of twenty-two dollars per ton—is in itself sufficient evidence that no coal from any Mexican mine has yet been made largely available for industrial purposes.[1]In Central Mexico, wood commands at the present time from twelve to sixteen dollars per cord, and coal from fifteen to twenty-one dollars per ton.
On the other hand, the handicraft production of many articles of domestic use, such as laborers' tools and implements, hand-woven fabrics of cotton, wool, hemp, ixtle and other fibers, sandals, saddles, earthenware and tiles, the national hat, or sombrero, of wool or woven palm-leaf, baskets, trays, the national liquor, pulque, and its distillates and the like, constitutes a great domestic industry, which, as it is individual and unorganized, is of necessity very imperfectly known, and can not be recognized or represented by statistics. The number of factories of all kinds, using power, in Mexico, in 1883, was returned at somewhat over one hundred. Included in this number were eighty-four cotton-factories, running 243,534
- ↑ Workable beds of anthracite coal undoubtedly exist in the extreme northwest part of Mexico, about one hundred and ten miles east of the port of Guaymas, and also on the western border of the State of Chihuahua; and the former deposits have been used for some years for the generation of steam at several silver-mining establishments. But, in the absence of any cheap methods of transportation, the use of these deposits, whatever may be their extent and value, must be exceedingly limited.
