56 <3eo0rapbical motes on /IDejico, 



Grasses. In the lower regions of Mexico, especially at the sea-level,, 

 we have various grasses which can be grown at very little expense and 

 which make very good food for cattle, fattening them very much, and 

 in comparatively short time. While I lived in Soconusco, I used to 

 buy lean cattle, three years old, at $10 per head ; and letting them pas- 

 ture on the grass, the expense being little more than that of a few men 

 to take care of the cattle, without providing them with any shelter, 

 pens, or anything of that kind, only giving them about once a month 

 some salt, at the end of four or five months they became very fat and 

 could be sold on the spot at $25 a head. The fattening grasses can be 

 very easily cultivated, because they are of such rank growth that they 

 do not allow any other vegetation to spring up on the same spot, and 

 so save the expense of cleaning the ground of weeds ; which, in the 

 hot regions is very great, as vegetation is there very rank. 



Alfalfa. The alfalfa grows very luxuriantly in almost every place 

 in Mexico, and it is so abundant there, that it has very little com- 

 mercial value. It is nowhere dried and kept for fodder, but of course 

 such use can be made of it. Land good for alfalfa has a very low 

 price, and we are greatly surprised when we hear that in California the 

 alfalfa land is worth $100 an acre. 



Cattle Raising. Mexico has special advantages for the raising of 

 cattle, not only because of its mild climate, which renders unnecessary 

 the many expenses required in the northern section of this continent, 

 but also on account of the grasses that grow in several localities and 

 that constitute very good food for cattle, as I have just stated. 



Mexico will be, before long, a very large producer of cattle and other 

 animals, and they will form a large share of her exports. Mexico has 

 sent within two years about 400,000 small undeveloped cattle to the 

 United States at about $15, Mexican silver, per head, and has also sent 

 nearly her entire output of cotton-seed meal to the United States and 

 Europe at about $16, silver, per ton. The meal sent to the United States 

 is fed to cattle. The Mexican cattle sent there take the place of the 

 better stock which is sent to Europe, causing virtually a five-thousand- 

 kilometre railway haul against the short haul in Mexico to reach the 

 coast. In addition we have to pay import duties in the United States. 

 This is a sufficient evidence that a large profit could be made by fat- 

 tening cattle with the cotton-seed meal in Mexico, and shipping the 

 fattened cattle direct to Europe, even using the best cattle of the 

 country. But rapid improvement should be made in the class of cattle 

 for beef purposes. Cotton-seed meal is the feed to be relied on chiefly. 

 The quantity of it produced already is sufficient to fatten a large num- 

 ber of stock. The cattle should also be fed with a small amount of 

 corn along with the meal during the last month of feeding to harden 

 and whiten the meat, as feeding only with cotton-seed meal makes the 



