to be the largest in the world. Chief agricultural products are corn, beans, wheat, chile, sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, fruits, alfalfa, and maguey (for alcoholic beverages). Wild plants yield ixtle fiber, guayule rubber, and prickly pears. Goatskins and cattle hides are shipped. Important manufactured products are work clothing, shoes (production center at Leon, State of Guanajuato), woolen cloth, and blankets. Less important industries comprise cotton mills, fiber factories (the largest fiber factory in Latin America is at San Luis Potosi and produces rope, bags, and brushes), foundries, tanneries, soap factories, flour mills, breweries, small distilleries, railroad shops (the largest shops in Mexico are at Aguascalientes), and a guayule rubber factory.

Principal imports are hardware, tools, agricultural implements, machinery, fine textiles, wearing apparel (except work clothing), high-quality shoes, notions, chemicals, drugs, automobiles and accessories. Principal exports are bullion and base bullion (gold, silver, lead, and copper), zinc, antimony, black and white arsenic, quicksilver, ixtle fibers, guayule rubber, hides and skins, also garlic, chile, and small quantities of other foodstuffs.

Two main railroad lines of the National Railways run north and south through this district. One line to Mexico City runs from the border, connecting with Piedras Negras and Laredo at Saltillo, and the other line runs from Ciudad Juarez (opposite El Paso) to Mexico City via Aguascalientes. An east and west line of the National Railways connects San Luis Potosi and Aguascalientes with Tampico. A gravel-surface road connects San Luis Potosi with the Laredo and Mexico City Highway at Antiguo Morelos, a distance of about 150 miles. Antiguo Morelos is approximately 26 miles south of El Limon, where connection is made with the 111 miles of gravel-surface road to Tampico. There are, however, no good highways connecting centers in this sales territory. Aguascalientes is connected with Ciudad Juarez (opposite El Paso, Tex.), Mexico City, and intervening points by triweekly air service in each direction.

Guadalajara Sales Territory.-This mountainous area includes the State of Colima, the greater part of the State of Jalisco, and the southern part of the State of Zacatecas. It also includes the Pacific port of Manzanillo. Irrigation enables a variety of crops to be cultivated. The climate varies according to latitude and altitude; temperatures range from 30° to 95° F.; mean temperature is 67°. The annual rainfall is 30 inches, largely between June and October. The city of Guadalajara in this sales territory is also considered a good distribution point for central Mexico and much of the Pacific coast north of Manzanillo. The city, located at an altitude of 5,180 feet (which tends to make the climate agreeable), is comparatively modern and well lighted. With about 180,000 inhabitants, it is the second city in size (Mexico City, first).

The population of the entire sales territory is around 1,310,000, about 85 percent of whom are estimated to belong to the (laboring and agricultural) classes of low purchasing power. Leading crops are wheat, corn, rye, chickpeas, sugarcane, beans, citrus fruit, bananas, coconuts, coffee, and vegetables. Mining is an important industry; leading minerals are silver, copper, lead, and zinc. Manufacturing is of limited but increasing importance, and includes production (largely with foreign capital) of textiles, shoes, soap, clothing, brick, tile, pottery, glassware, and crackers. There are breweries, tanneries, and flour and sugar mills. In 1938 the State of Jalisco had 96 manufacturing enterprises employing 2,022 workers. Principal imports are automotive vehicles, tires and accessories, agricultural implements, general hardware, mining and industrial machinery, radios, electrical machinery and supplies, iron and steel products, dry goods, notions, wearing apparel, medicinals, chemicals, paper and paper products, brewers' supplies, typewriter and office supplies, and novelties. Principal exports are metals, naval stores, limes, bananas, sugar, pecans, coffee, hides and skins, ixtle, hardwoods, glassware, pottery, and Mexican shoes.

The National Railways of Mexico connect Guadalajara with Manzanillo in the State of Colima, a Pacific port 229 miles to the southwest, where steamers plying between California and South America call, and with Irapuato, a junction point on the lines of this system to El Paso, Eagle Pass, Laredo, and Brownsville, and to Mexico City. It is the Mexican terminus of the Southern Pacific of Mexico line from Nogales via the Pacific ports of Mazatlan and Guaymas. The Guadalajara and Mexico City Highway has been completed.

