80 



from rivers or artesian wells, and here the soil has been found 

 of great fertility, so that there is hope of eventually redeem- 

 ing a large portion of this desert. 



The first change noticed, a little more than half-way from the 

 United States border to the City of Mexico, is a more liberal 

 water supply, encouraging extensive tillage by irrigation methods. 

 A little farther south we find that although irrigation is very 

 largely resorted to, it is possible to produce such crops as' 

 corn through the unaided agency of the rainy season. The 

 rapidity with which such crops grow and attain maturity at this 

 time is indeed remarkable. 



Most of my own field work in Mexico has been performed in 

 this semi-arid region, so that I have had an opportunity to 

 become rather well acquainted with the general features of its 





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Fig. 2. Lava Beds along Cuernavaca R. R. 



flora, while not having found time to determine many of the 

 species encountered. One of the most noticeable sights to the 

 visitor from the north is that of the vast fields of maguey or 

 century plant, used for the manufacture of the fermented bever- 

 age pulque and its distillate, mezcal. Its buds, taken just before 

 flowering, resembling huge cabbages and occasionally a hundred 



