Tex.) are connected by the National Railways lines with Monterrey. These points and towns along the rail lines toward Monterrey can well be covered from American border towns with which they are associated; though many intervening towns can be conveniently reached from Monterrey because of its advantageous location and its position as a commercial and financial center.

The Piedras Negras area, about 28,000 square miles, comprises the northern half of the State of Coahuila, with a population of about 100,000, the largest town being Piedras Negras (population 18,786). Import demand is confined to a limited wealthier class purchasing American wearing apparel, furniture, and other articles. Leading occupations are agriculture, stock raising, zinc smelting, and coal production. Other industries are flour mills, truck-body and millwork factory, lard-packing factory, and textile mills. Import purchases are made direct from Texas commercial centers, and purchasing agencies import from manufacturing enterprises in the United States for their clients. Leading imports are agricultural implements, mining machinery and miners' supplies, lumber, hardware, crockery, tinware, brick, clothing, canned goods, and chemicals. Exports are cattle, hides, sheep, wheat bran, pecans, ixtle, candelilla wax, motor benzine, and zinc smelter.

The area around Saltillo, capital of the State of Coahuila, comprising the southeastern portion of that State, could be covered from Monterrey as a distributing point. Saltillo (population about 45,272) is located on a plateau a mile above sea level in a sparsely populated mountain region. The area is semiarid and farming is dependent upon rainfall, which is 15 to 20 inches a year. Winters are mild. Mean temperature is 63° F.; the temperature rarely falls below 53° or rises above 72°. Per capita purchasing ability is limited. Mining and farming are leading industries. Principal ores are copper, lead, silver, and zinc. Principal agricultural products are winter wheat, corn, beans, barley, alfalfa. Ixtle fiber and candelilla wax, taken from wild plants, are important products; the former is used in the manufacture of brushes and the latter in shoe, floor, and furniture polishes. Manufacturing is limited, a few thousand persons being employed in 5 cotton mills, 4 overall factories, 4 flour mills, 2 shoe factories, a kitchen-utensil factory, a tile factory, a pencil factory, and a fiber-dressing plant. Imports are negligible, demand being supplied from Monterrey and Mexico City; principal articles are textile, farming, flour-mill and cotton-mill machinery; wheat and foodstuffs; hardware; electrical supplies; chemicals. Exports are ixtle fiber, goatskins, candelilla wax, wheat bran and shorts. Metal ores are shipped to Monterrey for smelting.

A paved highway connects Monterrey with Saltillo, a distance of about 55 miles, and continues west to Torreon, also in the State of Coahuila. Saltillo is connected by rail with Torreon,

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The Mutumora wa poptatic abom a State of Taman pas work of Vent the egial Largest town is Mauwork, spposite BrowISTLE Let ding bermaŁ TO DIS are farming and sun rising Limited mandatures indade outonseed 922, brick was water, and meal. Impors tudode foodstuffs, Cry guda, hardware, and agri gjements. Exports are hides and exite, fore, bones, lain, and vegetaties.

The National Hallway comments Matamoros with Monterrey, and reticular and railroad bridges link it with Browistle, Tex. where Pan American Airways provides plane service dady to and from Mexico City via Tampáco.

Mexico City Bales Area-Covers the Federal Distric: the Ktates of Mexio, gurearo, Hidalgo, Taxela Morelos. Michoaran, Puebla, and Gerrero; and the northwestern portion of (mzara, including the capital of the same name. Population of this area is estimated (June 1988) at 7500.000. Leading cities: Mexion City, population 1,150,530 (June 1938, estimated : Puebla, 114,788; Padria, 43,023; Toluca, 41.234; Morelia. 39,916: Queretaro, 8LIFE), Oniara, 33423; Acapulco, 6.457. The Fedcrat District (which includes the capital, Mexico City), with an estimated population (June 188) of 1,447,274, is of outstanding importance commercially, politically, and industrially. Mexico City, 7947 feet above sea level, has a mean temperature of SAP. and a temperature range from 20 to 85° F. About 35 percent of all wages and salaries applicable to manufacturing enterprises in the country are paid in the Federal District, and plants within the District are accredited with 34 percent of the total value of industrial production. Outstanding occupations and industries of this sales area are agriculture; mining; and the manufacture of paper and paper products, matches, glass, bricks, tubing, rolling-mill products, machine-shop goods, textiles, knit goods, work clothes, hats, ready-made clothing, shoes, rubber goods, tires, cigarettes and cigars, vegetable oils, flour and other foodstuffs, beer, soft drinks, cement, soap, ice, printers' supplies, medicinal, chemical, and pharmaceutical products, cosmetics and toilet preparations, and furniture. Central Government departments, head offices of financial institutions and leading industries (such as railroads, mining, textiles, and petroleum), as well as three automobile assembly plants, are located in the federal District.

