I TO MKXICO - MLSCELLANEOUS 



DiARio (E) : Mexico en su primer siglo de independencia {Mexico in her First Period of Inde- 

 pendence). Published by E. Diario, Mexico, 1910. 



Annuaire international de statistique agricole, 1910. {International Yearbook of Agri- 

 cultural Statistics) Instilut International d'Agricnlture, Rome, 1913. 



Statesman's YEARBOOK FOR THE YEAR 1913. lyondon, Macmillan and Co. 1913. 



BoLETiNES DE LA CAMARA AGRicoLA jACioNAL lASLiciENSK {Bulletins of the National Chamber 

 of Agriculture of Jalisco). 



El EcoNoansTA Mexicano ( The Mexican Economist) . 



Mesico has always been renowned for its extraordinary wealth in 

 precious metals. From age to age stories have been handed down, even to 

 our own days, of the galleys laden with gold and silver which have crossed 

 the ocean to swell the treasures of Spanish monarchs. But, notwithstanding 

 the vast mining products of the country, the chief source of riches in Mexico 

 is to be found in agriculture. A country with such rich and easily cultivated 

 soil and every description of climate and everj^ vegetable production is 

 necessarily adapted for that pursuit. 



Notwithstanding this, Mexican agriculture has not been developed 

 as it ought to have been under such favourable conditions. The reasons 

 are many and complex, but the chief is the greed with which the mines were 

 worked under the Spanish rule, causing the complete abandonment of 

 agriculture. The second reason is the long succession of conflicts and in- 

 testine wars, continuing without interruption from the time of the proclam- 

 ation of independence until the coming of Senor Porfirio Diaz, which 

 unfortunately have again broken out recently. 



Other causes may be mentioned, not less important, especially the 

 rudimentarj^ character of the methods emploj^ed, the scarcit}^ of labour, and 

 the defective distribution of landed property. 



The agricultural question in Mexico and the social unsettlement to 

 which it gives rise have long been a cause of anxiety to the authorities. 



A national agricultural commission was recently appointed to consider 

 the subject and to propose measures for the solution of the difficulties. 



Before we relate the conclusions of this commission, we propose to 

 follow the method adopted in our articles on other I,atin- American count- 

 ries, that is, briefly to examine the geographic and economic conditions 

 of Mexico, to give some idea of its agricultural wealth and of the prospects 

 of agriculture and to consider the principal questions connected therewith, 

 especially that of colonisation. 



§ I. Some remarks on the geographical and economic conditions 



OF MEXICO. 



I. Geographical Conditions. — The configuration of the soil of the 

 Mexican territory, which covers an area of 1,987,201 sq. kms., is most 

 characteristic. From the low lying and sandy coast line, the ground 



