The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-03-28

to see who gets nrSt PICK.
It is frequently represented that a
tract of land is suited for a certain
kind of crop, when really, it is impossl-
BILE to grow it there. In one instance
a large quantity of land was sold as
suitable for growing rubber trees.
| when there was no chance for success
| in such a venture. Another land com
| pany represented that it had thousands
Of acres of sugar land, and that the
sugar mills in the vicinity would buy
all the cane. Sometime afterward the
city editor of a Mexican newspaper re-
ceived a letter from the sugar mill
owner asking that some steps be taken
to advise prospective settlers that his
mill was crowded to its capacity with
his own crop and thai he had never
| authorized the land TO sng-
gest such an arranement.
Sometimes the plans of the exploit
ing land companies go aWry and they
themselves lose money A year or two
| ago a company vas engaged in xplolt
ing a plantation about midway Of the
Isthmus Of ~Tehuantepec. They put up
a sugar mill, but were not able TO
realize ready cash in time to save the
property, and it was afterWard sold 20
one of the men who had been duped.
He still was. able to omman enough
money to take charge of the property
and did so. Now he is giving farmers
kAASiA INV
they desire. on condition that they
plant three-fourths Of it in sugar cane
and sell him the product at a stipu-
lated price.
Many of the people who have been
duped by the land companies return
home sadder and wiser. An old G. A.
r. veteran invested his pack pension
money, together with what other
money he had, in a tract near Toloosa.
He could not-make ends meet and had
to borrow money to carry him back
home. Others try to stick it out, and a
pitiful existence they lead. Strangers
to the language, unacquainted with
the customs of the natives and unable
to get along With them, the lot of these
peOpIe is a hard one. The sun of the
loWland country is fiercely hot, par
ticularly the Semi-arid Pacific coast re-
gion, and a Northerner cannot toll
in it. SO their difficulties are many and
serious.
Railroad officials, who are keenly1
DESTROYS of seeing good American
farmers settle the lands along their
fines declare that there are many people
who come to Mexico to live who have
no business to do so. First, there is
the class of people h have little
means. The chances of coming here
with only a few dollars and hoping to
prosper are SO greatly against the man
who does it that he is advised to re-
main at home. Conservative railroad
men figure that a man needs at least
$4,000 Of good American money to
start with. He must have enough in
reserve to provide against the disap-
pointments that SO often beset a pio-
neer until he gets his true bearings.
One of the booklets issued by the Ma
tiOnal RailWayS-WhOSe officers have
u~nbOunded confidence in the future of
the Mexican farm-frankly advises the
reader that the strongest man cannot
secure success unless he supplement his
strength and energy with necessary
accomplishments. Enough money to
provide against delayed crops, for
necessary tools. as we'll as to pay for
ones land and house, is absolutely es-
%sential, no less (and rather more) in
Mexico than in the United States"
Usually the farmer over SIS who goes
to Mexico goes with the chaces against
him, according to those who have fol-
lowed intimately the flow of Northern
immigrants. The anc are also
against the man who starts out bv
raising crops with which. he is UNI
familiar. A Kansas farmer who has
grown wheat will probably make a |
failure with a rubber plantation. and
the apple grower of New York will
probably not achieve success with a
banana plantatlon-unless he has
money enough to pay for experience.
Every American who has made a sue
cess IN Mexico is ready to advise the
newcomer to stick to the crops with
which he was familiar at home and
feel his way by degrees with the crops
With. which he is not familiar.
Perhaps the most attractive agricul-
turaI country in Mexico is that living
east OF the great central table land
and back some distance from the Gu1f
OF Mexico. Here one can get an eleva-
tlon OF from 1,O0O to 5000 feet in a
semi-tropical region where if 10 nave1
So intensely hot yet where frost IS
wholly unknown. Fainfall is abund- ,
ant. most of the crops are
lively easy to raise and the Weld is
large. III a man grows tropical fruits
he can get practically as good a rate
to Eastern markets as Cuba, and fully