Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-19

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tween the haprs,g 9-lucky Latin race, and
the thrifty, energetic Anglo-Saxon.
AS TO THE ACTUAL PRoDucrIvEHEss
OF this soil, it is diff ult to get reliable.in-
formation down to figures Inquire OF q
Mexican how much his field or orchard
yields, and the invariahle answer, accom-
panied By shrug of the shoulders worthy
a French dancing master, is: Qtien sabeS
f'who knowp9 or Asi dos q,eireTe Gas
God WHISKY | have ascertained that with
Mexican cultivatien-which means merely
tickling the surface of the soil and turning
on water now and then-from thirty to
fOrty-fiye bushels of corn TO the acre IS con-
sidered a satisfactory return The few,
however, who have tried our improved
methods of cultivation, assert that seventy
five bushels of corn per acre is not an I'M
common yield, planting the first crop in
February and the second in July or Au-
gust The standard price of corn in this
country IS about two cents per pound
Probably the finest SOIL in The republic Is
found lei those fertile plains lging between
Leon and San Juan del Rio, where one
fd9'eg2 tabout three bushels) of seed is said
TO produce on a moderate acreage not less
than
FOUR HUNDRED ann FIFTY FANEGAs OF CORN
In several OF the Mexican Substantially
Guerrero, Jaiisco, Oaxaca and Tobasco-
three crops of corn are regularly produced
in single year. called respectively rfego,
temporal and tcqdEBlifc Wheat grows to
good advantage in all but five of the Mexi-
can States, and two crops year is the rule.
1T does exceptionally well at as high an
elevation as the capital-viz: $500 feet
an altitude which in the United States
wonld be region of perpetual winter:
Within the last five years many plows
and other agricultural implements have
been brought to Mexico but to this day
nothing has ever been employed for turn
ing up the soil upon the majority Of farms
| but three-cornered wooden concerns or
great forked Subsequently, like those
used in Egypt centuries ago, if pictures OF
the latter are correct. The process of
thrashing is almost universally conducted
here III the primitive fashion of King
David's day, according TO the Bible descrip-
ton, or by the still more simple method OF
throwing the grain into an Enclosure and
driving flock of sheep to and from upon It.
In this tropical country, which has but
two seasons-the wet and the dry-the
rains of heaven, like the majority of the
natives are not to be depended upon for
much actual service. To be sure they fall,
according to promise, alike upon the just
and the unjust" but do not fall at all dur
ing half the year. and then deluge the
fields with torrents that generally do far
more damage than good.
IRRIGATION,
Which, at best, is troublesome and expen-
sive, is absolutely necessary everywhere Ill
Mexico, and the canals and bitches are as
| essential for carrying Oft surplus rains at
certain seasons as for supplying water at
others. The water question, which IN
Utah, for example, the M0rmons have reg
ulated to the nicely Of clockwork, is here
among these mysteries that mo fellow can
find out" If you ask farmer about his
irTigating privileges. he will tell you that
he has = nine days water, thirteen days
water or twenty days water, as the
case may be, meaning that he has the right
to tHrn water on his land once in every
nine, thirteen or twenty days. and you may
be sure that the privilege has cost him good
round sum. In all the thickly- populated
sections the greatest difficulty now seems
to be that the available water has already
been transferred from the rivers to the irri-
eating bitches. 1t is but reasonable logic
to conclude that if Mexican land Is valu-
able only when irrigated. and If the
available water is mostly in use on
| lands already under cultivation, the
country must look to some improved
method for increasing its cultivated area
and lessening its enormous stretches OF
! barren wastes, and as the natives have not
advanced, agriculturally, a single step in
| the course of three centuries, il clearly
| rests with their more
| ESrERPRIsING COUSINS, THE YANKEES,
To come down here and devise the meth
! DDS When the Spaniards first reached the
valley of Mexico 1855 years ago), they were
astonished to find in use all over the
Aztec empire and apparently no new
| thing to those semi barbarians- sys,
| tenn of irrigation superior to that which
the Moors had just succeeded, after much
labor, in establishing on the Iberian PENN
sula. To this day the same system is prac'
| ticed everyw here in Mexico, and hundreds
of the ancient aceqtttas, or irrigating bitches
are still in use, no improvements ever hav'
ing been attempted. These could scarcely
be improved upon in the vicinity of lakes
and rivers, but there are sections where
there are neither, or where the shallow
streams not Immediately fed from The
mountains, are dry during half the year. II
those regions the SYSTEM Oi tdIlhS, ultu Has
so long been used in British India. would
no doubt be good thing. were water com
panies organized for the purpose and thu
huge ravines or bdrrGReds that intersect thu
sierras damned up for the storage of water
which is altogether too abundant during
the annual time of rain. Many OF the Older
haciendas have an approach to
THE BRIrIsH-INDIA SYSTEM.
In their .jag,uys. large square, artificial
| basins for collecting rain. For some tim,
after the wet season is over these jdgurys re
main deep, clear lakes. gradually drying
out and leaving an inconvenient and otter
unhealthy mud hole before the rains reap
pear to ill them again. Artesian well:
! have not been tried to any extent
for irrigating purposes, but that water
! is plenty, though sometimes far below the
surface, is proved by numerous very deer
wells of the purest and clearest water to be
found all over Mexico.
| It has been proved again and again that
all these desert sands and arid reaches o.
cactus and chaparral may be made tc
blossom as the rose by merely turning
water on them at regular intervals. Gov.
eminent lands are everywhere for sale, in
tracts to suit purchasers, at the rate Of from
three TO thirty cents per an American acre
FANNIE Il. WARD.