The Federal District, where the living standard is higher than in any other part of the Republic, is the leading market for imported merchandise. Principal imports include railroad equipment, machinery, agricultural implements, heavy and light hardware, tools, lumber, clothing, textiles, toilet articles, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, motor vehicles and accessories, paper and paper products, foodstuffs, notions, novelties, toys, glassware, electrical equipment and supplies, electric fixtures and household appliances, plumbing supplies and fixtures, scientific instruments, and beauty-parlor equipment.

In the State of Guerrero (of which Acapulco is the chief port), on the Pacific coast, are produced coffee, limes, concentrated lime juice, distilled oil of limes, sesame seed, coconut and sesame-seed oil cake.

Chihuahua Sales Territory. Includes the State of Chihuahua, with a population of 578,520. The principal cities are Chihuahua, the capital, with a population of 45,595; Ciudad Juarez (opposite El Paso, Tex., on the border), population 39,669; Parral, 18,000; Ciudad Camargo (Santa Rosalia), 14,000; and Jiminez, 11,000. The altitude in the northern part of the area averages from 3,000 to 7,000 feet. The western region is principally rolling and mountainous, with large areas of tablelands. The climate is generally dry and arid, with summers alleviated by rains from June to September. Winters are somewhat cold, with occasional frost and snow. Irrigation is used except in the high mountain section, where abundant rainfall insures staple crops. The altitude of Chihuahua, the capital, is 4,600 feet. About 80 percent of the people are laborers. The remainder are for the most part in moderate circumstances, offering a market for imported goods. They and the wealthy, however, in the northern part patronize the many retail concerns in the nearby American city of El Paso.

Leading industries and occupations are agriculture (including the staple crops, cotton and vegetables), mining, smelting, stock raising, and lumbering. One of the largest lead smelters in the world operated by an American enterprise is at Chihuahua. Also, there are a number of large modern cyanide flotation and concentration mills in various parts of this territory. Principal imports are mining machinery and supplies, agricultural implements, hardware, household goods, groceries, electrical machinery and supplies, automobiles and accessories, and radios. Leading exports are lead bullion, gold and silver bullion, silver ore, and concentrates of lead, zinc, and tin. Other exports are hides, cattle, bones, corn, beans, lumber, and guano, according to market demand.

Rail communication is with Ciudad Juarez and Mexico City via Chihuahua over the National Railways lines; with Chihuahua and Presidio (on the Texas border) via the Kansas City, Mexico

& Oriente Railway (Ferrocarril Kansas City, Mexico y Oriente) connecting at Presidio with the Wichita, Kans., and other lines of the Santa Fe; with El Paso, Tex., and Chihuahua by mixed trains over the Mexico North-Western Railway Co. (Ferrocarril Nor-Oeste de Mexico), serving the western part of the State of Chihuahua. A highway, largely gravel surface (except about 60 miles of earth surface), passing through Gallego, connects the city of Chihuahua with Ciudad Juarez opposite El Paso. An earth road, graded in portions and passable only in dry weather, connects with this highway at Gallego from Agua Prieta (opposite Douglas, Ariz.). Triweekly air service in both directions is available between Ciudad Juarez (opposite El Paso, Tex.) and Mexico City, Parral, and other intervening points.

