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Economic activities were closely regulated in medieval cities and in the new municipalities later set up in the Spanish Empire. Writers of early colonial times supported the idea of the just price and were opposed to middlemen and monopolies, except the meat supply was monopolized by municipal governments for the public good. Enlightenment doctrines of free commerce finally supplanted the older body of thought concerning the marketplace. Beef and mutton prices from meat supply contracts for Cuernavaca show that supplies of livestock and prices were affected by weather to some extent, less by epidemics, and to an indeterminate extent by the intention that the price should be just and reasonably stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of the corner-timbered log house in Mexico has puzzled cultural geographers. One would expect an indigenous or Spanish origin, but suggested agents of introduction include central European priests and Japanese immigrants. This study postulates introduction by German miners arriving in Sultepec in 1536. Miners brought corner-timbering to other parts of central Mexico in the 1820's. The technique diffused to northern Mexico from the United States [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy exploitation of groundwater resources, with the help of government credit and infrastructural investment, has created the most important agricultural/district of Baia California Sur in the Santo Domingo Valley. Colonization of the Valley in the 1950s illustrates the interrelated problems of opening desert land for agriculture. These problems involve adjustment to the natural environment and to the sociopolitical milieu that produced the need for colonization. Attempts to ‘extend the life’ of the Valley include new water-conserving irrigation techniques and diversification of the economy, but these attempts appear threatened by demands for redistribution of land to the evergrowing number of landless poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the 1920s, the atrophy of such organizations as the Industrial Workers of the World and the Knights of Labor as well as the loss of trade-union affiliates in Mexico and elsewhere had reduced the boundaries of the American labor movement to the United States and Canada. One of the chapters in this history of international labor intervention involved the American Railroad Brotherhoods in Mexico from 1880-1912. On the one hand, the manner in which American labor organizations enlarged their jurisdictions internationally is important for a fuller understanding of the dynamics of union growth. On the other hand, unlike those sections in Canada, the Mexican affiliates proved unsuccessful in the long run, though many were in continuous existence for nearly thirty years. The development of the Mexican railroads began in 1837 with the granting of a concession by the government for a line between Vera Cruz and Mexico City. Attracted by subsidies and direct grants totaling millions of dollars, American promoters in 1880 began construction of three major trunk lines and a host of local feeder systems.

It has traditionally been assumed that the least organizable segment of the U.S. work-force has been migrant farm workers. Unskilled, uneducated, poverty stricken, and constantly on the move, farm laborers have appeared unlikely prospects for unionization. The most intense effort to organize farm workers took place during the early years of the depression in California. The story of agricultural unionization during this period includes radical strike activity as well as its repression by vigilante tactics. In analyzing the nature and ramifications of this unionization, it is necessary to focus upon the role of immigrant Mexican laborers, for it was this group which comprised the backbone of California's migratory labor force and actively participated in labor organizations and strikes. Despite the need for rigorous organization for self-protection, Mexican unions were more ad hoc than permanent. They were, through no fault of their own, victims of flaws fatal to all migrant organizations namely, the financial and political impotence engendered by rootlessness. It is only with the initial protection of government and sympathetic groups in society that a union of Mexican migratory workers will be able to become a viable force in its own right.

The article presents information on Mexico's newest railroad, the Ferrocarril de Chihuahua al Pacifico (CHP). Its completion evoked mixed reaction, some viewed it as crucial to the economic development of Mexico, but others questioned the wisdom of the investment. This study deals with this question by evaluating the line's current freight operations. Its purposes are to analyze the place of the CHP in the national railroad system, now that the transsierran segment has been completed, and to consider the railroad's role in Mexican economic development. Before completion of the transsierran segment the two sections of the CHP operated as spurs off the north-south national trunk lines. The CHP never developed as an international bridge route but does transfer freight across the U.S. border. One measure of national integration is the amount of inter-sectional traffic handled by the CHP. In 1971, almost 260,000 tons moved over the railroad between northeast and northwest Mexico, but this involved a pre-dominantly eastward flow of agricultural products rather than a balanced exchange.

The article focuses on the Indians from the Eastern United States who were brought to the Northeastern sector of Mexico by the Spanish missionaries. In the late sixteenth century, Spanish missionaries attempted to Christianize these nomadic hunters, and make them conform to a more sedentary way of life. But, lacking the background of Aztec domination, which characterized the natives of the south, these Indians did not readily conform to a settled agricultural existence. The Spanish brought Tlaxcalan Indians from central Mexico, and placed them in villages throughout the northeast in hopes that they would have more success in bringing these groups under control. This idea of using advanced Indians to combat more primitive tribes was to be continued into the nineteenth century. After 1850, there was an increase in Indian activity, and the cattle industry, which had been rather prosperous until that time, suffered great set-backs. By the middle of the nineteenth century the region remained a frontier in every sense, including all of the struggles with nature and with savage Indian tribes.

