forest, 250,000 square miles of well-timbered land, and about 500,000
square miles of uncultivated land. Mexican authorities state that "the
regions of Oaxaca and Chiapas have no rival, not even Brazil, in the
possibilities of production of excellent grades of coffee, in unlimited
quantities; that the plateau can produce unlimited quantities of wheat,
even to supply foreign markets; that Vera Cruz, Tabasco, and Tepic are
capable of replacing Cuba in the quality and quantity of its tobacco;
and that the northern states could supply food for millions of cattle."
Yet, notwithstanding these conditions, the export trade of produce is
almost _nil_, nor are the general methods of agriculture but backward
as a rule. There are several causes for this--the lack of roads and
railways, the lack of labour; and the general ignorance of the farming
population. All these reasons are officially adduced, and strong
efforts are constantly made by the Government to encourage agricultural
development. Trustworthy information is supplied to the farmers, and
seeds and cuttings of imported plants--olives, vines, fruit-trees,
flax, tobacco, &c.--are gratuitously distributed.

The indiscriminate and wasteful felling of forests is now being
restricted by the authorities to some extent. Great areas have already
been denuded, and it is stated that this has had some undesirable
effect on the rainfall in certain regions. The natives of the more
remote districts--as in the States of Vera Cruz, Guerrero, &c., are
abominably wasteful in timber-cutting, sacrificing whole trees for the
obtaining of a single plank at times. There is a nomadic race of Indian
agriculturists in Guerrero who destroy large areas of forest every
year, burning the trees to plant corn upon spaces which they never use
for two years in succession. These nomadic timber-destroyers are known
as _Tlacoleros_, and they are extremely timid and superstitious in
their dealings with the white men.

Mexico, like other Western American states, is a country whose
agriculture depends much upon artificial irrigation. Whilst much good
work has been carried out in this field, much remains to be done; and
the want of irrigation works is almost as serious a drawback as the
want of labour. The singular topographical formation of Mexico has
robbed it of natural irrigation facilities--steep slopes facing the
oceans and a high riverless plateau war against the retention and
absorption of the rain-water