred kernels or grains. 2d, maiz amarillo pequeno, is smaller and less stout; but in a fruitful soil its yield weighs from ten to fifteen hundred weight, more than the grueso.

5th. Maiz cuarentino; or quarentine corn; better known in Mexico under the name of maiz tremes, or, olote colorado, which ripens quickly and may be planted in the coldest parts of Mexico.

6th. Maiz tardio, or, de riego; the most productive of all varieties, and that which is cultivated around the city of Mexico, and in many moist regions. It sometimes yields five hundred per cent. on the quantity planted.

Maize succeeds best in Mexico in moist and warm climates; but it has the great advantage over the other cereal grains that it may be as successfully cultivated in this country in the tierras calientes, as in the tierras frias. Its highest limits here are from two to eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, and consequently the time required for ripening is different at different elevations. It varies from seven months to six weeks.

The diseases which sometimes affect or destroy this vegetable in Mexico, as well the animals that assail it, may be summed up as follows:

1. La requitte, a wasting blight which affects the maize where it is sown upon poor soil and is subjected to damp, cold weather soon after planting.

2. El carbon—a vegetable fungus growth, resembling carbon or coal, which appears in the ears and destroys them. This abortion in the fruit is believed to be produced by an insect.

3. El hanjo—a species of uredo, which forms itself in the ear and ruins it. The disease is generally known as los Cuervos.

The animals and birds that attack corn are:

1. A sort of mole—talpa—which undermines the fields and destroy the young plants.

2. The larvæ of melolontha, which not only seize the roots, but often destroy the stalks and ears.

3. Flocks of pilfering birds, with which the corn-fields are covered, if they are not carefully watched during the approach of harvest. Neither day nor night are the ears safe from the attacks of these pilferers; and, in order to protect the crop, watchmen are placed on high stages, overlooking the acres, whence the traveller constantly hears their shouts, during the day, or the crack of the warning whips, during the night.

Maize may be planted in Mexico at different periods of the year, especially in those districts in which, for nine months, there is always sufficient moisture. In the tierra caliente, the rancheros, cultivate, in this grain, the best spots lying near their dwellings. In the cooler districts they have two kinds of culture—one by irrigation, and another upon a dry soil. The latter mode is subdivided, by the Mexicans, into three kinds—the humido, aventureso, and temporal.

In the first mode of cultivation the Maiz tardio, is sown, and it is usually found to be the most productive. A seeding made in a soil capable of preserving the winter's moisture and the humidity of the first spring rains, is called siembra de aventureso. In the temporal, a quickly ripening species of corn is planted—such as the maiz cuarentino—which may be cultivated either before or during the rainy season, from May to November.

It is rare that the common Mexican ranchero is sufficiently provident to select the soil for his corn crop, with due care; and accordingly we find that maize is often planted in the midst of fields abounding in stiff ungenial clay.

The present corn production of Mexico is not accurately determined, but it is estimated that it is the chief subsistence of at least five millions of persons, whilst it supplies the only fodder for all kinds of domestic animals. Its average product must therefore be not far from at least twenty millions of bushels.

Corn is a varied article of diet among all classes. The ancient Mexicans made a species of sugar from the juice of the stalk—while the modern Mexicans brew from it a fermented drink, called pulque de maiz, or omayo. The extremely saccharine pith of this plant is often devoured raw by the Indians, and it has been also frequently used in the manufacture of brandy. The unripe ears are boiled or baked, and sold in the towns and villages to the poorer classes, forming their sole subsistence; while the leaves and stems afford a capital food for beasts. Sometimes these portions of the plant are devoted to architectural purposes, and a neat rustic hut is built of the cornlike stalks, interwoven and thatched with their broad and graceful leaves.

A kind of beer, called chicha, is sometimes prepared from the kernels of ripened maize, and is found, by natives and strangers, to be an agreeable as well as wholesome beverage. When the meal is boiled in water, and mixed with some farinacious roots, a favorite and exceedingly grateful gruel, known as atolé, is formed by the process. In the tierra caliente, the kernels are often roasted and ground into pinole;—but the most ordinary consumption of this precious vegetable is in the tortillas, for which Mexico is so celebrated, and in the preparation of which it is estimated that more than two hundred thousand females, in the republic, spend four or five hours of every day. In order to make tortillas, the grains of corn are soaked in water, to which a small quantity of lime has been added, until they are relieved of their shells. The pure and softened pulp is then laid on a flat stone or metate, one end of which is slightly raised from the ground. A Mexican woman kneels in the rear of the metate, and with another round stone, rolls, macerates, and amalgamates the crushed corn until it is formed into a rich succulent paste. Hard by, a thin metallic griddle is set over ignited coals, which is constantly supplied by another female, who pats the dough into extremely thin and delicate cakes. They are eaten hot from the griddle, but, even when carefully prepared, are deemed insipid and unsavory by foreigners.

Nor are these the only purposes to which this delightful plant and its offal are devoted by the Mexicans. They have discovered, within a few years, that a capital paper, for ordinary purposes, can be made of its leaves; and they have long ago used them as wrappers for the cigarritos, which no loyal native fails to indulge in hourly.

Man and beast—dwellings, food, paper, architecture, and cigars—are thus, in Mexico, all indebted to Indian corn as one of the greatest elements of comfort, sustenance, utility and luxury.

