irrigation in many districts, except by artificial means, it will be perceived that the agricultural progress of the country is extremely doubtful. In addition to this, the land belongs to a few proprietors, many of whom own estates of twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and even a hundred leagues square, which are chiefly devoted to herds instead of agriculture. Mexico is thus rather in the pastoral than the commercial age, and must pass through the transition state of independent sub-divided labor before she can stand, naturally, upon the same platform with northern and European nations.
The early Spanish settlers were eager monopolists of mines and land. Their object was to realize fortunes speedily; and by a liberal repartimiento of Indians they were enabled to found large estates upon which those Indians either toiled as husbandmen or tended uncounted herds. The prolific soil soon yielded, with little labor, the required quantity of vegetables and cereal products; domestic markets were wanted for the sale of the surplus, and the Spanish government did not open its harbors for exportation. Agriculture was thus early limited to the mere animal wants of the glebœ adscripti and emigrant Spaniards, and as the Indian never labors except when compelled by force or necessity, he soon preferred the idle and wandering life of a herdsman to that of a farmer. Many of these estates now number from ten to twenty thousand head of cattle. Besides this the Spanish laws presented the Indian no prospects of independent agricultural rights. The foreign landholder enjoyed the exclusive ownership of the vast freehold. There was no encouragement or hope given to small farmers who might emerge from the servile race, and the consequence is that Mexico, until she becomes an exporting country, receives an augmented population by immigration, and sub-divides her immense territorial manors, under the demands of trade, will, in all likelihood remain stationary in every thing pertaining to agriculture. It is the multiplication of freeholders under the stimulus of commerce, that promotes freedom, industry, and personal independence. Competition is continually excited by the wants of a