No, it is affected by a variety of causes, and is regulated more by elevation than by latitude. Where are the warm regions of Mexico? The port of Acapulco in 18° north, and the vallies of Peregrino and Papagallo, are among the hottest and most unhealthy places in the world. Where are the temperate parts? On the declivity of the table-land of Mexico, at an elevation of from 4,000 to 5,000 feet, there is a pepetually mild spring-temperature, never varying more than by four or five degrees of Fahrerheit, so that the extremes of heat and cold are equally unknown. What is that region denominated by the natives? The tierras templadas, or the " temperate regions." Name the cities thus situated. The cities of Xalappa, Tasco, and Chilpansingo, are celebrated for their salubrity, and the abundance of fruit trees in their vicinity. What is the mean elevation to which the clouds ascend from the sea there? 4,264 feet. What effect has this on the climate of these regions? On the table-land of Anahuac, or elevated plains of Mexico. What is its extent ? Upwards of 176,000 square miles, within the Tropic of Cancer. What is the altitude and mean temperature of these plains? Upwards of 7,217 feet above the sea, the mean temperature is 62°, of Fahrenheit, or about equal to that of Rome; that of Sydney being 64-5. ° What is the climate of the capital of Mexico. The winters are usually as mild as at Naples. In the coldest season, the mean heat of the day is from 55 to 60° Fahrenheit, in summer the thermometer never rises above 75° in the shade. What is the effect of temperature as observed in Mexico? That the climate, productions, aspect, and even the physiognomy of Mexico, are solely modified by the degree of elevation or depression of the soil. At what elevation, are sugar, cotton, cacao, and indigo, produced abundantly? Only at an elevation of from 1,968 to 2,624 feet. At what elevation is European wheat produced? European wheat occupies a zone on the declivity of the mountains, commencing at 4,624, and ascending to 9,842 feet of elevation. At what height does the banana cease to bear fruit? At above 5,084 feet of elevation. At what elevation do Mexican oats grow? Only at elevations between 2,624 and 9,842 feet of elevation. What is the climate of New Mexico, which is that portion within the temperate zone? Climates differ essentially there. German winters are said to succeed Italian summers; the air being much colder than in the same latitudes of the United States. What is the cause? New Mexico is a long and not very wide valleybounded on all sides, except the south, by ranges of snow-capt mountains. What is the climate of the California Peninsula? The climate is mild, the sky constantly serene and cloudless. What is the nature of the soil? It is sandy and badly watered. What is the character of New California in this re spect? There the air is obscured by frequent fogs, which invigorate vegetation and fertilize the soil, which is covered with a black and spongy earth, and the climate is much more mild than in the same latitudes on the eastern coast of America. What is the climate of the elevated interior plains? The immense extent of these plains produces a reverberation of the solar rays, so that the heat is found to be much greater in summer than on the Andes of Quito, while the cold is singularly great in winter. What is the nature of the soil and vegetable productions of Mexico? It is said that if the soil were watered by more frequent rains, no country cultivated by human industry in the two hemispheres would surpass it, but that however fertile the soil, the want of water diminishes the abundance of the harvests. What are the principal vegetable productions of Mexico which serve for home consumption? Among these are the banana, the manioc, maize, European grain, potatoes, oca, the igname, the batates, the cacomito, the tomatl, the chimalatl, rice, and finally all the herbs and fruit-trees of Europe. What vegetable productions of Mexico furnish raw materials for manufactures and commerce? These comprehend the following plants, namely, the sugar cane, cotton, flax and hemp, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, sarsaparilla, jalap, tobacco and indigo. What is the nature and use of the banana in Mexico? The banana is for all the inhabitants of the tropics, what the cereal gramina, such as wheat, barley, and oats, are for Western Asia and Europe, and what the numerous varieties of rice are for the countries beyond the Indus, especially Bengal and China. Is the banana equally valuable in the islands of the Pacific? Wherever the mean heat of the two continents, and the islands dispersed in the immense Pacific, exceeds 75° of Fahrenheit, the fruit of the banana becomes one of the most important objects of cultivation for human subsistence. Are there many varieties? Under the name bananas, a vast number of plants, essentially differing in the form of their fruits, are cultivated in the equinoxial regions, and even as far as 33 and 34° north latitude. What kinds are cultivated in Mexico? Three species, namely, the true platano or arton, the camburi, and the dominico. What is the size of the platano arton? It sometimes exceeds 11 inches, and is often from seven to eight inches long. Does the cultivation of the bananas require much attention? No, the suckers once planted, nature does the rest, -in ten or eleven months the fruit comes to maturity; the old stalks must then be cut away with the exception of the leading sprout, which bears fruit about three months after the mother plant; and if the earth about the stem is loosened once or twice in the year, a plantation may be kept in full produce without any further exertion. What is the difference between the produce of the banana, and that of the céreal gramina of Europe? The mean produce of the banana is to that of wheat as 133 to 1, and to that of potato-root as 44 to 1. Calculating according to the mass of vegetable substance necessary to support a full grown person, what proportion would the banana bear to wheat? The same space of ground cultivated with the banana will support fifty persons, which if cultivated with wheat would only support two persons, or one to twenty-five. What would be the proportion of potatoes? A Scotch acre of potatoes, according to Sir John Sinclair, will support nine persons, which is in the proportion of nine to two of wheat, and of nine to fifty of the banana. What is the principal food of the people of Mexico? Maize this modifies by its price all other kinds of grain. Is the amount of the produce of maize unequal? Of all the gramina sown by man, none is so unequal as maize. What is the range of variation in the produce of maize? According to the changes of humidity and the mean temperature of the year, maize varies in the same field from 40 to 200, and 300 to 1. The price of maize varies from 2s. 2d. to 22s., the fanega of 100lbs. Does maize yield more than one crop in the year in Mexico? In warm and very humid regions, maize will yield from two to three harvests annually, but one only is generally taken. What are the chief varieties of maize? There is one which ripens in two months after it has been sown-there is another kind in the province of Nicaragua which is ripe in 30 or 40 days after being planted, but these early varieties, where vegetation is so rapid, have less farina, and are not so nutritious as the others. How is maize eaten? Either boiled or roasted: when beaten, maize yields a nutritious bread called arepa. How is the meal used by the Mexicans? It is employed like gruel in the soups they call atolli, in which they mix sugar, honey, and sometimes even ground potatoes. Many fermented liquors are extracted from maize by the Mexicans. How long will maize keep in these regions? Maize will keep three years in Mexico, in the temperate climates, and in the valley of Toluca, and all the high levels, where the mean temperature is at 57°, of Fahrenheit, for five or six years. Is the annual produce sufficient for the population? In good years, New Spain produces much more maize than it can consume. Where is the surplus consumed? Chiefly in the West India Islands, where sugar, coffee, and cotton, engage the attention of the planters. Which of the European species of grain holds the first rank in Mexico? Wheat. By whom was it introduced? By a negro slave of Cortez, who found three or four grains of it among the rice that was served to maintain the Spanish army. What regions of Mexico are most favourable for the growth of wheat? The temperate region, especially where the mean temperature of the year does not exceed from 64° to 66° of Fahrenheit, seems most favourable to the cultition of wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye. What elevation is necessary for the cultivation of these grains in the equinoxial parts of Mexico? |