CHAPTER XLII. PARRAS TO SALTILLO. Parras-Its vineyards-Numerous springs-Orchards-Plantations of the Agave Extent of its cultivation-Pulque-Hacienda Arriba-Its extensive wine vaults and granaries--Visit to the churches-The Alameda-Departure from Parras-The Hacienda Abajo-Don Manuel de Ibarra and General Wool-Cienega Grande-Ceguin-Vequeria-Gigantic Yuccas-Hacienda de Patos-Don Jacobo Sanchez-His large estates -Claims for indemnification on the United States-Village of PeonsEncantada-Arrival of a courier with despatches from Washington— Buena Vista-The Barrancas-Ramble over the battlefield-Relics found-Reach Saltillo-No work on a feast day-Fine church-Cotton factories-Dr. Hewison-Economical use of water. November 28th to December 1st. We remained at Parras five days, to repair our wagons. One wheel and an axle had to be made new throughout. The delay was longer than was needed for the work, in consequence of the loss of two days by the drunkenness of our most important mechanics. We had to submit quietly to this imposition, as no others could be found. The time passed heavily, as there was but little of interest in or about the town, and the sight-seeing was soon accomplished. Parras is the best built town we had yet seen in the country. Many of the houses are of two stories, being quite spacious, with courts in the centre, and built with much taste. They possess, too, a degree of comfort, and even luxury, not found in the modern houses of the country. It is an old settled place, and has always been noted for the excellence of its wine and brandy. A species of wild vine was found here by the first settlers, whence its name; they also brought with them the vites vinifera of Asia, which flourished well. The extensive cultivation of the grape, for which the position of the town is admirably adapted, as well as the extent of arable land near, drew together a large and highly respectable population. Although now much reduced in their worldly means, there are many old families remaining, who possess all the dignity and elegance of manner which always characterized the native Spaniard. The town extends for a couple of miles along the side of a hill. The smaller vineyards run along the declivity, the larger ones beyond the town, on the plain. The hill, which consists of a porous limestone, abounds in water, which is collected in tanks, and conducted by acequias through the vineyards and the principal streets of the town. Besides these acequias there are numerous wells; in fact, every house of any extent has its own well within its court. When the town has supplied itself, the remainder is conducted by aqueducts or ditches off to the plains, where it is all absorbed in irrigating, first, the gardens and vineyards, and beyond these the fields of wheat and maize. So admirable and economical a use of water I have never before seen. * Parra, a vine trained on sticks, or nailed to a wall. ance. The town on the lower side is encompassed with gardens and orchards, in which we saw pomegranate, fig, pear, and other trees growing with great luxuriOn the hill back of the town, I saw for the first time plantations of the maguey (agavé Americana), the leaves of which were from six to seven feet in length. They are planted in rows, and surrounded by a hedge of the same, making a most formidable breastwork against both man and beast. It is from these plants that the pulque is made.* We had seen the * The sap of the maguey is obtained by making an incision in the central leaves or heart of the plant, which incision is converted into a kind of reservoir for the collection of the juice, by drawing the lateral leaves close together and tying their extremities. "This is the true vegetable spring, which keeps running for two or three months, and from which the Indian draws three or four times a day. We may judge of the quickness or slowness of the motion of the juice by the quantity of honey extracted from the maguey at different times of the day. A foot commonly yields, in twenty-four hours, four cubic decimetres (or two hundred and forty-two cubic inches, English), equal to eight quartillos. Of this total quantity they obtain three quartillos at sunrise, two at mid-day, and three at six in the evening. A very vigorous plant sometimes yields fifteen quartillos, or four hundred and fifty-four cubic inches, English, per day, for from four to five months, which amounts to the enormous volume of more than eleven hundred cubic decimetres, or sixty-seven thousand one hundred and thirty cubic inches. This abundance of juice, produced by a single maguey of scarcely a metre and a half in height, or four and nine tenths feet, is so much more astonishing, as the agave plantations are in the most arid grounds, and frequently on banks of rocks