The connexion between the production of cotton and its use is so close that we have been unable in the preceding passages to avoid anticipating some statements which will be more amply set forth in our section on Mexican manufactures. We shall now turn our attention to the cultivation and annual production in the republic.
Throughout the cotton growing districts of the United States the cotton plant is of annual growth. Frost destroys it, and the planter is obliged to renew the seed for every crop. But, in the tierra caliente of Mexico, this is not requisite, as the tree propagates itself, and the laborers are only required to keep the fields clear of extraneous plants which spring up so rapidly and luxuriantly in tropical climates.
Notwithstanding the advantages offered by the erection of the factories in Mexico, the best data obtained by Don Lucas Alaman in 1843, presented only the following meagre returns of the proximate quantity of cotton raised in some of the states of the republic, excluding, of course, the small parcels raised by Mestizos and Indians for their private consumption:
| ARROBAS. | LBS. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| In the state of Jalisco, | 1,000 | or | 25,000 |
| " " Sonora, | 3,500 | " | 87,500 |
| " " Durango, | 3,044 | " | 76,100 |
| " " Oajaca, | 21,583 | " | 539,576 |
| " " Puebla, | 3,738 | " | 93,450 |
| " " Vera Cruz, | 14,496 | " | 362,400 |
| 47,361 | " | 1,184,025 |
In this estimate the cleaned and uncleaned, or ginned and un-ginned cotton are averaged together. It is generally considered, however, that the whole country really produces at present about seventy thousand quintals or seven millions of pounds.