Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-06
MEXICAN Cow eOIs.
DON LUIS hRRAzAs HAS
10000 PEASAN rs NOR KING
for HIr1.

grown seldom weigh more than .2p
pounds. This standard can he increased
by crossing the stocks with our larger
animals.
The country is excellent for sheep and
goats. and it has millions of them The
Mexicans are fond of goat meat. ard
there are some ranches which XIII as
many as ;0OOo goats in a year. sp or
400 being killed in one night.
great many kids are sold and COM
mon sight of the cities is the peddler who
goes from house to house with a half
dozen kids flung over his shoulder He
pnches the kids to make them CRY ami
their baby-like shrieks are the sign OF
his trade. On my way to Mexico CITY
] stopped at a station where otS kids
were unloaded for the market. They were
dear little things, four or five months old
and would sell. | was told. for about q
dollar apiece.
One of our agricultural experts has
said that Mexico has cotton areas al
most equal to those of the United States.
This is a question. | have just had talk
with an American who is interested in
big plantation near Torreon. i'm the cen
trail part of the plateau He says that
the irrigated lands of the NaZa river IN
the region known as the I.aguna district.
have the only soil that will produce cot
ton in comparison with our cotton belt
There. are patches of country around the
edges OF the high plateau where the
plants will grow and there are some
south of the Rio Grande near Browns
vile and also about Tampco and along
the Pacific coast, But it is now, ~
per cent OF all the cotton grown comes
from the Laguna district. and the most
of this is from the plantation | have re-
ferred to-
The big plantation of the Laguna dis
trict is owned by an American syndicate.
whose president is Mr.. James Brown
Potter. 1t is said to be the largest cot
ton plantation OF the world under one
ownership. Its lands cover about two
hundred square miles. and when in full
bearing the estate has more than 10000
acres of cotton. Just now the revolu-
ton and the disputes as to the water
rights have affected the cNtivation of
this property. but nevertheless the
amount of land under crop is enormous.
The estate covers the site of what
sixty years ago was the second largest
lake of Mexico. This lake was fed BY
the Naza river. which is subject to tor
rental flows. During one OF these flows
the river changed it's course and left this
lake basin dry. The American company
redeemed the land and made hundreds OF
miles of canals to irrigate il. II has
spent more than five million dollars in it's
development and has made the property
worth altogether something like fifteen
or twenty million dollars. 1t has divided
the land into great farms, has construct
ed forty miles of railroads. has built two
hundred miles of automobile roads and
established a town for it's laborers 1t
was raising cotton by the thousands Of
bales and the plantation had something
like a potential output of $1,000 to 100000
bales, when a scheme was conceived by
some influential Mexicans to dam the
NaZa river and divert much of the
ter which was going TO this plantation.
This. the Americans claim, is a violation
of their concession and they have brought
the matter before the government of
Mexico and have also appealed from the
decisions of the Mexican courts 20 the
United States The matter will proba bly,
be submitted to the tribunal at The
Hague. where il is likely that the Amer
lean claims will be sustained
FRANK G. CARPENTER