The Green Forest tribune., 1893-09-07
LETTER FROM old MEXICO.
BY C. e. YoEEMAN,

,pilod and combined. Friend, was
you ever sea-siek !? If you never
was | hope you will be some time.
Then you can sympathize with me.
The matter of sympathy is the only
pleasure of being sea.sick.
The Yaqua did not sink, but as
the sun rose-I would have said
gloriously when 1 started we
steamed into Topolobampo Bay. |
was so thin | could hide behind a
straw, and was sea-sick for two or
three days after / landed, and felt
like the fellow who SAID, call drunk
but me-"
We were rendered warm well
come by the colonists here. A for
NAL reception was given in the
evening, some OF the main features
of which were nice music and
speeches by prominent men and
women ofthe Colony.
Topolobampo Bay is 200 miles
south of Guymas on the western
coast of the republic of Mexico.
The harbor consists OF the outer
bay and inner, or bay proper. The
latter contains fifty-four square
miles OF as good deep-water harbor
las can be found anywhere.
The bay and surrounding country
has been granted to A. K. Owen,
the promulgator of this movement,
if he will establish a colony here
and grant the land to the colonists.
The country surrounding the bay Is
mountainous; but when you 60
over the mountains from our Bay
Camp, the level sandy plain
stretches away for miles upon
mikes, as pretty laying and produc-
tive as can bo imagined. But the
country is arid and dry except DUR
ing the rainy soason-July, August
and September, Only one crop
,can be raised in that time and that
not sure, except with irrigation.
1t has been proven that the only
really successful way to farm any
where is by irrigation. 1t pays in
the north where only one crop per
year can be raised, and it pays
'doubly so here where four and even
five and six of some things can be
produced. All the cereals grow to
a perfection which is not surpassed
or even equalled in the United
States. The company has built
canal seven miles long which con-
-tains water to irrigate thousands
of acres of land. The ditch or canal
was just finished one year ago in
this month. The colonists then
went to clearing and planting and
subsequently to harvesting. 1t is
one continual seed-time and harves,
here from New Years day until
Christmas.
This is fine place for fruit, all
kinds grow alike here, tropical,
semitropical, and temperate varie-
ties. | have not been out to the
colony farm yet, but expect to visit
1t soon. The two months we have
been here have been spent drinking
an the wonders of this new and
strange land, and we have, found
quite enough to occupy our spare
moments. Most of the colony live
out on the farm, IA miles from the
bay. The canal will be extended
to the bay this fall and that will
lay all the intervening land OPEN
for farming. The land is covered
with dense growth of small trees
and brush which consists of mus
kect, a very valuable wood, ebony,
mahogany, gumarabic, and paltia
and acho cactus, and various other
kinds of trees whose names I can
not remember sufficiently to repeat.
The coast plain west of the Sierra
Madra Mountains, a part of which
Sinaioa comprises, is only sparsely
settled by Mexlcans and Indians
along the river courses and coast,
who, tor the most part, live by
hunting and fishing.
The sugar industry promises TO
be one of the greatest of our many
resources, besides numbering and
mining in the mountains east of us,
horticulture and agriculture on the
plain, and our fisheries at the bay,
while the raising of stock and many
minor Industries are very success
full. II naturally follows that all
these products necessitute factories