Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/69

M E X 1 C O. 39 people, must decide ; but the contents of this chapter will prove that a very great change must take place in the inte- rior of the country, before any idea of exportation can rea- sonably be entertained, if, indeed, it be found practicable at last, of which, as I have stated in the first chapter, I enter" tain great doubts. THE BANANA. Platano-Musa. The Banana is to the inhabitants of the Tierra caliente^ what maize is to those of the Table-land ; it furnishes them with the principal article of their daily food, and has the merit likewise of producing more nutritious substance in a less space, and with less trouble, than any other plant. Humboldt calculates that one acre of ground planted with the Platano Arton is sufficient to support fifty men ; while an acre of wheat, commiinibus amiis, would barely supply the wants of three. Its cultivation requires but little attention : the suckers once planted, nature does the rest. In ten or eleven months the fruit comes to maturity ; the old stalks must then be cut away, with the exception of the leading sprout, (pimpoUo,) which bears fruit about three months after the mother plant ; and if the earth about the stems be loosened once or twice in the year, a Platanar may be kept in full produce without any farther exertion. The fruit is used either fresh, or sliced, and partially dried in the sun, when it is called Platano Pasado. It requires a mean tempe- rature of 24° of the Centigrade, (19 of Reaumur, or 75 of Fahrenheit,) to bring it to perfection. CASSAVA BREAD. Pain de Manioc. This bread, which is prepared from the root of the Yuca amarga, (jatropha manihot,) is more in use on the Western, than the Eastern coasts of Mexico ; on both sides it is pecu-