pe for
his money and energies. Yet it is a feature of the industry, and of the
excellent conditions obtaining in the financial world of the Republic,
that good mines are easily financed within the country itself. Details
of the conditions of the mining regions are further set forth in the
chapter devoted to the natural resources of the various states.

CHAPTER XIV
NATURAL RESOURCES, AGRICULTURE, GENERAL CONDITIONS

Principal cultivated products--Timber--The three climatic zones--
General agricultural conditions--Waste of forests--Irrigation--Region
of the river Nazas--Canal-making--Cotton and sugar-cane--Profitable
agriculture--Mexican country-houses--Fruit gardens--Food products,
cereals, and fibrous plants--_Pulque_ production--India-rubber and
_guayule_--List of agricultural products and values--Fruit culture and
values--Forestry and land--Colonisation--American land-sharks--
Conditions of labour--Asiatics--Geographical distribution of products--
The States of the Pacific slope--Sonora--Lower California--Sinaloa--
Tepic--Jalisco--Colima--Michoacan--Guerrero--Oaxaca--Chiapas.

With its remarkable variations of climatic zones and great wealth and
variety of vegetation, it might have been supposed that agriculture,
not mining, would have been the great mainstay of Mexico. But the fame
of silver has overshadowed that of corn, wine, and oil, to the
country's detriment, in a certain sense. Agriculture must be the
foundation of greatness, in the long run, of any country, especially of
those which are not manufacturing communities--or even of those as time
goes on, and Mexico is beginning to recognise this fact. The mines are
valuable sources of wealth, but there will come a day when the mines
are worked out, leaving gaping holes in the ground, and the silver and
gold, or copper they contained, dispersed or enriching the private
pockets of aliens. It has been well said that if the capital expended
on mining in Mexico had been applied to the cultivation of the soil the
country would have been four times as rich as at present. Fortunately
those who come to mine often remain to till the ground, as happened in
California and elsewhere. I had almost said "fools who came to scoff
remained to pray!"

In former chapters the differences of the climatic zones have been set
forth; the hot lowlands, the temperate zone, and the cold regions
respectively, with their elevation limits above sea-level. These may be
further descr