The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-12-03
WHAT MEXICO PRODUCES.
Many Plants of Great Importance IL
Commerce.


Commerce.
Sir Henry Dering has sent to the
foreign office some practical notes on
the cultivation in Mexico of the ''yuca,"
or cassava plant, pineapple, ginger,
"chicle," or chewing gum sarsaparilla,
ialap, licorce, canaigre and ramie.
These, together with the plants dealt
with in a previous report, form the
principal products which may be
profitably cultivated, together or
singly, either on a large or small scale,
by persons possessed of some small cap
ital and DESTROYS of obtaining satisfac-
tory returns therefrom by investing in
land in that republic. THE fault gener-
ally committed by Mexican planters"
says Sir Henry, sis the combining their
attention to one kind of cultivation on
their land. If several different crops
were taken off alternately, as in a sys-
tenn of rotation, or grown in different
parts of the land where soil and climate
prove suitable, the planter would find
himself in even better financial posi-
ton than he generally does now There
is scarcely a spot on any estate, whether
large or small, in Mexico that is not ca
pable of giving remunerative returns
from some plant or another" In adj
ditiOn 10 government lands there are
innumerable tracts held throughout
the country by private individuals
which it is probable could be purchased
at comparatively low prices, inasmuch
as they can never be utilized by their
present owners. And contracts might
be made with the government by which
immigrants settling on such lands
might receive the same exceptional
treatment accorded to those settling on
government lands.
Sir Henry Dering states the yuca is to
the peon in the tropical section of the
republic what potatoes are to the poor
and working people of Ireland. Yucca
is a native of the country and its rise
dates back before the conquest by Her.
nan Cortes, and it has always formed
a portion of the food of the ancient and
present MeXicans, especially those liv-
ing in Vera Cruz, OaXaca, Chiapas,
Tabasco and Yucatan. The returns of
yucca cultivation are immense; the yield
VI an t1lV NOll ldlIiS IllOIt uulIlllNt IIldI-
ter than six times the same area under
wheat. The writer planted last Janu-
airy in Allan, Pueblo, two rows $50 feet
long, and was told by an old cultivator
that there was enough food in that plot
to feed more than 100 people for six
months. The Toltecs and AZtecs knew
how to cultivate the pineapple. and when
the Spaniards conquered Mexico they
found the fruit in the markets of the
towns on their way from Vera Cruz to
the great Tenochtitlan. From time i'm
memorial the pineapple has been cul-
tivated in Amatlan, a town two leagues
south of Cordoba, from where the an
cient MeXicans used to get their main
supply Now it is grown in tropical
Hidalgo, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Tabasco,
Chiapas, OaXaca, Morelos, Guerrero.
Milchoacan, Colima, Jalisco and Topic
Besides the fruit being very delicious
and wholesome, Sir Henry Dering says
fine wine and vinegar are made of the
| juice. The leaf furnishes a fiber of eX-
| traordinary strength and tineness,
making it even more valuable than the
fruit. The fiber is made into ropes,
cables, binding twine thread. mats,
bagging, hammocks and paper.
a pineapple rope 49, inches thick
can support nearly three tons. \ tex
| tile fabric as fine and beautiful as silk =
made of this fiber, too. 1t is believed
that the fine cloths of various colors
used by the upper classes among the
Aztecs was made of the pineapple fiber.
| The mOdcrnS MeXicans do not manu-
facture it much now, except in the
isthmus, where the Zapotec Indians
still make a cloth from it and from wild
silk. One cause of its disuse is the slow
and wasteful manner in which it is sep
| arated. Ginger is found growing wild
| in various parts of Mexico. The returns
| from an acre of land vary considerably.
but when cultivated under favorable
conditions the crop ought to be 1000
pounds and upward. a man having a
ten-acre patch ought to have an annual
| income of $1,000 to 81, 900. Though for
years canaigre has been used by the
| MeXicans, both for medical and tanning
| purposes, it has but recently attracted
| the attention of the outside commercial
world as a valuable source of fannie
| acid. The result of Investigations has
been to create a demand for canaigre
in the tanning business of European
countries and more recently in the
leather-making centers of the United
States. The only supply now to be OBJ
tanned of this plant is from the wild
growth along the rivers and valleys OF
western Texas, New Mexico and this
republic, and Sir II. Dering says a fear
has been felt for some time that with
the constantly increasing demand the
present sources of supply must soon be-
come Xhausted-London Standard.
Danger in the Caster.
In connection with the fitting of a
table, especially for the everyday use of
the family, there is one source of dam
ger which should be considered and
avoided. Nothing which can by any
possibility corrode should under any
circumstances be used for holding con-
diments or other articles which are Ii
able to remain unchanged from meal to
meal Solid silver is practically safe,