of the estate
is due. The house itself is often of quaint aspect, and of some
architectural pretension; Moorish-looking arches and cornices, and
turrets and columns, balconies and verandas, generally of solid masonry
in the wealthy _haciendas_, are set there to defy all time. Indeed,
many of these have already resisted the ravages of centuries, and the
great thickness of the walls arrests the traveller's attention. The
roofs--flat in some cases--are generally covered with red pan-tiles dug
and baked near at hand. Perhaps a small chapel adjoins; aqueducts and
stone channels convey a sparkling stream of water from the canal
communicating with the distant river, and a profuse garden surrounds
the whole.

In this great garden are all Mexico's tropical fruits--pomegranates,
oranges, limes, _chirimoyas_, _ahuacates_, figs, grapes, and a host of
others, and you may wander beneath their grateful shade and take your
fill. Above them, perhaps the tall, slender columns, and graceful,
feathery foliage of the cocoanut palms rear. And over all is the blue
dome of the Mexican sky. It is a peaceful scene, not without something
of allurement.

The interior _menage_ is more primitive than that of European houses,
and often presents a singular whole in its abundance and crudeness
combined. But hospitality ever reigns there, and the foreigner is
always welcome. The production at present of Mexico's staple articles
of agricultural nature is as follows:--

_Cotton_.--Before the time of the Aztecs cotton was cultivated in
Mexico, and cotton-spinning carried out. The quilted cotton armour of
the natives excited the attention of the Conquistadores, and they even
adopted it themselves. Mexico has lands of cotton-producing
adaptability, it is stated, greater than the United States;
nevertheless she imports cotton therefrom in considerable quantities.
The consumption of raw cotton in the country is estimated at more than
100,000 bales annually, of which half is produced in the country,
principally upon the Nazas, the yearly value of whose crop amounts to
some two millions sterling. Other states, however, also produce cotton,
or are capable of large production. The total value for the recent
annual production is given at about 3,400,000 pounds sterling.

_Sugar_.--The sugar-cane was introduced by the Spaniards, and was
cultivated under certain restrictions. At present Mexico is considered
an ideal country, in point of soil, climate, &c., for i