OCR Text |
Show -9- indigenous, as well as the Manilla, New Zealand, Indian, and South American fibers, of which I should recommend the introduction; rice, sugar-cane, sugar-beets, pepper, ginger, sweet potatoes, plantains, bananas, oranges, grapes, and all fruits and cereals of temperate and subtropical zones. Corn has attained the height of 25 feet, yielding from three to four ears of rare proportions and quality; the finest field of corn I have ever seen was grown in this basin, planted by the Indians without any cultivation or irrigation. I feel satisfied that on the western rim of this basin both tea and Liberia coffee would do well. In portions of Baja California are grown rice and dates equal if not superior to any other grown in the world. The date-palm grows prolifically throughout the peninsula of Lower California, particularly the far-famed black date of San Ignacio, which surpasses all other kinds in yield, size, and flavor. This tree is peculiar in its necessities, adapting itself to the most sterile and arid localties; after the first year of its planting it requires no water. The most inferior portions of this country, and those impregnated with alkali, can be utilized with profitable results by the introduction of this tree. A good healthy tree in full bearing will yield annually 60 pounds (let us say 20) without looking after, except the picking and drying of the fruit, packing, and marketing; after the first year no cultivation or irrigation is required. Let us hear what General Charles P. Stone who was chief of commission for the survey of the Occidental States of Mexico, including Lower California (of which I had the honor of being a member), and who afterwards went to Egypt and formed that army. Writing from there in regard to the date-palm and the Colorado Basin, in answer to a letter of General W. G. Le Due, Commissioner of |