The Portland daily press., 1888-02-03
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS.
Growing Steadily Larger and Closer
Between the United States and
Mexico.

| CITY OF MEXICO, Mexico, Jan. Al have
for a number Of years watched the newspa
pers published in the principal cities of the
| United States in order to note the increase
| In the commercial relations between that
country and Mexico; for l believe that as
our country is opened up by railroads and
| all other such improvements tending to make
| the productions of Mexico more attainable,
| the attention of foreign capitalists will be
| drawn to the many natural resources that
we possess. The widely varying elevations
| of different parts Of our country, affording
almost every variety Of climates, making
certain products indigenous to our soil that
| either cannot be grown or else do not reach
an equal state of perfection elsewhere, and
which have peculiar merits which cannot but
be appreciated in the future when they are
better known to foreign capitalists, and thu s
lead to large export trade.
Our great wealth in hard woods, mines
and fibres also off ers tempting attractions to
capitalists, and as our facilities for trans
| portation and the knowledge of our products
| possessed by foreigners increase, SO will our
relations with the outside world widen. The
| great difficulty thus far has been this limited
knowledge, the inaccessibilty of large por-
ton of our country, and the expense attend
ing the transportation of our products to the
sea coast for shipment abroad; but these i'm
pediments are decreasing every year with the
increased amount of territory opened up by
new railroads, canals, etc.
As one having the best interests of my
country at heart, l have endeavored to en-
courage as much as possible, Mexico's COM
mercial intercourse with her sister republic;
and I have tried to make our product ons
better known in that country by laying them
before her public through her press, know
ing that such thrifty people cannot but be
interested in products which they require in
their everyday life, and which only need to
| be brought to the notice of her business men
to make them OF great commercial value, and
| thus lead to large and important commerce
| between the two countries.
Prominent among these products which |
wish to call to the attention of your readers,
are those extracted from the maguey plant.
Ny reasons for writing about these now are,
that | have noticed by the papers that the
| juice of this plant is being introduced in the
United States, and because the raising of the
maguey plant and the extraction of its pro-,
ducts form one of our principal occupations
as out of the 100000 population of the re-
public Of Mexico, there are probably at
least 3o0, 900 people interested in this indus
try, directly or indirectly. The juice, called
pulque about which l will speak later on)
has, for centuries, been popular and well
known here as a medicine and beverage
food. This juice and the fibre of the plant,
upon the extraction Of the latter, of which,
in a merchantable form, much thought and
money have been spent for many years, make
the possibilities of the maguey plant prod
ucts something destined to attract as much
commercial attention between the two coun-
tries as perhaps anything else growing in
the republic of Mexico.
The very beneficial medicinal properties
of this pleasant and inyigorating juice are,
no doubt, great revelation to the United
States because 1t is only within the last few
been discovered so that it could be exported.
Prior to that discovery its knowledge and
consumption were necessarily limited to the
places where it Is produced, although its
medicinal properties have been known and
many afflicted foreigners. have, visited our
pulque fields to regain their lost health.
Pulque, as perhaps you already. know, Is
simply the slightly, fermented juice Of the
handsome plant called maguey, which be-
longs botanically to the genus agaye. This
last word is of Greek origin, and signifies
mobility" SO that being applied as the gen.
eral designation OF certain class OF plants,
they possess, and which science has recog-
nized since the remotest times when its clas-
sifcation was made by naturalists. There
are agave Americana and agave oriental but
the latter is greatly inferior to the former in
its various species, and none OF them yield
pulque.
In this city everybody takes pulque as
customary thing, and the wealthiest and
most distinguished families use it, because
they consider it very beneficial to the health.
Physicians prescribe it constantly because
its hygienic and medicinal properties
are so well known aud established. The fecu-
la, the gum, the sugar and the salts of
lime and potash which 1t contains make 1t
more powerful agent than iron in enriching
the blood without causing the inconven-
fence and harm occasioned to the stomach
by the use of that metal. 1t is for this reason
that pulque is highly appreciated and sue
tcessully cures anemia, chlorosis, ETC., st0m-
ach complaints, want of digestive force,
lassitude of the nerves, insomnia, kidney
troubles of all kinds and many other affec-
tions which are too numerous to mention.
These reflections, which are founded on
historical truth and scientific experience,
make me convinced that the expectation of
pulque to the United States will go on in
creasing daily, an event which would be
extremely advantageous to. both countries,
as thereby, humanity, industry and com
merce would be benefited.
| hope soon to write you concerning the
advantages which the expectation of other
of our national products would present to
both countries, according to the opinion of
competent persons with whom l am in fire.
quent contact owing to my position and
profession. A. LANCASTER JONES,