MEXICO. 



Ml 



missionor from the Mexican Government to the 

 Centennial Kxhibition at Philadelphia. 



At this exhibition, among the manufactures 

 exhibited by Mexicans may be mentioned: 

 (.'Iii-Hiirals in considerable variety, but for the 

 m.ist part unknown to commerce; dye-stuffs; 

 essences, perfumery, etc.; earthenware, includ- 

 ing an admirable collection of vases after the 

 A /.tee, Egyptian, and Chinese styles; glassware, 

 furniture, etc. Some very good specimens of 

 woolens were displayed, as also cotton fabrics, 

 both of which are manufactured in sufficient 

 quantities to meet the entire demand for home 

 consumption. Owing to the peculiar forma- 

 tion of the country, Mexico is almost destitute 

 of navigable rivers ; but that very peculiarity 

 renders the countless streams eminently avail- 

 able for power, and there are numbers of -fac- 

 tories, some of which are very extensive, es- 



tablished in various parts of tho republic. 

 There is a silk-factory in I'ucbla, and seri- 

 culture is steadily increasing in the States of 

 Oajaca, Guerrero, Michoacan, and Colima. 

 This is not an entirely new industry for the 

 Mexicans: Miguel Hidalgo, the first hero of 

 Mexican independence, instructed tin- people 

 of Guanajuato, at the beginning of the prr-.-M 

 century, in the art of rearing the silkworm 

 and cultivating the mulberry-tree. 



In the department of agriculture little, if 

 any, progress has been made in the republic 

 since the arrival of the early Spanish colonists; 

 tillage is performed regularly, but in the most 

 laborious manner, and with the rudest appli- 

 ances, save in a very few instances, where 

 modern implements have been introduced. 



One of the chief cultivated products is maize, 

 which thrives in all parts of the country, yield- 



FLAZA DE ARMAS, CITY OP MEXICO. 





ing quite frequently three, and at times even 

 four, crops annually. Wheat gives an increase 

 of about sixty-fold, and rice some forty-six- 

 fold ; but all these are only produced in pro- 

 portion to the demand for home consump- 

 tion. 



To the cultivation of the export staples 

 more attention has been paid within the past 

 few years. These commodities, as already ob- 

 served, are tobacco, coffee, sugar, and the hene- 

 giten plant (Agare Americana), from which 

 Sisal-hemp is prepared. 



Tobacco is regarded as one of the most im- 

 portant agricultural products of Mexico; it is 

 grown in Vora Cruz, Chiapas, Puebla, Jalisco, 

 Colima, and Yucatan ; but the finest is that 

 of Vera Cruz, where both climate and soil are 

 similar to those of Cuba, and the labor is 

 mainly performed by Cuban immigrants. The 



tobacco exported in 1873 was of the value of 

 $132,984.75. 



Coffee, though a comparatively new article 

 of export for Mexico, none having been sent 

 out of the republic and, indeed, very little 

 grown before 1869, is now taking the prece- 

 dence among the staples shipped to foreign 

 countries, especially from the State of Vera 

 Cruz. -This commodity, likely to become so 

 intimataty connected with the future commer- 

 cial proSpM-ity of Mexico, has recently been 

 made the subject rolutt*pecial study by Mr. 

 John W. Foster, T/hited States minister to 

 that country, who says: 



It may be an unknown fact to many Americans 

 that, at our very doors, in Mexico, our neighboring 

 republic, there exists the agricultural capacity to 

 produce all the coffee that can be consume d in the 

 United States, and of a quality equal to the 