This article focuses on the political modernity in Mexico. The authors remark that since the advent of revolution in 1910, fundamental social and economic change has transformed Mexican politics into a system with a strong claim to political modernity. The prerequisites of modernization in agrarian or transitional societies have been adequately described and are well-known. Modern societies tend to be urban, industrialized, and literate, the political sphere is highly differentiated with distinctive political and governmental structures, leadership tends to be institutional and civilian, rather than charismatic or military, and political participation is widespread and competitive. The piecing together of a national consensus on the legitimacy of the Mexican government and on the desirability of working toward national goals nonviolently could only be gradual. Such a development also required that all economic interests and groups capable of disrupting the new pattern of political control be coopted to official or semiofficial status.

The article focuses on Mexican foreign policy in the United Nations. This policy deserves a special attention for those concerned with the East-West rivalry. Mexico's experience with internal growth and stability in the last forty years and Mexico's success in pursuing an independent foreign policy, especially in the post-war bipolar world, have much to offer the newly emerging states. On the important Cold War issues debated in the United Nations-intervention, membership in the United Nations, collective security, disarmament, colonialism, and economic assistance to underdeveloped areas-Mexico has voted independently of the wishes of either East or West. This policy of nonalignment has been growing stronger as the Cold War progresses. Mexico has usually supported the principle of universal membership in the United Nations regardless of the political orientation of the state in question. This policy has on occasion caused her to side with the Soviet Union. Mexico has supported resolutions favoring varying forms of economic assistance to underdeveloped areas.

The article focuses on the impact of Mexican revolution during 1910-1917 on Americans. Beginning in 1908 serious political discussion revived in Mexico for the first time since the creation of the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. However, the American socialist movement was the most interested group who attempted to understand and comment upon Mexican affairs. On May 30, 1908, some personal followers of Morris Hiilquit, one of the more important socialist leaders in the United States, began publication of The New York Call, a daily newspaper reflecting the points of view of a large segment of American socialists. The Call not only denounced the willingness of the U.S. to cooperate with Diaz by banning Mexican revolutionary movements, but blamed this attitude on the biased coverage of the capitalist press. The Appeal, like the Call, began calling the attention of its readers to "The Menace to America" that Diaz's capitalist dictatorship represented. The socialist press was in complete agreement that the troubles in Mexico and the plan to invade that country emanated from "the great financial interests" that were dominant in Washington.

The article focuses on the Mexican revolution and its impact on the American government. In February 1913, a military conspiracy headed in its last stages by Victoriano Huerta and Félix Diaz, overturned the democratic government of Francisco I. Madero. The American ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, was implicated in the events surrounding Madero's downfall. The affair was particularly distressing because only two years before Mexico had fought a revolution to oust the aged, long-entrenched, dictator-president, Porfirio Diaz. There are some comments of special importance in the Mexican politics during this period. First, in view of Ambassador Wilson's aggressive conduct throughout the period of the Madero government, there has always been some mystery as to why William Howard Taft administration permitted its ambassador to be virtually the State Department's policy-maker in Mexico. Second, though it has been widely recognized, that the ambassador strongly supported the rebels, and took steps to help them, there has been considerable uncertainty as to exactly what he did, and how he aided the conspirators in the day to day developments concerned with Madero's overthrow. Lastly, there is now available the first solid information concerning the European powers' attitude toward American policy in the happenings of February, 1913.

The article focuses on the relations between the U.S. and Mexico after the second World War. Since the war, the U.S. has been criticized by the rest of the world in the sensitive area of race relations. Owing largely to the persistent discrimination against the sizeable Mexican population in the U.S., neighboring Mexico has been among the most vocal in its condemnation. So anxious has that nation been to resolve the issue that on one occasion, at least, it undertook more direct action. That was the attempt during the second World War to use the Mexican contract farm laborer as a lever to force the state of Texas to outlaw discrimination against Latin American; as the first step toward its eradication throughout the U.S. In June, 1943, the Mexico government placed a ban on the movement of farm labor into that state because of its record of discrimination against Mexicans. The Mexican government had long been under as much pressure to end discrimination in Texas as the governor now was to obtain labor. The most powerful pressures, however, originated within Mexico and were exerted through the medium of the press.