Mazatlan Sales Territory. This zone, extending along the west coast for about 600 miles and covering a total area of 33,000 square miles, includes the States of Sinaloa and Nayarit, with a total population of about 662,280, or 3.4 percent of the population of Mexico. The climate is semitropical, with cool winters. Mean average temperature is 72.5° F. Average rainfall is 32 inches, most of which occurs in the rainy season from July to September. Fertile lowlands extend inland from the coast about 40 miles and rise rapidly to the Sierra Madre Range (9,000 feet), the eastern boundary.

Living standards are not high, and purchases are, in general, confined to prime necessities. There is a limited demand among the wealthy and growing middle class for imported goods. The leading occupation is agriculture. Principal money crops are fresh vegetables (including tomatoes, peas, and peppers), garbanzos, sugar, tobacco, coffee, cotton, and sesame seed; staple crops are corn and beans. Mining is of considerable importance; valuable deposits of gold and silver ore are worked, largely through American capital. Manufacturing is of relatively small importance, comprising principally sugar and cotton mills, and soap, cigarette, and shoe factories. Principal imports are min

ing and industrial machinery, agricultural implements, hardware, tools, heavy chemicals, fuel oil, drugs, fine textiles and wearing apparel, automotive products and accessories, electrical equipment and supplies, and radios. Principal exports are gold and silver bullion, fresh vegetables, garbanzos, vegetable charcoals, and small quantities of dried fish and sharkskins.

The port of Mazatlan is an open roadstead, and shipments by water must be lightered. At 3-week intervals, if cargo warrants, Grace Line vessels north-bound and south-bound between California, Central American, and South American ports call at Mazatlan. The Southern Pacific of Mexico line serves this port city with through Pullman service between Los Angeles and Guadalajara to Mexico City.

Guaymas and Nogales Sales Territory.-Includes the State of Sonora and the southern half of Lower California (Baja California). Sonora has a population of 372,045, or 1.9 percent of Mexico's total, and the southern part of Lower California has 56,488 inhabitants, according to official estimate of June 1938. The climate ranges from temperate in the north to subtropical in the south. Average rainfall in Guaymas, on the Gulf of California, is 12 inches; rains occur chiefly during July to October. In Nogales (opposite Nogales, Tex.) rainfall averages 15 inches, almost half of which is in July and August. The climate around Nogales is semiarid. Relatively mild winters and long, hot summers prevail around Guaymas.

Many Mexicans along the border speak English; but purchasing power is comparatively low, and outside the population centers the rate of illiteracy is high. Agriculture is the principal occupation in southern Sonora and in the southern part of Lower California, where important quantities of winter tomatoes and peas are grown in the irrigated Yaqui and Mayo River Valleys and in the vicinity of San Jose Del Cabo, for export to the United States. These valleys produce considerable quantities of wheat, rice, garbanzos, corn, beans, and alfalfa. Flour and rice mills are operated at Ciudad Obregon and at Navojoa. Mining, once the most important industry, is dormant. In northern Sonora the principal occupations and industries are mining (antimony, copper, gold, lead, silver, and zinc) and cattle raising. Farming is not widespread, owing to lack of water and to the topography, and there are no manufacturing plants of importance. Imports include machinery and parts, automobiles, hardware, agricultural implements, radios, electric refrigerators, and construction material. Exports include winter vegetables, cattle, gold and silver ore and bullion.

The Southern Pacific Railroad of Mexico runs south from Nogales through Hermosillo (capital of the State of Sonora), Guaymas, and Mazatlan, to Guadalajara, where it connects with the National Railways of Mexico. Another branch of the

Southern Pacific of Mexico runs east near the border to Naco, Tex., via Cananea, Sonora. There is a gravel-surface road from Nogales, via Cananea and Santa Ana, to Hermosillo. From Hermosillo south to Guaymas, a distance of about 100 miles, the road is gravel surface for about 75 miles, thence earth surface to Guaymas. At Santa Ana, about 75 miles south of Nogales, there is a branch gravel-surface road to Coborca, from which an earth road extends to Mexicali opposite Calexico on the border. Freight vessels from Los Angeles and San Francisco call occasionally at Guaymas and Yavaros, State of Sonora, and at Santa Rosalia and La Paz, Lower California.