hardly covered with vegetable earth. In a barren soil, the Indian calculates the product of each maguey at one hundred and fifty bottles, and the value of the pulque furnished in a day at from ten to twelve sols. The produce is unequal, like that of the vine, which varies very much in its quantity of grapes. maguey growing wild throughout the desert plains of Chihuahua, Sonora, and California; but nowhere does it attain the size which it reaches in these plantations. "The cultivation of the maguey has real advantages over the cultivation of maize, grain, and potatoes. This plant, with firm and vigorous leaves, is neither affected by drought nor hail, nor the excessive cold which prevails in winter on the higher Cordilleras of Mexico. The stalk perishes after efflorescence. If we deprive it of the central leaves it withers, after the juice, which nature appears to have destined to the increase of the hampe, is entirely exhausted. An infinity of shoots then spring from the root of the decayed plant; for no plant multiplies with greater facility. An arpent of ground contains from twelve hundred to thirteen hundred maguey plants. If the field is of old cultivation, we may calculate that a twelfth or fourteenth of these plants yields honey annually. A proprietor who plants from thirty thousand to forty thousand maguey is sure to establish the fortune of his children; but it requires patience and courage to follow a species of cultivation which only begins to grow lucrative at the end of fifteen years. In a good soil, the agave enters on its efflorescence at the end of five years; and in a poor soil no harvest can be expected in less than eighteen years. Although the rapidity of the vegetation is of the utmost consequence for the Mexican cultivators, they never attempt artificially to accelerate the development of the hampe, by mutilating the roots or watering them with warm water. It is discovered that by these means, which weaken the plant, the confluence of juice towards the centre is sensibly diminished. A maguey plant is destroyed if, misled by false appearances, the Indian makes the incision long before the flowers would have maturely developed themselves."-Thompson's Alcedo. "The juice of the agave has a very agreeable sour taste. It easily Jerments on account of the mucilage and sugar which it contains. To accelerate the fermentation they add a little old and acid pulque. The operation is terminated in three or four days. The vinous beverage, which resembles cider, has an odor of putrid meat extremely disagreeable; but the Europeans who have been able to get over the aversion which this foetid odor inspires, prefer the pulque to every other liquor. They consider it as a stomachic, strengthening, and especially very nutritive; and it is recommended to lean persons. Whites, also, have At the southern extremity of the town, is a large estate belonging at present to Don — Arguire, called the "Hacienda Arriba," or the upper hacienda, to distinguish it from the "Haciendo Abajo," or lower hacienda, of Don Manuel de Ibarra, four miles distant. This is one of the most extensive and valuable estates in Coahuila. Its chief products are wine and wheat. The vineyards which surround it, extend twelve hundred varas (3240 feet) into the plain, while beyond these are extensive fields of wheat and maize. As it seldom rains here, the cultivation of the grape as well as of the cereals, depends wholly upon irrigation; yet there is no river to supply it. In the rear of this hacienda, about half a mile distant, the water oozes from numerous springs in the side of a hill; which unite at the base and form a small stream. This stream as it passes over the porous rocks, receives constant additions. As the descent is considerable, the whole of this water is controlled, and conveyed through a stone aqueduct, first to a flouring mill, and then to the vineyards, gardens, and fields of the hacienda arriba, furnishing an been known, like the Mexican Indians, totally to have abstained from water, beer, and wine, and to have drank no other liquor than the juice of the agave. Connoisseurs speak with enthusiasm of the pulque prepared in the village of Hocotitlan, to the north of Toluca, at the foot of a mountain almost as elevated as the Nevada of this name. They afiirm that the excellent quality of this pulque does not alogether depend on the art with which the liquor is prepared, but also on a taste of the soil communicated to the juice, according to the fields in which the plant is cultivated. There are plantations of maguey near Hocotitlan (haciendas de pulque) which bring in annually more than forty thousand livres, or one thousand six hundred and sixty-six pounds sterling (about eight thousand dollars).-Alcedo. Humboldt's New Spain. |