ANSWERS TO CIRCULAR NO. 7. [89] 



San Antonio, Tex., Seplemher 29, 1879. 



You do not agree with my theory, but it will bother you to find out where the Cot- 

 ton Worm came from, under the circumstances, as sttited in my previous letter. 



There is no cotton growing wild in the part of Mexico where I resided, as there are 

 heavy frosts there every winter ; in the tropical region of the State of Vera Cruz, and 

 to the south large crops of cotton are raised, but I never saw a mid cotton plant. 



The consul at Vera Cruz could, I have no doubt, give you an interesting account 

 of the cotton plant in his section. I know that in the neighborhood of Paso del 

 Macho, on the Vera Criiz Railroad, the cotton is bent down so as to stand the storms, 

 and consequently the plant grows horizontally instead of perpendicular, and presents 

 a curious appearance when ready to pick. 



Some years ago there were large fields of cotton in the State of Coahuila, in the 

 district of Monclova, but although admirably adapted to the production, the Cotton 

 Worm from successive visitations entirely broke up the business, and now no cotton 

 is planted in that State. 



I planted cotton for four years on the Rio Nazas, or laguna country, in the State of 

 Durango. This is theNiU of America. The Nazas rises periodically (always once a 

 year, sometimes oftener), and overflows a vast extent of country; a bold, clear mount- 

 ain stream, 200 miles long, finally emerges from the mountains into an immense plain. 

 The banks become lower as the river descends, until by many mouths it winds its 

 way into the lake or laguna, a body of water 90 miles long and 35 wide, with no out- 

 let — a great body of fresh water on an elevation of, say, 3,000 feet, in the midst of a 

 great dry desert. The water of the lake is not utilized, as the soil on its banks is 

 poor, no alluvial deposit or growth denoting original formation, but rather that the 

 lake had been produced there by some convulsion of nature, as, if it were the original 

 deposit of the waters of this great river, there would be swamps and sluices and timber 

 denoting that fact, as the mouths of the Red River and other streams in Texas and 

 Louisiana. The haciendas of the laguna begin where the River Nazas emerges from 

 the mountains, and is utilized by dams and canals and ditches, by which the over- 

 flow is restrained and the land irrigated. This irrigation is seldom used more than 

 once a year, as the extraordinary character of the alluviuai deposit of centuries re- 

 tains moisture sufficient to produce crops for two years if necessary. (It seldom rains, 

 and rain is not depended on at all for crops.) 



Cotton is planted once in seven years; is planted with a hoe. A bole is dug from 

 12 to 18 inches deep, to the moisture, the seed deposited, and that is the start, which 

 is expensive, but there is no other way, as the moisture is too low down to be reached 

 by a plow. The cultivation is as with us : Frosts kill the plants, the stalks are 

 cleared off" and burned, and in the early spring, with the budding of the peach tree, 

 the cotton sjDrouts, and gives you a start of three or four weeks over seed just planted. 

 The "Plauta" gives the best yield the third year; gives less, but a good crop, the 

 fourth and fifth ; and then produces as in the first and second years. The seed planted 

 is the black seed, like the Sea Island and Egyptian; staple long and fine. The green 

 seed, or American cotton seed, yields the first year better than the black seed will on 

 the third year, but as that seed will not rattoon or grow again from the roots, and the 

 expense of planting is so great, it is not generally used. Cotton produces a bale to 

 the acre ; corn and wheat most extraordinary crops in these rich alluvials. 



Cotton is plante^'i at Santa Rosalie, in the State of Chihuahua, but not to a great 

 extent ; the climate is almost too cold. This gives you all the information I have about 

 the cotton region. With the exception of the Nazas and the Santa Rosalie, no cotton 

 is grown in Mexico, except in the tropical regions of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, 

 as the rest of Mexico is generally table-land, with an altitude of from 3,000 to 7,000 

 feet, and a temperature too low for delicate vegetation. 



There is a mountain in the center of this vast alluvial plain of the laguna. In 

 caves in this mountain are to-day. the bodies of an extinct race of Indians, of whose 

 existence in this plain there is no history extant. The bodies or mummies I have 

 seen ; they are wrapped in a species of cloth, or matting made from the maguez, 

 painted, and all in good preservation; the skin has dried, the hair is perfect; all in 

 wonderful preservation. No iron, gold, silver, or other metal has been found in tht 

 cave. Pottery ware, of the same shai^e as the pictures we see of the old Egyptians, 

 arrow-heads, and spear-heads of flint. It really is remarkable, and induces the beliei 

 that some sudden overflow of the river submerged the plain and drowned all the peo- 

 ple ; they were evidently used to high water, as they buried their dead in the cavet 

 of the high mountains. There are thousands of mummies in these caves. Excuse 

 this long letter. 



Yours, respectfullv, 



H. P. BEE. 



Prof. C. V. Riley, Chi^f U. S. E. C. 



