Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-03-08

sugar-cane, coffee (tne coffee OF Jruapam
is equal to the best Mocha), tobacco, cot
ton, cocoa, indigo, vanilla, the agave
(maguey; producing an exceedingly
valuable fibre and yielding a juice from
which pulque is made), and various medi-
cinal plants, of which the more important
are sarsaparilla and ialap. Fruits, large
and small, are cultivated; and in the hot
lands great variety of tropical fruits
grow wild.
Mineral Products. Mexico's greatest
source of wealth is her mines. Extend
| ing from Sonora to Oaxaca, distance of
500 miles, is a region of extraordinary
mineral richness. Silver, together with
relatively small amount of gold. is
found principally in Sonora, chihuahua,
Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato
and Hidalgo; platina in Vera Cruz and
can, Guanajuato, Sonora and Lower Cal
ifornia; iron in Hidalgo, Guanaiuato,
Jalisco and Durango-in which latter
State an enormous mass of magnetic iron
exists; lead in Zacatecas, Sonora, Oaxaca
and Mexico; tin in Guanajuato and Chi
huahua; zinc in Guerrero; quicksilver in
San Luis Potosi and Tabasco; cinnabar
in Guanaiuato, Zacatecas, San Luis Poto-
81 and Guerrero; alum in Puebla and
Michoacan; bismuth in Zacatecas salt in
San Luis Potosi and elsewhere; sulphur
in the crater of Popocatepetl; asphalt in
Tamaulipas and Vera Cruz; naphtha in
the Federal District. Petroleum has been
found in Tabasco, Oaxaca and Vera Cruz,
but from the fact that it remains unde-
veloped. the inference may be drawn that
it is of poor quality. Thoroughly carbon
lied coal has not yet been discovered in
Mexico. The annual output of silver, III
round numbers, is about $4,000, 900. The
output of all other minerals together
probably amounts to five million of dol
lars more each year. The total silver
coinage in Mexico, from the establish
ment of the royal mint O537N until the
present year, probably amounts to about
$500 100000.
MANUFACTURES. Although surrounded
by perfect Chinese wall of prohibitory
tariff, Mexico is very far from being a
manufacturing country. Yet it is a fact
of much economical and sociological i'm
portance that such manufactures as the
mass of the people requre-cotton cloth
(mdntd), woollen blankets (zaropes),
woollen cloth (tejiloS de land), cotton
cbaIylc (raI.e,oN
ing saddles, shoes and clothing), coarse
pottery OoEd), hats of felt and of straw
all are of native production.
COTTON Goods. OF these several manu-
features that of cotton is the most mpor-
tant. 1t is estimated that 10000, DOC lbs.
of cotton (the greater portion of which is
grown in MeXico) annually is consumed,
and that upward of $4,000 families are
supported (in field work and mill work.
by this industry. The cotton-mils usu-
ally are provided with English machinery
of approved type, and the business is
carried on by a few operators upon a
large scale.
II'ooUea Goods. Wool-spinning, on the
contrary. is carried on Excepting the
manufacture of woolen cloth) by great
many operators upon small scale. Ger
tain towns-as Saltllo and San Miguel
de Allcnde-are famous for their manu-
facture of zdr0pes, but the work is car
ried on upon scattered looms of coarse,
native construction. set up singly in pri-
yate houses. Even Mexican statisticians.
whose Willingness to guess at almost
anything is quite phenomenal, never have
; attempted to guess at how many zarapes
: are made annually in Mexico. The man
ufacture really is very important one.
for every Mexican has zdrqpe, that he
uses as IA cloak by day and a blanket by
night-a continuous usage that must call
for comparatively frequent renewals of
this useful article. Woollen-mills-of
: which there are about score in the re-
public-are capable of being handled with
certain degree of detniteness. That
painfully exact statistican, Senior Garcia
Cubas, tells US that three mills in the
Federal District produce annually 1872 900
, pieces of cloth; that three in the State of
: Mexico produce 100000 pieces of cloth
and floor-carpet; that five in the State of
Puebla produce $4,000 pounds of yarn;
1 that three in the State of Hidalgo pro-
e duce l25,O00 pieces of cloth that various
5 mills in the State of Guanajuato produce
: $4,000 cuts of cloth, and $4,000 varas of
floor-carpet; that there is a woollen-mll
B, in the City of Mexico, in the Callejon del
: Bosque. He thoughtfully adds that the
: cuts of cloth vary in value from 1928 to
7 SIPS, and that the floor-carpet is worth
/, from S34 cents to Sl.25 the vara. And
t this is a very fair specimen Iof what is
: supposed in Mexico to be statistical in
5 formation.
Pottery. The third great manufacture
of the country, coarse pottery, is carried