Chapter XXXVI: Resources

Few Americans realize that Mexico was “discovered” and settled by Cortés a hundred years before any settlement was made in the United States. And in natural advantages no other portion of this marvellous western hemisphere can claim a place above her.

Mexico is the geographical centre of the earth, an imperial place in the great highways of the world. The country extends between fourteen degrees and thirty minutes and thirty-two degrees forty-two minutes north latitude, and between eighty-eight degrees fifty-four minutes and one hundred and nineteen degrees twenty-five minutes of longitude west of Greenwich.

The frontier line which separates Mexico from the United States starts near the mouth of the Rio Grande from a point in the sea three leagues from the coast, follows the line of the river to its intersection with the parallel of latitude thirty-one degrees thirty-seven minutes forty-seven seconds North (at Ciudad Juarez), runs in a straight line westward one hundred miles and then bends to the south to thirty-one degrees twenty minutes, then follows the parallel westward to one hundred and eleven degrees of longitude west from Greenwich, and continues in a straight line to a point at the Rio Colorado twenty miles from its confluence with the River Gila, then it turns toward the north of this confluence and bends toward the west, following the line between Lower and Upper California. From Ciudad Juarez westward the boundary lines are marked with two hundred and fifty-eight massive stone and iron monuments. It has a northern frontier of fourteen hundred, and a southern of three hundred and forty-five miles. It has a seaboard of sixteen hundred and seventy-seven miles on the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, two thousand and forty on the Gulf of California and four thousand four hundred and eight on the Pacific Ocean, making six thousand and eighty-six.

The area of this immense republic is nearly eight hundred thousand square miles. The face of the country is extremely diversified. The littoral regions are in general low and sandy, especially on the Atlantic side, where they were probably submerged at no remote period as far as the foot of the mountains. In no part of the republic within thirty miles of the sea does the land rise higher than one thousand feet, except, perhaps, in Chiapas, where the chain of the Mexican Andes presents a mural barrier facing the ocean, toward which the descent is exceedingly rapid. On the railway from Vera Cruz to the capital every variety of climate is experienced within the space of a few hours, and the natural productions peculiar to each are successively passed in review, from the sugar-cane, indigo plant and plantain of the tropics to the pines, firs, and lichens of the North.

The Valley of Mexico is an elliptical plain with an area of about nine hundred and forty square miles, fringed on the east, south and west, by lofty peaks, some of which are active volcanoes; the plain may be regarded as one vast volcanic hearth, roughed at intervals by isolated hills rising abruptly from the surrounding level. The most elevated summits are at the southeast, where Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl tower majestically over all the rest. So regular is the great plateau formed exclusively by the broad, undulating, flattened crest of the Mexican Andes, and so gentle are the slopes where depressions occur that the journey from Mexico to Santa Fé, New Mexico, might be performed in a four-wheeled vehicle.

There are seventeen mountains--ten of which are volcanoes--which are over ten thousand feet in height. Popocatepetl ranks first at seventeen thousand five hundred and forty feet, and Orizaba next at seventeen thousand one hundred and seventy-six feet.

The volcanic zone is about six hundred miles long from east to west, and over sixty miles wide. Its central line starts at the volcano of Colima near the Pacific and ends in the volcano of San Andres Tuxtla, near the north of Mexico.

The crest of these vast cordilleras, seen from the savannas of the coast, is defined from afar sometimes against a blue and all transparent sky, sometimes against a misty background. Granitic rocks or snowy peaks accentuate a country which rises in vast echelons to the central plateau. Bounded on the east and on the west by a succession of heights, which merge into the axis of the two grand mountain chains into which the cordillera divides, it is different in many points from those ranges which traverse South America and of which they are the continuation.

The mineral deposits of Mexico are richer than those of any other country, and it is known that still more valuable mines of silver and gold are being discovered.

The mines during the colonial period were crown property, and those who worked them paid one-fifth of the product to the king. When Mexico became independent they were declared public property and miners were required to pay into the national treasury only a small percentage of the yield. Even this tax was afterward abolished, and anyone can by right of discovery, denounce or record a mine and obtain authority to work a certain number of varas free of tribute. A slight tax, is however, imposed on melting and coining the metal.

Situated below the tropics, the climate of Mexico is not less uniform than diversified. The temperature of each locality is almost always the same, yet the different localities present many distinct temperatures.

There is comparatively little difference between summer and winter, except that one is the wet season and the other the dry. The climate can, as a whole, be classified as temperate, yet the country may be considered as divided into three zones--the hot, the temperate, and the cold.

