Feb. i 1895.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 53' 
poverty-stricken country. He wonders that such a 
country as the United States, with all its luxuries 
and conveniences, can be on one side of the Rio 
Grande, and that such a country as Mexico can be 
its nearest neighbour, and only separated by a narrow 
river. On one river bank the nineteenth century, on 
the other bank the seventeenth. 
On tne plateau there is nothing to compare to 
the small farms of the United States. There are 
only haciendas with here and there small improve- 
ments. There are no public roads and no lumber 
wagons. All produce is carried on the backs of burros 
or mules, or hauled in carts witli pondrous wheels. It is 
uo unusual sight to see burros carrying a load of 
stalks and other burdens so large that only the feet 
of the animal can be seen. Half barrels of water, 
boxes of merchandise and machinery are carried by 
these hardy and docile animals. At the mining town 
of Matehuala several carts were seen that had 
brought the timbers from the mountain range seventy- 
five miles east. Each two-wheeled cart had as many 
timbers piled upon it as it could carry, and to it 
was hitched a mass of trace-chains, whiffie-trees, 
wreckage of harness and incidentally eleven mules 
— one in the thills and one on each side of the 
thills ; four abreast hitched to the thills and four 
abreast in the load. This mass of wreckage and 
mule-yard required one cart driver and one outrider 
to sail it. One Yankee with a four-mule team and 
four-wheeled wagon would have readily hauled the 
same load. 
Desiring to drive a distance of thirty miles with a 
party of three over a level trail, the only rig possible 
to secure in Cedral was a canvas-covered apology for 
a coach with five mules for motive power, one 
driver to steer the outfit and one outrunner to chase 
the leaders, whip them and throw stones and 
sticks at them. We saw no reason why such wagons 
as are used in the United States could not be 
used in that section of the country. But, 
" it is the custom of the country," and that 
ia one thing that never — that is, hardly ever — 
changes in Mexico. It is the plateau country that 
has, perhaps, given us a poor opinion in the United 
8tates of tne Mexicans. We have only seen a class 
of Mexicans in this country who are here often for 
their health and who are termed " greasers." 
In Mexico tho better classes have seen more of 
Our tramps and criminals than they have of our 
best citizens, hence it is not to be wondered at that 
the better classes there have as poor an opinion 
of the " Gringos" from the United States, as we 
do of the class termed greasers. The traveller 
finds the landed proprietor, the merchant, the 
dealers, government officials and the Mexicans 
generally to compare favorably with the people of 
the United States. It is only the mot polite people 
of the States that can hold their own with the Mexi- 
cans in every day intercourse. American travellers 
are treated with great courtesy in Mexico. Tho 
Mexican gentleman seemed never to fail in courtesy, 
however rude the stranger may bo. We sometimes 
were embarrassed by the rudeness of fellow Ameri- 
cans, but the courteous Mexicans overlook any 
breaches of good mann ita without notice. 
As we go South toward the City of Mexico, the 
barren-appearing plateau gives way to green vege- 
tation, improved tracts of land and more general ap- 
?earances of wealth and comfort as we n :;ir San Louis 
'otosi. Mexico improves with the traveller as he goes 
South, and in the City of .Mexico he is delighted 
with all ho sees. It is a beautiful city, very clean and 
with so much clear sunshine and temperate weather 
tho year around that it is entrancing to a citizen of 
" Del Norte" who has just left tho snow, sleet and 
ice of his native country. 
A stroll in the beautiful Alameda (a world-re- 
nowned park) in mid-winter, with the bright sunlight 
gilding its still summery dress is a pleasure, it is a 
ploasure to drop into the rooms of our consul- 
general, tho Hon. T. T. Crittenden, or that of our 
minister, Mr. Grey, both of which face the park, and 
while (hatting With tho vory agreeable attaches of 
tho offices, driuk in through the open windows tho 
" etheroal mildness " of this fortunate and distressed, 
this very rich and very poor, this most promising and 
most discouraging republic. There are no arrange- 
ments for heating in the houses of Mexico and 
rarely ever any necessity for them. In summer the 
heat is never so great, at any altitude above 2,500 
feet, as that which existed in the western United 
States from June 5th, to September 5th, this year. 
Except in the Tierra Caliente (the low, hot coast 
regions) the climate of Mexico is far superior to 
that of the United States, except perhaps a portion 
of Southern California. One can but admire it and 
wonder at it hourly. 
The land prospector is perhaps most interested in 
learning the political conditions of the country and the 
probable stability of the government. Whatever Mexico 
is today in its high stand amongst the governments 
of the world is due largely to the talents of its re- 
markable president. He who has read Mexican history 
and has travelled through the land must acknowledge 
the genius of Porifio Diaz, who has made law and 
order respected in Mexico and who has made Mexican 
credit respected in the financial centers of the world. 
The aristocrats of the republic, those we may term 
the descendants of the conquistadors, are not perhaps 
in sympathy with him. He is an Indian and proud 
of it. As we go about the length and breadth of 
the republic unarmed and in perfect safety, the heart 
beats with a freeman's pride that this i3 a free 
country, ruled by a native citizen, whose almost 
regal authority is tempered with such wise judg- 
ments for the greatest good of his heretofore distracted 
countrymen. It is conceded in Mexico that there will be 
no internal troubles as long as Diaz lives. It is the 
universal opinion of Americans in Mexico that the 
mass of the leading Mexicans now realize the beni- 
fits of a settled government and that there will be 
no more revolutions in that country. In proof of this 
we find Americans settled in every state and large 
numbers of them are at this time buying coffee lands 
in different parts of the republic. 
Regarding revolutions in Mexico, new elements have 
appeared, the telegraph and the railroads. It is now 
impossible for a revolution to gain any headway before 
it is known and crushed out. Disappointed ambition 
cannot ever hope again for relief in revolution in 
Mexico. 
Those-American3 who fear personal danger in visit- 
ing Mexico should know that there is more crime com- 
mitted in the United States every day than is com- 
mitted in all Mexico in a month. 
Occasionally we learn of some American with con- 
siderable sums of money upon his person who has 
gone into some wild portion of the country unguarded 
and who has been murdered for his money For every 
one such in Mexico there are 100 in the United States. 
The writer procured the best revolver to be had of 
St. Louis house, carried it a few weeks in Mexico a: id then 
sold it at a sacrifice as a useless ornament. It is 
only necessary there to use the ordinary caution 
that a stranger in a land of strange customs should 
use. While this is true it should be stated that the 
Mexican, going about the country, always carries a 
large revolver and hunting-knife in his belt. He 
sometimes has a sword or "Machete" attached to 
his saddle. He says that he carries them for " show," 
to scare the Indian. (The poor Indian, whose every 
spark of grit has been ground out of him and who 
dare not claim his soul for his own.) So far as the 
writer is concerned, if any one will guarantee him 
against the Mexican and his armament, he will 
guarantee himself against the Indians, except thooe 
in the north-western part of the republic. 
Nearly every American iu the City of Mexico has 
some land for sale, or knows some one who has or 
can put a fellow "Gringos" from the United States 
on to some special bargain. Tho real estate agents 
of the capital city are not inferior in any respect to 
their brethren of the United States. It was soon 
ascertained that tho general opinion is that coffee 
cannot be successfully raised below an altitude of 
2,500 feet and that all the coffee districts of Metico 
range from 2,00 to 45,000 feet in height. It requires 
but a short examination of the maps to docido that 
tho location of lands at that height is such as to 
procludo tho possibility of successfully raising bananas, 