Ensenada-Mexicali Sales Territory.-Includes northern half of Lower California and that part of Sonora west of a line about 100 miles west of Nogales. The climate of Mexicali (on the border, opposite Celexico) is similar to that of the southwestern United States. Intense dry heat prevails from mid-May to October. Mild, pleasant winters make possible all-year crops through irrigation. The altitude is 1 foot. Ensenada, on the Pacific coast, has a pleasant, even climate, similar to that of Southern California. Average precipitation is 9 inches, almost all of which occurs from December to March. The population is about 80,000, with living standards somewhat above those of interior Mexico.

The geographical nearness of this territory to California and Arizona distributing centers, together with special conditions favoring imports from the United States direct by the user, serves to diminish opportunities for development of this market from an interior location. Since May 1935, free-entry privileges for agricultural machinery and implements into this territory for local use were extended by the Mexican Government. Also, gasoline for local use is duty-free, as well as purchases made across the border by individuals for their own use. Therefore, local merchants carry only limited stocks. San Diego, Los Angeles, Calexico, and Yuma are distributing centers; and traveling salesmen of California wholesalers make regular visits, especially to Ensenada. Principal imports are groceries, dry goods, clothing, building materials, automobiles, gasoline, oil, agricultural implements, hardware, furniture, and radios. Imports from Japan of cotton printed goods, small hardware, toys, novelties, confectionery, and rubber footwear have considerably increased. Principal exports to the United States are cottonseed fertilizer; linters; malt; fresh, dried, and canned fish (lobsters, abalone, tuna, sardines, mackerel, yellowtail); dried chilies; hides and livestock; and gold ore.

Agriculture provides a livelihood for perhaps 95 percent of the people around Mexicali, which roughly includes the State of Sonora lying west of a line about 100 miles west of Nogales. Principal crops are cotton and wheat. There are three cotton gins; one cottonseed-oil mill producing meal, fertilizer, and soap; 202836-40-4

three small, active flour mills; two breweries; a distillery; two ice plants; and a malt plant. The majority of the inhabitants near Ensenada earn their living from tourists, although industries include a fish cannery (canning sardines, tuna, mackerel, and abalone), a winery, a distillery, and a flour mill.

Railway transportation from the United States is by two branches of the Southern Pacific Railway which enter from southern California at Mexicali, Algodones, Tecate, and Tijuana. A paved highway connects Ensenada with San Diego, Calif., via Agua Caliente, and Mexicali may be reached over a California highway from San Diego via Calexico and El Centro. There is an earth and gravel surface road from Agua Caliente, about 25 miles south of San Diego, across the Lower California Peninsula to Mexicali. Freight vessels of limited passenger accommodations and sufficiently shallow draft connect Ensenada with California and Mexican west-coast ports. The Compania Mexicana de Aviacion, S. A., operates a triweekly service in both directions, to Los Angeles and to Mexico via Mexicali.

CHIEF COMMERCIAL CENTERS

ACAPULCO.-State of Guerrero.

Mexico; population, 6,457.

Leading Pacific port of

How Reached. By water, from west coast ports of California and South America; by automobile, from Mexico City, Cuernavaca, Taxco, and Chilpancingo; by train, from Mexico City to Iguala, and from there over the highway to Acapulco; and by air, from Mexico City and Oaxaca.

Hotels. El Mirador; La Quebrada; Hornos; Los Flamengos; Tropical; La Marina (new and air conditioned); Miramar; Anahuac.

Chamber of Commerce.-Camara Nacional de Comercio e Industria.

Note. Acapulco has been growing in importance during the past years as a result of increased exports and imports through this port and increased tourist traffic, both foreign and local. During the past few years, comfortable modern hotels have been constructed.

AGUASCALIENTES.-Capital of State of Aguascalientes; population, 62,244.

How Reached.-From Mexico City, by rail, via the National Railways of Mexico in about 14 hours; from El Paso, Tex., by rail, via the National Railways of Mexico, about 30 hours; from Tampico, by rail, via the National Railways of Mexico, about 19 hours; and from Guadalajara, by rail, via the National Railways of Mexico, about 10 hours.

Hotel. Francia.

Banks. Banco Nacional de Credito Ejidal, S. A.; Banco Nacional de Mexico, S. A.