MEXICO. 



THE IvAND QUESTION IN MEXICO AND THE PROPOSALS 



OF THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL COMMISSION. 



(Conclusion). 



§.3. The IvAnd question and the conclusions 

 of the national agricultural commission (l). 



1. The elements of the land question in Mexico. — If we take into ac- 

 count the natural conditions of the Mexican RepubUc which, as we have seen, 

 are exceptionally favourable to agriculture, we need only remember that 

 nearly every year the country is obhged to import corn and often maize, 

 though maize is the article of food most largely consumed in the State, 

 to see that the disproportion between production and the capacity of 

 production is a question on the solution of which depends the economic 

 future of the country. 



The elements of this problem are numerous and complex, but they may 

 be reduced to three ; agricultural technique, labour, and the distribution 

 of landed property. 



Let us examine each in turn. 



2. The conditions of the soil and agricultural technique. — There has been 

 much said on the subject of the proverbial fertihty of the Mexican 

 soil. But of late it has been asserted that the soil is exhausted and cannot 

 therefore produce as much as it ought. But all the most competent Mexican 

 authorities on this subject unite in affirming that the insufficiency of 

 production is due not to the exhaustion of the soil, but to the rudimentary 

 systems of cultivation. 



"As a rule, our soil is all virgin, " says Loria, a distinguished Mexican 

 writer. In fact due importance is not given to tillage. The primitive wooden 

 plough makes a very shallow furrow, and thus a thin bed of earth incapable 

 of containing sufficient fertiHsing matter is all that the plant has to live 

 upon. The result is that the fertilising elements of the land are not utiUsed, 

 owing to the want of deep ploughing. Besides it may be affirmed that the 

 manuring of the land is not effected according to the dictates of modern 

 science. 



(i) S;e the first part of th's article in tHe number of this Bulletin for May, 19x4. 



