So that, upon the high lands of Zăcătēcăs, and San Luis Pŏtŏsī, where there are few reservoirs to supply the want of the periodical rains, the farmer does not reckon upon more than one very good year in ten: but although the ratio of increase in the intervening years does not exceed forty or fifty bushels for one sown, it is usually sufficient to supply the demand, and to prevent any dearth of provisions from being felt amongst the lower classes, to whom wheaten bread is a luxury almost unknown.
The great majority of the inhabitants of New Spain subsists almost entirely upon maize flour, made up into a sort of unfermented, doughy, but nutritious bread, called ărēpă, or more generally tŏrtīllăs, which they eat rather warmed through, than baked, with a pingent sauce, composed of chile, (a sort of capsicum) and tomates.
The price of maize varies with the year, and the distance from the principal markets. In the capital, I have seldom known it lower than two dollars the fanega, (of 150lbs.); but it sometimes rises to three and a half, as was the case a short time before my departure from Mexico, (April 1827,) in consequence of the total failure of the crops, after the unusually dry season of 1826. In the interior, from three to four reals, (of eight to the dollar,) is the ordinary price; but in 1826, it rose to two dollars, and two and a half; to the great distress of the Indian population.