Torreon-Durango Sales Territory.-The Torreon area of about 30,000 square miles includes the southwestern part of the State of Coahuila, the eastern portion of the State of Durango, and the northern and western parts of the State of Zacatecas. This sales area lies in the central plateau of Mexico, with elevations ranging from 3,799 feet at the city of Torreon to 5,000 feet in other parts. The surface is comparatively level except where broken by several mountain ranges. Winters are mild and pleasant, with virtually no ice or snow, and summers are tempered by the altitude and low humidity. Average annual rainfall is from 6 to 8 inches, mostly between June and September. Extensive irrigation must be resorted to during the remainder of the year. Population totals about 180,000, concentrated largely in and around the adjoining cities of Torreon, Gomez Palacio, and Lerdo. Torreon, the commercial and industrial center of the agriculturally important Laguna district, has a population of about 65,000. Bulk of population belongs to agricultural or labor class, purchasing only prime necessities. Imports are confined to wealthy families and the small middle class. Cotton production is the leading industry; other agricultural products are wheat, corn, beans, alfalfa, and grapes. Silver, lead, gold, zinc, and arsenic ores are mined. There is one smelter. Manufactures include cottonseed oil, soap, cotton and woolen textiles, dynamite, beer, and wines. Electric power

is being increasingly used in industry and agriculture. Imports include agricultural implements, mining equipment, industrial machinery, electrical equipment, hardware, automobiles. household goods, cotton ties, textiles, wearing apparel, groceries, chemicals, vegetable oils, radios, and phonographs. Exports are chiefly arsenious acid, cotton linters, hides and skins.

Torreon is connected by the National Railways system with the Texas cities of Laredo, Eagle Pass, El Paso, and Brownsville, and in Mexico with Monterrey, Saltillo, Tampico, Mexico City, Durango, and other rail points.

The Durango area, which may be visited from Torreon (with that city as a distribution point), includes (a) all except the

extreme eastern part of the State of Durango, (b) the western part of Zacatecas, and (c) the extreme northern part of the State of Jalisco-in all, an area of about 40,000 square miles with a total population of about 300,000. Altitude varies from 3,500 feet in the east to 10,000 feet in the Sierra Madre Mountains in the west. The greater part of the stock-raising and agricultural areas and most of the population centers are at the altitude of 6,200 feet, which is that of Durango, capital of the State of Durango. Because of variations in altitude the climate ranges from tropical in western valleys to cold in the high mountains. The largest center is Durango, with a population of about 40,000. Its climate is mild, with light frosts at night during 4 months of winter; summers are tempered by rains. Three-fourths of the 20 inches of annual precipitation occurs in July, August, and September. Agriculture is the leading occupation and stock raising is of local importance. Chief crops are

corn and beans, which are exported to other sections of Mexico; small amounts of chile pepper are exported to the United States. Other crops are wheat, oats, barley, flaxseed, alfalfa, cotton, potatoes, and fruits of the semitropical and temperate belts. Mining is the principal industry, deposits of silver, gold, lead, zinc, copper, mercury, and tin being present. Production of pine lumber and naval stores is important. Manufacturing (limited to such industries as woolen and blanket mills, cotton mills, ice factories, and bottling works) is of small importance. Principal imports are mining machinery, heavy chemicals, hardware, tools, drugs, electrical equipment, radios, and foodstuffs. Principal exports are naval stores, beef cattle, metals for smelting elsewhere in Mexico, and agricultural and lumber products.

A line of the National Railways connects Durango with Torreon, where connections for other rail points in Mexico may be made.

San Luis Potosi Sales Territory. This area, located virtually in the center of the Republic, includes the States of San Luis Potosi, Aguascalientes, and Guanajuato. The city of San Luis Potosi, sixth in size among the cities of Mexico, has a population of about 74,000. Other centers are Leon (population 69,400); Aguascalientes (62,000), Irapuato (29,266), and Guanajuato (18,135). Total population of the territory is more than 2,000,000. Imports are restricted to demand from the industries and the well-to-do class, which is numerically small. The laboring and agricultural groups constitute the bulk of the population, and their demands are only for prime necessities. A middle class has been developing to some extent during recent years, and sales for lower priced imported articles may be developed. Agriculture and mining are the most important industries. There are reducing and refining plants and large smelters at San Luis Potosi and Matehuala, and important reduction plants at Guanajuato. The arsenic plant at San Luis Potosi is stated