The extraordinarily productive Banana is to the inhabitants of the tierra caliente what maize is to those who dwell in the loftier and cooler regions of the table land. An acre of wheat will supply the wants of three men, but an acre of Bananas, or plantains, says Humboldt, will support fifty.

The Mainoc, cassava bread, jatropha manihot, the Juca or Yuca, as it is known in the West India islands, is peculiar to the tierra caliente, but is more used on the western than eastern coasts of Mexico. A fine flour is made of the root, which in its raw state is poisonous. When deprived of all its juice by pressure, the residuum is a farinacious pulp, forming a pleasant food whose consumption, however, is not likely to increase in Mexico.

The cultivation of Rice is not extensive. On the east coast between Alvarado and Guasacualco, and on the western between Jamiltepic and Huatulco, it has been grown in some few spots; but it does not appear to please the popular taste sufficiently, ever to enter largely into the list of national productions either for export or home consumption.

The Olive was one of the banned and forbidden products of the Spanish colonies; but notwithstanding the inhibitions we have already cited in this section, the tree was planted in various portions of the country both previous to the revolution, and during intervals of repose whilst the war of liberation was waging. The archbishop of Mexico was one of the first to cultivate a plantation of it at Tacubaya near the capital. At the beginning of this century, Joaquin Gutierrez de los Rios, commenced the culture at his hacienda de Sarabia, within the district of Salamanca, in Guanajuato, and succeeded admirably; but his trees were destroyed entirely during the revolution. At present some large plantations have been made, in the same state, at several haciendas, and, especially, at that of Mendoza, where 30,000 olive trees were set out, in 1849.

The Vine, like the olive, was a forbidden fruit to Mexican agriculturists under the Spanish dominion, except in a region about Parras whose extreme northern remoteness from the capital perhaps exempted it from the general inhibition. Elsewhere, throughout the colony, vineyards were ordered to be destroyed wherever they

were attempted; and this rule seems to have been enforced very generally, except, at Tehuacan, in the state of Puebla and at some points in the Misteca in Oajaca. The value of Spanish wines imported annually before Mexican independence, reached the ample sum of $700,000; and as the French and Germans have, since the opening of the ports, availed themselves of the benefit for their own trade, it is very questionable whether the vine will ever become an article of extreme produce as long as the present race occupies the soil of Mexico. In 1843, the vine was still chiefly cultivated at Tehuacan and at Parras. Plantations had been made in the neighborhood of Zelaya, but the actual production of the region about Parras may be estimated from the returns of the interior custom house of that district through which 616 barrels of native brandy weighing 2,693 arrobas of 25 lbs. each and 323 barrels of wine of 1,035 arrobas, together with 204 tierces of raisins, had passed during the previous year.

Chile PEPPERS or capsicum, are extensively cultivated on the table lands. This pungent vegetable is not only used upon the table or in the food of all classes as an occasional agreeable stimulant, but has become one of the regular necessaries of life. It is either ground and mixed with the various sauces and stews that always form part of a Spanish meal, or is stuffed with pleasant condiments and eaten as other products of the garden. No Mexican will pass a day without a dish of the genuine article, and even foreigners who wince under its excoriation upon their arrival in the country, soon become as fond of it as the natives.

Mexico produces nearly all the garden stuffs which are either natural to or have been introduced into the United States, but either in consequence of the climate, or of a careless mode of cultivation, they do not generally equal our own in quality or flavor. The tomato is very fine, lucious and plentiful; and, next to corn, Chili and frijoles, is probably most extensively consumed.

The frijol, a rich, nutritive, brown bean, altogether different, however, from the ordinary Garrabanzos, is universally found on the tables of Mexican gentlefolks and in the humble platters of the Indians or Mestizos. Various kinds of this valuable esculent are raised in the republic; but the dark bean of Vera Cruz is always sought as a delicacy in the houses of the upper classes throughout the republic. It is both wholesome and nourishing. Mixed with the stimulating gravy formed of chile, and eaten with a tortilla or corn cake, it soon becomes a necessary of life to a stranger who resides for any length of time in Mexico. Some of our country men have become so fond of the food, that they have brought the bean with them upon their return to the United States, and now supply their table with it instead of hominy. From the frijol, the tortilla, and the Chile pepper we pass to the great national liquor, which requires generally longer time to win the favor of foreigners.

The Maguey—Metl, or Agave Americana, is a species of Ananas, or Aloe, from which is made octli or pulque, the favorite beverage of the lower and middle classes of Mexicans, especially in the central parts of the table land.

This plant grows wild in almost every part of Mexico, yet the people do not extract a liquid from it, except in the neighborhood of Puebla and the capital, where its consumption is enormous. The principal plantations are in the States of Puebla, Mexico, Guanajuato, and a small portion of Valladolid. The districts most celebrated for the excellence of their liquor, are in the vicinity of Cholula and the Plains of Apam. So great was the consumption of this favorite national drink, that the small municipal tax upon it, at the gates of the cities, amounted, before the revolution, to $600,000—and, in the year 1793, to upwards of $800,000.

Pulque is so little known in Europe, or in the United States, that some account of the process, by which it is made, may be acceptable.