The hot region of this country comprises the Peninsula of Yucatán, the State of Tabasco, and the greater part of the States of Vera Cruz and Tamaulipas near the coast. The torrid district on the Pacific Ocean extends to the Territory of Lower California.

The cold district and the central plateau occupy the plains on the north of the States of Michoacán and Mexico, the Federal District, the northern and eastern parts of the State of Puebla, the States of Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Querétaro, and Guanajuato, part of Jalisco, the State of San Luis Potosí, except its western part, the States of Aguascalientes and Zacatecas, and the Plains of Durango.

The healthiest climates are, of course, the driest ones, whether hot or cold. Mineral springs abound on the tablelands and on the slopes of the cordilleras.

The mean temperature of the city of Mexico is about fifty-eight degrees Fahrenheit the year through. In no other country does the temperature become so much cooler after sunset, and one may walk a mile even at noon under the tropical sun without fatigue.

The rainy season begins at the end of May and lasts into October. During this time the sun comes out brightly in the morning, about noon pleasant showers without wind or violence come up, and by sunset all is bright again. On the Pacific Coast between the twenty-fifth and thirty-fifth parallels the case is reversed, and the rainy season falls in the winter months. The difference between winter and summer is hardly felt. In the rainy season the climate during the day time is slightly cooler, but altogether delightful.

The soil throughout Mexico is, for the most part, extremely fertile. Artificial irrigation is in many places resorted to, and is effected by dams or canals. Developed property is estimated at over one billion pesos and the vegetation everywhere is magnificent.

Every variety of fruit known in Europe or America is found usually growing in profusion. Owing to the peculiar structure of the country all fruits, with every kind of garden vegetable, may be obtained in the Mexican markets the year round.

The flowers of Mexico are among the richest and most varied in the world. On Sunday mornings the streets of the capital are literally enamelled with blossoms of the most fragrant perfumes and most brilliant colors.

The fields in the hot districts are adorned with the beautiful green of the tobacco, the sugar-cane, and the pampas grass of the coast region; and the plantations of mangrove-trees, and the bamboo with its branching foliage, give shade to the river banks. In the virgin forests are gigantic fir-trees, with immense cedars, mahogany trees, and many others rich in foliage as well as useful for their fruits and woods. The most luxuriant vines trail from the highest branches of the trees, and many varieties of orchids are found.

In the temperate regions the character of the vegetation changes, but its beauty does not lessen. Magnificent forests of liquidamber, various kinds of oak, laurel, magnolia, and myrtle, cover the base of the mountains; mosses, ferns, and lichens carpet the smooth surface of the rocks, as also the rough bark of the trees. Every dale or glen is an orchard where one can gather the most palatable of fruits while enjoying the most delightful breezes, and where the sighing of the winds, the singing of the birds, and the murmur of the waterfalls make sweetest music.

In a country so teeming with foliage and brilliant flowers, the soil is naturally fertile and productive, because of its richness agriculture is perhaps the easiest and most useful occupation.

Mr. John Barrett, Director General of the Bureau of American Republics, says: “Mexico is not only a land of great natural resources in the process of utilization, but of vast potentialities capable of remarkable development. Mexico has such a variety of natural products, such agricultural and mineral wealth, such mingling of fertile plateaus and valleys with large timber areas, such extensive coast lines on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides of America, such a network of railways, and, with all, such a progressive government under the able direction of General Diaz, that few, if any, countries in the world have, in proportion to population and area, better prospects and greater possibilities for the future.”

Mr. Barrett has made a study of all Latin America and has always been particularly interested in the Republic of Mexico.

In the cultivated regions is grown the maguey, from which the national drink, pulque, is extracted. It grows on the great plains and plateaus at a height of over seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. On the Plains of Apam, as far as the eye can reach it encounters long rows of these plants, about nine feet apart.

The maguey, or agave americana, grows not only in fields, which are planted thickly, but in ditches set along the fences, and in many odd corners which seem to be good for nothing else. It grows in good land to a great size, the central stem often attaining a height of twenty-five or thirty feet and a diameter of twelve or fifteen inches; the branches in some instances are a foot and a half wide and four or five inches thick. One maguey plant frequently yields a hundred and fifty gallons of pulque. A single plant will often yield four hundred and fifty-two cubic inches in twenty-four hours.

One can scarcely imagine the appearance of these immense maguey plantations. In the country between Mexico and Vera Cruz for hundreds of miles the plains and hillsides are seen covered with long, close lines of agave in every stage, from the strong, large, generous beauty of the full-grown plant to the young, tender green of the newly transplanted shoots. The plant combines within itself a dozen different materials for comfort and use. Growing in an absolutely dry soil, with no help from irrigation, it has the property of condensing moisture and coolness about its roots, which makes it yield at full growth an incredible amount of liquid.

