Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/78

46 M EX ICO. COLONIAL PRODUCR. I come now to those productions, which are termed in Europe " Colonial produce," as being, usually, the growth of Colonies founded by the nations of the Old World in the warmer regions of the New, and supplying the parent States with those articles of luxury, or necessity, which the climate of Europe is not calculated to produce. In Mexico they comprehend sugar, coffee, tobacco, indigo, chocolate, and cotton, besides vanilla and cochineal, of which nature seems to have given to New Spain the almost exclu- sive possession. I shall begin with sugar, as being the only article of general consumption in Europe, the exportation of which, before the Revolution, was carried to any extent. SUGAR. Humboldt has endeavoured to fix the maximum of height at which the cane may be cultivated in Mexico ; and to his scientific disquisitions I must refer such of my readers as are inclined to view this part of the subject with interest. It is my own belief, that no general theory can be established ; for, as I have stated in the first section, a thousand local causes, totally independent of elevation, may, and do, pro- duce the degree of heat required to bring the cane to per- fection. It is admitted, however, that the juice is more, or less, abundant, and rich in saccharine matter, in proportion to the height at which it is grown ; and that the produce of a plantation in a valley on the Table-land, would not be ecual, either in quality, or quantity, to that of a plantation of similar extent upon the coast. Elevation has, therefore, some peculiar effects upon vege- tation, even where external appearances are the same ; but to what extent, and in what way its influence is exercised, it remains for futvn*e naturalists to determine. In general, it