156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



who depends on each year's earnings to meet each year's needs, has 

 always got to anticipate and guard against such a possibility ! There 

 are vast tracts of land also in Mexico, especially in the northern part, 

 where grass sufficient for moderate pasturage will grow all or nearly 

 all the year, but on which the water-holes are so few, and so entirely 

 disappear in the dry season, that stock can not live on them. In a 

 report recently sent (January, 1885) to the State Department, by 

 Warner P. Sutton, United States consul - general to Matamoros, the 

 statement is made, that the annual value of the agricultural products 

 of the State of South Carolina, having an area of 30,570 square miles, 

 is at least two and half times as great as the whole like product of the 

 six States of Northern Mexico namely, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, 

 Coahuila, Chihuahua, Lower California, and Sonora which have an 

 area of 355,000 square miles, and represent about one half of the ter- 

 ritory of the whole republic ; or, making allowance for the areas of 

 land under comparison, the annual agricultural product of South Caro- 

 lina is from twenty to twenty-five times as valuable as that of the 

 whole northern half of Mexico ! 



On the " tierras calientes" or comparatively narrow belt of coast- 

 lands, on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of Mexico, there is abun- 

 dance of wood and water, cheap and fertile land, and most luxuriant 

 vegetation ; but the climate is such that the white races will never live 

 there in the capacity of laborers. When one hears, therefore, of pos- 

 sibilities of these regions in respect to coffee, sugar, tobacco, and a wide 

 range of other valuable tropical products, this fact has got to be taken 

 into account. They would, however, seem to be particularly adapted 

 to the introduction and employment of Chinese labor ; and during the 

 past year delegations from the associated Chinese Companies of San 

 Francisco have, it is understood, entered into negotiations with the 

 Mexican Government, with a view of promoting an extensive immi- 

 gration into these portions of the national territory. 



Again, much of the best land of the plateau of Mexico is in the 

 nature of valleys surrounded by mountains, or of strips or sections 

 separated by deserts. Thus, for example, to get from the city of 

 Mexico into the fertile valley of Toluca, a comparatively short dis- 

 tance, one has to ascend nearly three thousand feet within the first 

 twenty-four miles ; while between Chihuahua and Zacatecas there is 

 an immense desert tract, over which the Mexican Central Railway has 

 to transport in supply-tanks the water necessary for its locomotives. 

 It is true that in both of these instances the natural difficulties have 

 now in a great measure been remedied by railroad constructions ; but 

 when it is remembered that, outside of the leading cities and towns of 

 Mexico, there are hardly any wheeled vehicles, save some huge, cum- 

 bersome carts with thick, solid, wooden wheels (a specimen of which, 

 exhibited as a curiosity, may be seen in the National Museum at 

 Washington) ; that the transportation of commodities is mainly ef- 



