agriculture often suffers from violent hail storms that prostrate the young grain which at this season of the year is usually extremely dry in consequence of the early heats and the want of irrigation.
The mild and pure climate of Guanajuato renders it a healthy residence. In its southern part, about Salvatierra and Yurirapúndaro, intermittent fevers, called los frios, or agues, occasionally prevail. Dropsy, rheumatism, common lever, and dysenteries, which usually sweep off large numbers of Mexicans, are milder and more
easily treated in this region than in other portions of the Republic. The laborers in the mines formerly suffered from diseases of the chest, arising probably from the mephitic vapors which were confined in the badly ventilated galleries; but the Deputacion de la Mineria took this subject into consideration, and have forced the owners of mines by stringent laws to construct shafts and openings by which these buried workmen may receive continual supplies of fresh air.
Maize, wheat, frijoles, beans, and the common cereal grains are produced abundantly in the fertile plains of the Bajio and San Felipé. Corn, though