The maguey furnishes two other liquors, not unlike our brandy and whiskey, very intoxicating, but very little used.

It supplies the native, besides, with a primitive needle and thread; it gives a species of hempen cloth from the coarser tissue and of paper from the inner pulp; it provides a good thatch for houses; and the débris, dried, makes fuel in regions where wood is scarce.

It is said to be the most wholesome drink in the world, and remarkably agreeable when one has overcome the first shock occasioned by its rancid odor. At all events, the maguey is a source of unfailing profit, the consumption of pulque being enormous, so that many of the richest families in the capital owe their fortune entirely to the produce of their magueys.

Of recent years Mexico has come forward with a new resource that bids fair to outrival the United States in oil production. The oil fields in various parts of the country have developed to such an extent that many prospectors from Europe as well as other parts of America have reaped great results.

There is a curious production of nature, the organos, which resembles the barrels of pipes of an organ. The plants growing close together and about six feet high and being covered with prickles, make the strongest natural fence imaginable, besides being covered with beautiful flowers.

The sugar-cane was unknown to the ancient Mexicans, who made syrup of honey and also from the maguey, and sugar from the stalk of maize. The sugar-cane was brought by the Spaniards from the Canary Islands to Santo Domingo, whence it passed to Cuba and Mexico. The first sugar-canes were planted in 1520, by Don Pedro de Atienza. The first cylinders were constructed by Gonzalez de Velosa and the first sugar mills built by the Spaniards at that time were worked by hydraulic wheels, and not by horses. Humboldt, who examined the will of Cortés, said that the conqueror had left sugar-plantations near Coyoacan.

There is no enterprise in Mexico at the present time which can be compared with coffee culture. Mexico is admirably adapted to coffee growing, and her coffee ranks among the finest in the world. The finest quality is produced in Colima, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Morelos, and Vera Cruz.

The soil and climatic conditions necessary to the successful production of the coffee-berry are so peculiar that, though it grows in all countries between the tropics, the acreage exactly adapted to it is comparatively small. Entire absence of extremes of heat and cold, a moist atmosphere, fertile soil, and freedom from drought, are indispensable to the production of remunerative crops.

Among the few districts in the world where the vanilla bean grows are the States of Jalisco and Hidalgo, Vera Cruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca. The exportation of this product has given Mexico an enviable reputation, as its properties are most favorably known abroad.

Tobacco is cultivated in several places in the States of Vera Cruz, Tabasco, Campeche and Yucatán. An excellent grade is raised and there has been a great increase in the exportation lately. It was introduced into Mexico during the Cuban War, and cigars were made by the refugees.

To the process of manufacture which the Cuban immigrants brought into Mexico is due the progress made in this branch of the national industry.

There are favorable conditions for cotton culture, and Mexico might easily rival the United States and the Indies. The use of cotton clothes was, in fact, general with the ancient Mexicans; and from the beginning of this century cotton was worth at Vera Cruz three or four times less than anywhere else.

Henequen, of all the textile plants which abound in Mexico, is one which is the most assiduously cultivated.

The “Pita,” which abounds in a wild state in Oaxaca gives a fibre resembling that of the ramie and answering the same purposes. Ropes made with Oaxaca pita are four times stronger than those of hemp.

The cultivation of the India-rubber tree has become very profitable. Young trees transplanted from a forest to a cultivated field in Soconusco have yielded rubber for more than thirty-five years, the present annual product is averaging more than fifty pounds of gum for each tree.

The Mexican gum deserves to be taken into consideration. The plants which produce it are found in considerable quantities in all the forests of the hot districts, and especially in those of the States of Vera Cruz, Tamaulipas, and Tabasco, and on the Pacific slope, on the coast of the States of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tepic, etc. It is stated that in Tuxpan the milk drawn from the rubber trees is placed in earthenware jars and whipped with a weed called coyuntla which is an astringent that causes the milk to curdle, making the crude rubber.

The mulberry tree, to which place is here given because it is the indispensable complement of the silk industry, grows in both hot and temperate climates. Under the colonial régime several successful attempts to plant mulberry trees were made in Mexico.

The tree grows with great rapidity in this country. Besides the plantations of small shoots, there have been made considerable plantings of the mulberry seed, which have proved profitable.

The interest taken by Japan in the resources of Mexico was evident by the number of representatives that country sent to make a complete study of the conditions, in order to increase the trade between the two countries. An exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts in Mexico City during the Centennial was one of the interesting features. It was under the direction of the Japanese Chargé d’affaires, Honorable Kuma Horigoutchi, who has done so much to promote a friendly relation between the two nations.