Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/67

MEXICO. 37 deed, 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 pro- ductive 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 irri- gation is properly conducted, and the year good, from sixty to eighty bushels for one, have frequently been produced. At Cholrda, the common ratio of increase is from thirty to forty for one. At Zelaya, Salamanca, Leon, and Santiago, 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 afiirms too, that the proportion between the seed and the produce, would appear still greater, were it not for the quantity of grain unnecessarily employed as seed, a great part of which is choked, and lost : yet, notwithstanding this prodigious productiveness, wheat in Mexico is half as dear again as at Paris, and considerably exceeds the price it now bears in the English market. It is difficult to institute any exact comparison between two countries, where the measures in use are entirely dissimi- lar ; but the following statement may give some idea of the relative value of corn in England, and New Spain. The Carga, or mule load, which is the usual mode of sell- ing the more bulky agricultural produce, weighs twelve Ar- robas, or three hundred pounds, which, taking the English bushel at sixty pounds, are equivalent to five bushels Eng-