Pomona College Journal oe Economic Botany 61 



very cordially shown about through the several departments of work. While 

 very little stress is being laid on experimentation with trees adapted to the 

 surrounding conditions, still some very good work is being started in ex- 

 perimental dry farming of corn and other crops. 



Looking back over the whole season's work we may note that although a 

 great deal of difficulty was met in operating during the rainy months and the 

 work thus hindered, yet collections made at just this season often exhibit forms 

 unknown to other seasons. Another expedition in the winter months follow- 

 ing in general the same itinerary would undoubtedly give very interesting 

 results in a comparative way. 



All the specimens collected were forwarded immediately to Pomona College. 

 There all the insects, amounting to above fifty thousand specimens, will be 

 mounted and preserved. Most of the entire collections have been presented to 

 the college museum, but some groups will be presented to other museums or 

 offered for sale or exchange. 



As is suggested by the fact that the entire Republic has but four agricultural 

 experiment stations, agriculture has not yet reached the plane which it is 

 hoped it soon will attain. There are three evident reasons for this. First, 

 the Mexican as a rule is not naturally a farmer. Most of the land is divided 

 into tracts known as haciendas and the owners of these tracts are nearly 

 always Mexicans or Spaniards, who are called hacendados. Unfortunately 

 the majority prefer greatly to allow their farms to be run by subordinates 

 while they themselves spend almost their entire time in the city. As a result 

 of this the hacendado cares very little how his place is run or what is done 

 in the way of planting, and quite naturally will not give attention to any 

 agricultural innovations. Second, the native Indians, who constitute largely 

 the peon class and who do most of the actual farming which is done in the 

 Republic, know absolutely nothing of agricultural methods except what they 

 learned from their grandfathers and great-grandfathers. If one asks an In- 

 dian farmer why he does this or that he answers : "My father did it this way 

 and his father taught him, so why should I not do it, also?" But in spite of 

 this trait, if the Indian is shown something new and shozwi that it is better 

 and more remunerative than what he has, he will, as a rule, give it a trial. 

 And this brings us to the third reason, the lack of experimental stations and 

 demonstration farms to actually show the native farmers what are the best 

 crops for his soil and what are the best methods of raising those crops and 

 tilling his soil. And this third reason is, after all, the most important because 

 the hacendado will simply lose his property to some one who can farm it if 

 he does not wish to, and the Indian can be educated to decent methods of 

 agriculture if he will or else drop out, but agricultural conditions in Mexico 

 will never improve to any appreciable extent if good, practical, and efficiently 

 managed experimental stations and demonstration farms are not established 

 soon in greater numbers than at present exist. Until this change for the 

 better takes place the land will continue to produce less than it is capable of 



