From these considerations I prefer the method which is founded on partial estimations. The quantity of wheat reaped in 1802 in the intendancy of Guadalaxara was, according to the statistical table communicated by the intendant of this province to the chamber of commerce at Vera Cruz, 43,000 cargas, or 645,000 kilogrammes. Now the population of Guadalaxara is nearly a ninth of the total population. In this part of Mexico there is a great number of Indians who eat maize bread, and there are few populous cities inhabited by whites in easy circumstances. According to the analogy of this partial harvest, the general harvest of New Spain would only be 59 millions of kilogrammes. But if we add 36 millions of kilogrammes on account of the beneficial influence of the consumption of the cities* of * Chap. VIII, Statistical Analysis, vol. II. p. 71 and 153. I formed from accurate materials in my possession the following table, in which the consumption in meal is compared with the number of inhabitants, As to the consumption of Paris, see the curious researches of M. Peuchet in his Statistique elementaire de la France, Mexico, Puebla, and Guanaxuato, on the cultivation of the circumjacent districts, and on account of the provincias internas, of which the inhabitants live almost exclusively on wheaten bread, we find for the whole kingdom nearly ten millions of myriagrammes*, or more than 800,000 setiers. This estimate gives too small a result, because in the above calculation we have not suitably separated the northern provinces from the equinoxial region. This separation is dictated, however, by the very nature of the population. In the provincias internas the greatest number of the inhabitants are either white or reputed white; and they are calculated at 400,000. Supposing their consumption of wheat equal to that of the city of Puebla, we shall find six millions of myriagrammes. We may admit, calculating according to the annual harvest of the intendancy of Guadalaxara, that in the southern regions of New Spain, of which the mixed population is estimated at 5,437,000, the consumption of wheat in the country amounts to 5,800,000 myriagrammes. If we add 3,600,000 myriagrammes for the con sumption of the great interior cities of Mexico, Puebla, and Guanaxuato, we shall find the total p. 372. The common people at the Havanah cat a great deal of cassava and arepa. The annual consumption of the Havanah is, on a mean term of four years, 427,018 arrobas or 58,899, barriles (Papel periodico de la Havana, 1801, n. 12, p. 46). ⚫ Upwards of 220 millions of pounds avoird. Trans. consumption of New Spain above 15 millions of myriagrammes*, or 1,280,000 setiers of 240 pounds. We might be astonished to find from this calculation that the provincias internas, of which the population is only a fourteenth of the whole population, consume more than the third of the harvest of Mexico, But we must not forget that in these northern provinces the number of whites is to the total mass of Spaniards (Creoles, and Europeans), as one to threef, and that it is principally this cast by which the wheaten flour is consumed. Of the 800,000 whites who inhabit the equinoxial region of New Spain, nearly 150,000 live in an excessively warm climate in the plains adjacent to the coast, and feed on manioc and bananas. These results, I repeat, are merely simple approximations; but it appeared to me so much the more interesting to publish them, as, during my stay in Mexico, they already fixed the attention of the government. We are sure of exciting the spirit of research when we advance a fact which interests the whole nation, and as to which calculations have never before been ventured. * 331 millions of pounds avoird. Trans. + In a former part of this work the number of whites in the provincias internas were stated as nearly a fourth of the whole white inhabitants. See note by the translator, vol. II. p. 309, on the difficulty of accounting for a million in the total estimate of inhabitants in New Spain. Trans. In France the whole grain harvest, that is to say, wheat, rye, and barley, was, according to Lavoisier, before the revolution, and consequently at a period when the population of the kingdom amounted to 25 millions of inhabitants, 58 millions of setiers, or 6786 millions of kilogrammes. Now, according to the authors of the Feuille du Cultivateur, the wheat reaped in France is to the whole mass of grain as 5:17. Hence the produce of wheat alone was, previous to 1789, seventeen millions of setiers, which, taking merely absolute quantities, and without considering the populations of the two empires, is nearly 13 times more than the produce of wheat in Mexico. This comparison agrees very well with the bases of my anterior estimation. For the number of inhabitants of New Spain who habitually live on wheaten bread does not exceed 1,300,000; and it is well known that the French consume more bread than the Spanish race, especially those who inhabit America. But on account of the extreme fertility of the soil, the fifteen millions of myriagrammes annually produced by New Spain are reaped on an extent of ground four or five times smaller than would be requisite for the same harvest in France. We may expect, it is true, as the Mexican population shall increase, that this fertility, which may be called medium, and which indicates a total produce of 24 for 1, will decrease. Every where men begin with the cultivation of the least arid lands, and the mean produce must naturally diminish when agriculture embraces a greater extent, and, consequently, a greater variety of ground. But in a vast empire like Mexico this effect can only be very tardy in its manifestation, and the industry of the inhabitants increases with the population and the number of increasing wants. We shall collect into one table the knowledge which we have acquired as to the mean produce of the cerealia in the two continents. We are not here adducing examples of an extraordinary fertility observable in a small extent of ground, nor of grain sown according to the Chinese method. The produce would nearly be the same in every zone, if, in choosing our ground, we were to bestow the same care on cerealia which we bestow on our garden plants. But in treating of agriculture in general, we speak merely of extensive results, of calculations, in which the total harvest of a country is considered as the multiple of the quantity of wheat sown. It will be found that this multiple, which may be considered as one of the first elements of the prosperity of nations, varies in the following man ner: 属 5 to 6 grains for one, in France, according to Lavoisier and Neckar. We estimate, with M. Peuchet, that 4,400,000 arpens sown with |