Since the restoration of political stability in the early 1930's, Mexico has enjoyed almost continuous prosperity and has been able to achieve large increases in both her total and per capita outputs of goods and services. Between 1939, the earliest year for which firm data are available, and 1957, the latest year obtainable at the time of writing, the Mexican gross national product expanded by about 183 per cent and national income grew by some 192 per cent, both magnitudes being measured in terms of "constant" pesos. Despite a staggering rise of 62 per cent in population, this represented a rise of 75 per cent in product per capita and of 81 per cent in income per capita. Growth appears to have been most rapid in the earlier years of the period, but very respectable gains have been registered more recently as well. Manufacturing industry led the other major sectors of the economy in rate of growth, but increases in agriculture, transportation and communication, and other sectors were also large. In fact, the broad sectoral distribution of increases in output is one of the most interesting and encouraging characteristics of Mexican growth. Though it did not grow as fast as manufacturing, the rise in agricultural output was particularly vital to the general development of the Mexican economy, since this sector employs a large share of the total labor force and also because its gains allowed the use of foreign exchange earnings for purposes other than the purchase of food and basic fibers. The share of savings and investment in Mexico's gross product during these years has been substantial though not spectacular. In view of the results obtained, however, it seems to have been well directed. Public investment has bulked large in the total with most of it going into such fields as transportation and communication, public utilities, agriculture, and petroleum. Mexico's economic growth seems to have been generated mainly from domestic sources. While both exports and capital imports have grown, they have expanded at a less rapid pace than the nation's output as a whole, and they do not seem to have been the prime movers of the Mexican development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the work of Caryl Ap Rhys Pryce, a Welsh adventurer, in Mexican politics. As the U.S., like other Western powers, had outgrown the toleration of intrigues designed to change the political status of small countries or frontier areas, the adventurers' maximal performance became confined to wartime daredeviltry or backstage internal political maneuvering. Rhys Pryce, an India-born, Scotland-educated product of the British Empire, enlisted in the Magonist army early in February of 1911. As a scion of a military family, he might well have chosen a conventional career in the British forces, but evidently preferred the uncertainties of irregular service. Pryce joined the Magonist movement against dictatorship in Mexico. Since the Magonists' fortunes from mid-April to early June largely depended on Pryce, an assessment of the man's character and plans seems in order. He shared, on a limited scale, many enigmatic and contradictory traits with his gifted contemporary Lawrence of Arabia. In Pryce ample courage and an unusual degree of generosity and fair-mindedness toward every human type were combined with a temporary, albeit sincere, equalitarian enthusiasm. Obviously this man was not one of the New World's great adventurers. His outstanding physical courage, ingenuity, and elasticity of thinking stamp him as superior to the average soldier of fortune. Pryce lacked not skill but conviction.

The article focuses on the condition of the oil industry of Mexico after its nationalization. The Mexican industry nationalized almost completely in 1938, has been functioning for nearly twenty years as a socialized enterprise. As the first large-scale socialized industry involving modern technology and international trade to begin operations in Latin America, the Mexican oil undertaking has unusual significance. After the 1938 expropriation, it was not until 1946 that production again reached the 1937 level. Output has risen steadily, however, since 1942. The amount of crude pumped daily by Mexico is indicative of the pattern of production, and in 1955 that amount reached 217 per cent of the 1940 level. The data indicate that the expropriation of the privately owned oil industry of Mexico in 1938 has been profitable for the government, rewarding to labor, and beneficial to the Mexican economy. The author concludes that whether these consequences of expropriation in 1938 and afterward were a result of nationalization or merely coincidental with twenty years of history would be purely an academic question.

This article critically examines the membership strength of all labor unions in Mexico. Mexican unions occupy a very large place in the political and economic life of the country. The unions and the peasant organizations form the mass base of the ruling political party. The president of the CTM, the largest union federation, gave its strength as 1,300,000. A few days later the treasurer independently put the figure at 1,500,000, reduced immediately to 1,400,000. The Statistical Division received and transmitted the figure of 678,860, which does not include more than 23,000 oil workers; with them, the total would have been over 700,000. The reasons why the unions habitually overstate their membership are, firstly, many unions pay no benefits and collect dues irregularly or not at all, so that there is no satisfactory definition of what constitutes a union member. Second, the strongly political nature of the union movement makes it appear to the unions desirable that they should claim a large membership for the sake of the influence that a large membership brings. Third, dual unionism is a serious problem in the Mexican labor movement, and students know how unwilling a union is to admit that it has fewer members than its rival in the same field.

