Holbrook argus. (Holbrook, Ariz.) 1900-1913, 1901-11-23
MEXICO THIRD IN CORN.
Its Yield of the Cereal Exceeded ONLY
by United States and Austria.

Its Yield of the Cereal Exceeded Only
by United States and Austria.
Mexico ranks third among the corn
growing nations of the world, its total
crop being exceeded only by that Of the
United States and of Austria Hungary,
says the Crop Reporter, issued by the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture. From one point of view, the Mex
lean crop is Of even more Importance
than that of any contrasting country
on the globe. In 1898 it amounted to
III, 347 600 bushels and it presented the
remarkable feature of being a little
over twelve times larger than the
wheat crop of that country for the
same year, says the Texas Stock Jour
nal. Mexico is of more relative import
anec as compared with its wheat crop
to the agriculture Of Mexico than is the
corn crop of the United States. Our
own corn crop in 1898 was only about
threefold the production of wheat and
this ratio is seldom greatly exceeded.
The climate and soil of Mexico below
the twenty-eighth degree Of north lat
production of corn as those of any
country in the world. Below that de-
gree of latitude the four seasons
merge into two, the rainy and the dry;
and the comparatively heavy produc-
ton of corn there, in spite Of the most
primitive methods of farming, is large
ly due to the fact that in many places
two successive crops can be raised on
the same soil in the course of the year.
The yield is prodigious and is given by
some authorities as multiplying from
200 to 400 fold
The states of principal production are
generally those that border upon or lie
near the coast, either on the Pacific or
gulf side. The State of Jalisco on the
Pacific Coast, the first producing
State of the republic, with a total area
in square miles somewhat larger than
the State of New York, produced in
1898 crop Of 16,S12,000 bushels. East
of, and contiguous to, Jalisco, the
State Of Guanajuato, with an area q
little larger than that of Ohio, produced
the second crop in Importance, or TO-
| $4,000 bushels. Michoacan, a Pacific
| Coast State joining Jalisco on the
south, produced 100000 bushels. Or
! the opposite coast the State of Vera
Cruz, extending in a narrow belt along
| the gulf, with an area little over hall
that Of Jalisco, produced 12,266,00t
/ bushels, the second crop in Importance
in the republic. Other states of uni
formly heavy production are Sinaloa
Hidalgo, Pueblo, Oaxaca, the State Of
Mexico and Yucatan.
The crop statistics of Mexico show
that in that part of the country which
lies between the twenty-eighth and the
twenty-ffth degrees of north latitud,
the crop varies considerably in guam
tity from one year to another; this il
suggestive of occasional climatic condi
lions and lack of moisture unfavorabl
to the culture of corn. But south of tn
twenty-ffth parallel, especially nea
the coast, the production Is general,
uniform or, on an ascending scale, in
dicating climatic conditions for corr
culture of an unusual degree of perfec
ton.
One of the important facts concern
ing corn culture in Mexico is that iron
it is derived the staple article Of foo,
among the Mexican people. Upon tn
tortilla, a kind of corn cake, the mas
of the people depend largely for subsist
ence