70 Geocjrapbical IRotes on 



withstand the down-pour of the tropical sun of Mexico, and by their 

 knowledge of the cultivation of cotton succeed in carrying out the 

 purpose of the men who undertook the enterprise. Unused to food 

 conditions in Mexico, especially for want of bacon and corn bread, 

 they were infested with sickness, which caused great mortality among 

 them, and frightened and demoralized they fled from Tlahualilo, this 

 experiment showing very plainly that Mexican planters cannot rely for 

 labor on the colored people of the United States. 



The production of cotton and corn in the vicinity of Torreon can 

 be increased eightfold by building reservoirs in the Nazas River and 

 its tributary canons, to hold the water back for the irrigation of the 

 vast area of fine cotton and corn lands that are yet unproductive, 

 simply through the non-retention of the great amount of water flowing 

 to the sea, unused, annually, and the same result could be obtained 

 by doing the same thing with many other rivers in Mexico. With one- 

 fourth of the water now needed to produce a good crop, the same 

 amount of grain can be produced by good cultivation. The reason is 

 that by the methods now in vogue in most parts of the country, so little 

 soil is loosened by the plow that nearly all the water runs off, where 

 rain is relied on, and only with a great amount of rain can a crop be 

 raised. When irrigation is used, the water required to keep the hard 

 ground moist is entirely in excess of the reservoir, rain, and river sup- 

 plies. This is the reason of the short grain supply and of the necessity 

 for importing during years of drought large quantities of corn. If the 

 ground were plowed deep and well, it would absorb most of the rainfall 

 and create sufficient surface moisture to meet the moisture from below, 

 which would counteract the dry action of the atmosphere on the soil 

 and roots of the grain, which, by its luxuriant growth, would soon shade 

 the ground, and thus contribute still further to the retention of moisture. 



The fact is, taking Mexico as a whole, that there is not a year so 

 dry but that with good cultivation, sufficient grain can be raised to 

 supply domestic demands, while all the excess above that quantity in 

 favorable seasons should be used as feed for stock, which would supply 

 the large quantities of lard, tallow, hard-oil, etc., now being imported, 

 and would leave a large amount for export, together with a consider- 

 able quantity of meat for the same purpose, thus helping to cover the 

 balance of foreign trade and keeping our silver dollars in the hands 

 of the farmers and stockmen, to improve and increase their lands, 

 herds, and flocks. 



FAUNA. 



The present Mexican fauna belongs, like its flora, to the North 

 American zone, so far as regards the plateau regions, and to the An- 

 tilles in respect to the coast lands round the Gulf, while that of the 



