64 Geoatapbical Iftotes on /iDejico. 



make a business of raising flowers, and they sell handsome bouquets, 

 as artistically made as any in this country, for a mere trifle. A 

 bouquet which, for instance, in New York would cost $5 in winter, 

 could be had in the City of Mexico all the year round for 25 cents ; 

 and I look forward to the time when flowers will be exported in large 

 quantities from Mexico to the United States if the protective policy of 

 the country does not interfere. 



IRRIGATION. 



At the time of the Spanish invasion of Mexico, the Indians in those 

 parts of the country where the population was greatest were dependent 

 upon irrigation for a large part of their cereals, and for cotton, which 

 played so important a part in their economy. As the same method had 

 been employed from time immemorial in Spain, it followed that on the 

 partition of the soil among the Spanish conquerors, irrigation became 

 an important factor in their agriculture ; but with expansion of popu- 

 lation large tracts of land have come to depend entirely upon the rain. 



In recent years Mexican agriculture has depended almost altogether 

 on the rainfall, except in a few places well supplied with water, and 

 where irrigation is both cheap and easy ; but the inhabited portions 

 of the country have been depleted of their timber by the natives for the 

 purpose of using the wood for fuel or lumber. In more recent years, 

 the building of railroads has increased considerably the demand for 

 wood both for sleepers and for fuel for locomotives, and the consequence 

 is that a great change is taking place in the climatic conditions of the 

 country and that fuel is exceedingly high. In no other country is there 

 so much timber a good deal of it not yet full grown consumed an- 

 nually as in Mexico. The consumption of timber for railroad purposes 

 alone, not to mention that used in mines, smelters, and as fuel in cities 

 and towns, is incalculable. 



Competent authority in Mexico, among whom is the Inspector of 

 Manufactories, created for the purpose of insuring the collection of the 

 internal-revenue tax, considers that only in the Federal District of 

 Mexico the consumption of wood exceeds 4000 English cords daily, 

 used as fuel in the factories, railroads, and other plants of that city. 



The consumption of charcoal by private families in the old-style 

 open cooking grates is at least 500,000 pounds in the Federal District 

 of Mexico, which is equivalent to 2,500,000 pounds of wood taken from 

 the scanty forests of the central plateau, and that consumption would 

 be very much reduced if, instead of those old-fashioned grates, iron 

 cooking stoves should be used ; and to encourage their use, when I was 

 last in the Treasury Department of Mexico, I was instrumental in re- 

 ducing considerably the duties on the same. 



Another cause of the destruction of the forest in Mexico consists 



