possibilities of these regions in respect to coffee, sugar, tobacco, and a wide range of other valuable tropical products, this fact has got to be taken into account. They would, however, seem to be particularly adapted to the introduction and employment of Chinese labor; and during the past year delegations from the associated Chinese Companies of San Francisco have, it is understood, entered into negotiations with the Mexican Government, with a view of promoting an extensive immigration into these portions of the national territory.
In the State of Yucatan the scourge of locusts prevails to such an extent that almost the only agricultural product on which the planter can confidently rely is the plant that furnishes the fiber of the heniquen, which for some reason the locusts do not attack. Fields of maize, well developed in this section of Mexico, are said to be devoured level with the ground by these pests in the course of a single hour.
Again, much of the best land of the plateau of Mexico is in the nature of valleys surrounded by mountains, or of strips or sections separated by deserts. Thus, for example, to get from the city of Mexico into the fertile valley of Toluca, a comparatively short distance, one has to ascend nearly three thousand feet within the first twenty-four
