The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-01
THE LAND OF THE CACTUS
A Neat Little Agricultural Holding
of Six Hundred Square Miles.
Seventy-Five Bushels of Corn to the Acre,
and Two Crops "A Year-Opportuni-
ties for Capitalists.
Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal

| Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal
| MONTERREY Aug. 25-Much has been said
and written about the extent and possibili-
ties of these Me1 lean haciendas, but proba-
bly, few people realize the enormous extent
of some of them. In the central and north
ern States of Mexico are found estates large
enough to hide many princpality of Eu-
rope or States like our own little ''Rhody."
A million and half of acres-of this fruit
full soil which bears everything grown in
| both temperate and tropical zones, and pro-
duces two crops years. a neat little farm
by no means 'to be despised," as the i'm
mortal Sairy Camp said of ''vittals." The
famous Solado ranch, for example, contains
| over six hundred square miles, 1t lies partly
in the States of Nuevo Leon Coahuila,
Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, on the high
way to the City of Mexico and on the line
of the new Mexican Central railway. 1t is
at an average elevation OF 1000 feet. on the
famous central table-lands of the republic.
Its boundaries extend more than hundred
miles from north tosouth Chains of noun
tains, how rich in mineral wealth no man
knows, traverse it, and fourishing farms and
mining towns are met at frequent intervals.
The fact is, all Mexico is owned by a COM
paratively few individuals, which is the chief
reason why there is such wide
distinction OF caste and so little
| progress in agriculture and manufactures.
Generally the proprietor of these vast estates
enjoys life abroad or in the city of Mexico,
and his poems living on the land take about
as much interest in tine cultivation thereof
as would negro slaves without an overseer.
Besides, great possessions are death to am
! bition. 1t is wise clause in the litany, "In
all time of our prosperity, good Lord deliver
usP The average New England farmer,
whose few rocky acres are rich only in stones
| and blackberry briars and who acquires
chronic limp from hillside labor, really pro-
duces more in his one crop year, than the
| proprietor of a thousand acres in this land
of eternal sunshine. But then climatic in
| fuences must be taken into account, as well
as the wide difference in temperament be-
tween the happy-go-lucky Latin and econom-
ical Anglo-Saxon races. This tropical eli
mate, with its cloudess skies and balmy
airs, would induce even Mrs. Stoves ener-
getic Aunt Ophelia to enjoy the dulce far
niente of life, and cease saying, How shift
| less'
AS to the productiveness of this soil, it is
difficult to get reliable information down to
actual figures. If you ask a Mexican how
much his field or his orchard yields, he in
variably shrugs his shoulders like an italian
organ-grinder, and says, in the language of
| the country, "Quien sabe?" (who knows) or
| still more piously, Gas God Wills" l have
| ascertained that with the Mexican cultiva-
ton, which means merely tickling the sur
| face of the soil and turning on water now
and then-all the way from twenty-five to
| forty bushels of corn to the acre are con-
| sidered satisfactory yield The few persons
who have tried our improved methods of
cultivation, affirm that they readily produce
from fifty to seventy-five bushels per acre
each crop planting the first in February,
and the second in July or August. Corn
sells for cents pound in Monterey. The
principal crops in this State are corn,
barley, beans and suga r-cane, and
they tell marvellous stories about
the growth of the latter. Certain it is
that Jacks historic bean stalk could scarcely
rival it in height and riding along the water
courses anywhere in the suburbs one passes
through thickets of giant wild cane, waving
far above the carriage top.
gentleman who owns what he calls
quinte pequeno Qittle garden) of one hundred
acres in the suburbs of Montery, tells me
that he bought It last year for 500 per acre,
and that the first years yield of only ten
acres of it in sugar-cane realized $780, Judge
Golindos, a resident of this city, and one
of the federal judges of Mexico, informs me
that his sugar ranch was seeded twenty-three
years ago. and that the cane has ripened
year afteryear more than nine feet in height,
and there has never been any falling off in
the yield. But there are drawbacks to this
tiattering picture.
IRRIGATION,
which is absolutely essential, is expensive at
best, and the difficulty hereabouts now is
that all the water has been taken out of the
rivers and transferred to the irrigation bitches
This water question-which in Utah the
Mornons have regulated to tho nicely of
clock-work-is here one of those things which
mo fellow can find out" II you inquire of
farmer as to his irrigation privileges he
will tell you that he has ''nine days water"
thirteen days water" or twenty davs'
water as the case may be, which means that
he has the privilege of turning water on his
land once in nine, thirteen or twenty days,
which privilege has cost him a good round
sum. 1t must be borne in mind that rain,
like many other things in this tropical
climate, is not to be depended upon, and
when it comes-at long and unez pected in
tervals-it falls, according to promise, 'alike
upon the just and the unjust" generally in
torrents that flood the fields, and do far more
damage than good. 1t is but reasonable logic
to conclude that if this land is valuable only
when irrigated, and if all the available water
is consumed on land now under cultivation,
then the country must look to improved
methods to increase its cultivated area. Ar
tasian yells haua heen tried 70,