The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1886-08-26

ClOp VI liiethAJ SSAASA SAtAtoS
is neat little property, "by no means to
be dispiged." as the immortal Sairy would
say.
TIE REAL Pi:O3UCTIvENESS.
AS to the real product;veness Of this soil,
it is difficult to get information III reliable
figures Inquire of Il Mexican how much
his field or orchard yields, and the invarl-
able auswer-accompanicd by an inimita-
BILE sllrug of the Shoulders-is "Quien
sabe?" (W'ho knows;l or "Asi Dios
uuirere! Gas God wilisD l have ascer-
taiied that with Mexican cultivation
which medns merely tickling the surface
of the soil and turnin- On water now and
then-from thirty to forty-Hre bushels'ot
corn to the acre is considered satisfact-
DRY return. The few who have tried i'm
proved methods of cultivation affirm that
seventy-tive bushels of corn twice 4 year,
per acre, may easily be produced. planting
the first crop in February and the second
in July Or August. In this country the
standard price of corn is 2 cents per
pound.
/, Probably the finest soil in the republic is
found on those fertile plains lying be-
tween Leon and San Juan del Rio, where
one fanega (about three bushels) of seed
will yield, on moderate average, not less
than $50 fanegas Of cora. In several Of the
Mexican substantially Guerrero, Jalisco,
Oajaca and Tobasco-three crops Of corn
are regularly produced in single year,
called respectively reiego, temporal and
toralmile. Wheat grows to good adVan-
tage in all but five of the Mexican states,
and two crops in twelve months Is the
rule.
Within the last five years many plowsand
other agricultural implements have been
brought to Mexico; but upon the vast ma-
iority of farms nothing to this day has
ever been employed for turning up the soil
but great forked sticks, or clumsy, three
cornered wooden concerns-precisely like
those used in Egypt 1000 years ago, II
pictures of the latter are correct. The
process of threshing, also, is almost-siti-
yersally conducted in the primitive ftsh-
ion of King David's day, or by the st1ll
more simple method of throwing the grain
into an enclosure and driving flock OF
sheep to and fro upon it.
THE WATER QUESTION.
That perplcxing water question-whlch,
in Utah, for example, the Mormons have
regulated to the nicely of clockwork-ls
here among the mysteries that mo fellow
can find out" If you ask farmer about his
irrigating privileges, he will tell you that
he has "ninc days water" "thirteen days
water" or "twcnty days water" as the
case may be-meaning that he has right
to turn water on his land once i'll every
nine, thirteen or twenty days-a privilege
which you may be sure has cost him
good round sum. In thickly populated
sections the greatest difficulty now seems
to be. that all the available water, has al
ready been transferred from the rivers to
the irrigating bitches.
It is but reasonable logic to conclude
that if Mexican land is valuable only
when irrigated, and if most of the avail
able water is now in use In the, al
ready cultivated area, the country must
look to some improved method for
lcssening its enormous stretches OF waste
lands and barren deserts; and, as the na-
tivcs have not advanced agriculturally q
single step in the course Of three centur-
les it clearly rests with their more enter
prising cousins, the Yankees, to come
down here and devise the methods. 1t
has been proved again and again, that all
these desert sands and arid reaches of cue
tus and cl.aparral may be made to "blos-
SOM as the rose" by merely turning water
upon thcln ut regular intervals, and gov
ernment lands are everywhere for sale,
at the rate of from 80 cents to cents for
an American acre.
Artcsian wells have not heen tried to
any extent for purposes of irrigation; but
that water is everywhere abundant,
though sometimes far below the surface,
is shown by the numerous very deep wells,
of purcst and clearest water, which are
found all over McXico.-Fannie B. Ward
in Boston Transcript.
A Famous Tree ut Eicksburg.