Arizona republican., 1907-05-18
FIRST WHEELED VEHICLE
THAT ROLLED IN AMERICA
Another interesting Letter by w. H..
Greene, on The Glories Of Southern
Mexico.

Tampico Mexico May 10.-(Special
correspondence of The Republican,
In my last letter / stated that / would
show In my next that the first wheeled
vehicle that rolled on the American
continent was here in Mexico in the
state of Vera Cruz. just across the
river.
The New York Evening Post says:
There was never a wheel turned OF
the western hemisphere until about
the year 1923 or 1924. when Sebastian
de Aparicio brought some carts over
from Spain and began hauling freight
and passengers between Vera Cruz
and the City of Mexico. He grew
wealthy. moved to Pueblo. became a
lay brother of the Franciscans and
died. full of years. piety and honor in
1900. ninety eight years of age"
So il seems that Mexico had wheeled
vehicles a hundred years before 1.-The
landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at
Plymouth Rock" And right across
the river is Pueblo Veto. the oldest
European settlement on the American
continent; 400 years old. Here Ponce
de Leon. the Spanish explorer, landed
his fleet after the death and burial of
De Soto in the Red. or Mississippi
| river; sailing across the Gulf of Mex
leo and up the Panuco river. where the
natives told fabulous stories of the
fountain of perpetual youth. which
the Spaniards supposed was here in
| the great spring which gushes out Of
the hill, and which can be seen any
| day in the back part Of this little, old,
ancient tiled roof covered town.
| | am not going TO say much about
the country myself in this letter. but
| will let others do so; and will simply
quote from the Tampico Post of to-
/ days issue the following:
A Travellers Estimate of the Tropics
or Mexico.
Extracts from a series of letters
written by B. r. Fisher of Steubens-
vile. Ohio. during the month of jan
uary 1904.
Mr.. Fisher has Travelled extensively
/ in Europe and America. and is fully
! competent to arrive at correct conclu-
sions. He says:
| found the people honest. kind. hos
pitable and courteous. This land en-
| joys great blessings in its forests of
mahogany. cedar. rosewood. zapote
ocu and about sixty other varieties Of
both hard and soft woods. suitable for
manufactures and all common uses;
| best of all. there is the wild rubber
tree. The soil is so rich il will pro-
duce exhuberantly all the fruits OF the
| tropical and temperate zones. almost
without cultivation. Cattle. horses
hogs and domestic fowls find an easy
| existence, are healthy and do WELL
while the tropical and common fruits
products. nuts, berries and corn will
grow almost anywhere. The latter
produces two regular crops per year
| havn't particle of hesitation in say
ing that any ordinarily intelligent
American with sufficient capital to
buy himself a farm. and sufficient en-
ergy to develop it. would become indie
pendently rich in from six 10 eight
years. The soil is rich and inexhaust-
ible. the climate is summer the year
| round; the rainfall is from so to 100
inches per annum.
The conditions will produce i'm
mense wealth. The foreigners (prin-
cipally Americans) have discovered
the great secret Of the latent power
and resources of this great country
so wonderful. and are developing
large plantations in every locality:
growing hundreds of thousands OF
acres of sugar cane. rubber. pineapples
rice, bananas. coffe. tobacco. cotton.
corn. para and other fattening grasses
l saw hundreds of thousands of rubber
trees tapped. many trees personally.
with good results. owing TO age of
tree; saw hundreds of thousands of
sugar cane running from fifty to
eighty tons TO the acre being ground
and made into sugar. the molasses into
alcohol; saw thousands of cattle graz
ing on grasses that are always green:
and saw numerous orchards and PLAN
tations Of bananas. oranges, lines.
lemons. pineapples. cacao. coffee. man.
goes. mameyes. zapotes. yucca. rice
etc. in all states of development. and
tasted all kinds of. to me. nameless
fruits from wild trees and vines.
Frankly. there are some mistakes be-
ing made. and some failures to be add
ed to the account Cthe smae as i'm all
classes of business) but they cannot
be blamed TO the soil or climate, which
causes suga1 cane to grow from 10 to
% feet s inches tall by actual meas
urement makes green fence posts
grow and adorns them with beautiful
flowers and fruit without irrigation)
which produces in one year a crop of
bananas. and two good crops of corn
per annum. Imagine if you can. all
the valuable crops that can be pro-
duced here. These lands will outrival
any wealth producing district of equal
extent. on earth. Tropical agriculture
Is destined to become one of the
greatest wealth producers on the
American continent. This will be an
evolution and one of a few years
time. II is as definite and absolute
OF results as the law of succession of
day and night.
One more extract and We will close
by letting others do the talking princi-
pally, this time. We believe these are
facts
w. r. Stone of the Court of Private
Land Claims. writes the following to a
friend who writes him about Mexico:
by the way. rubber is soon going
to become king in the way of products.
The demand is growing fast with in
creased use. There are today 100000
automobiles and their use is Just be-
ginning. This is just one of the nu-
h u. r.a.tsk -. rz.W~