The article focuses on the development and use of "facultades extraordinarias" in Mexican politics and government. Government throughout Latin America has been characterized by varying degrees of executive monopoly. The most notable example of a deviation from the constitutional norm has occurred with facultades extraordinarias, or extraordinary decree powers, designed solely for use by the president in the gravest emergency. The development of decree law in Mexico, tracing its origin to Spanish custom, has contributed to presidential legislation through the use of facultades extraordinarias. As in many other nations, the Mexican president not only promulgates the laws of Congress but executes them by issuing regulations for their administration. The president is constitutionally equipped with very strong powers. Absent are the effective legislative checks so necessary to provide the proper equilibrium for a balanced separation of powers. A traditionally ineffective judiciary has not sought to restrain executive monopoly.

The article deliberates on the U.S. relation with Mexico. During the nine months preceding the opening of the Lima Conference in 1938, the Good Neighbor policy of the U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt administration was subjected to a severe test in Mexico. In the meantime, the prospect for peaceful settlement of the European international problems became less promising. The growth of Nazi and Fascist organizations in the Latin American countries, the increasing tempo of foreign propaganda, and the extraordinary efforts of the Germans to develop trade had caused increasing uneasiness in Washington. Mexico had provided a long trial of the sincerity and patience of the Good Neighbor of the North. Since 1915 the Mexican government had been expropriating properties of United States citizens, for which no adequate compensations were made. After the inauguration of the Good Neighbor policy, there is some reason to believe that the Mexican authorities hastened their program of expropriation of foreign-owned properties. On December 1, 1934, Lazaro Cárdenas became president of the Mexican Republic. At the beginning of 1938 it seemed evident that the Cárdenas government had chartered a new course; the program of industrial expropriation was to start in the petroleum industry.

The article focuses on the use of Mexican labor in agriculture in the U.S. During the nineteenth century, the rising industrial order in the United States was abundantly supplied with cheap labor from Europe. Hampered only by a few minor restrictions, European immigrants streamed unabated into this country from 1864 until 1917. Pressure from organized labor and other groups disadvantageously affected by the great numbers of immigrants, forced Congress to pass the Immigration Law of 1917, which, along with subsequent laws, greatly reduced the number of immigrants entering the United States. The first widespread use of Mexican labor in agriculture occurred during World War I. Domestic agricultural workers were drawn into industry as a result of the higher wages and better working conditions. Immediately, cries of "labor shortage" were raised by many agricultural groups in the country. This great influx of alien labor was largely the result of increased opportunities for work brought about by the opening of new agricultural areas. The job of securing Mexican workers was not an easy one. The major obstacle was the Mexican Government.

The article presents information about the Mexican Constitutional Congress of 1916-1917. The radical nature of the reforms incorporated in the Mexican Constitution of 1917 and the consequent controversy have tended to obscure the constitution-making assembly. These reforms, however, appear to have been largely the work of the assembly since the Mexican Revolution of 1910 began without a program of social reform and without leaders schooled in the theory and practice of social revolution. The decree calling the Constitutional Congress, issued on September 14, 1916, opened with the assertion that the First Chief had followed faithfully the revolutionary program projection the decree of December 12, 1914. The States, Territories and Federal District were authorized to elect one Deputy and one alternate for every seventy thousand inhabitants or fraction in excess of twenty thousand, on the basis of the census of 1910. The Congress elected its own officers on November 30, 1916. Luis Manuel Rojas, head of the Masonic order of the Republic, was elected President, with the duty of presiding over the meetings. Fernado Lizardi was elected the Secretary.

This article presents information regarding the applicability of land use capability data by a soil conservation district on two New Mexico farms. The long-term farm plan is prepared after additional studies by various technicians and further consultations with the farmer. It consists of the Land Use Capability Map with soil conserving practices indicated and the Plan of Conservation Operations which describes the method of applying the practices on the fields. Other information often included is an areal description of the farm, technical findings and economic surveys. This plan is now considered a legal instrument to be signed by the farmer and the local Soil Conservation District, for cooperative action in accomplishing sound conservation on the land. Generally, its practices prove satisfactory and the land operator and the Soil Conservation District board both sign it. However, if a disagreement arises as to its content, a discussion ensues. The two cases which follow point out such discussions and the results as arrived at in a Cuba Soil Conservation District meeting, Cuba.

The article focuses on the growth of the refined sugar industry in Mexico. The sugar industry sums up, for Mexico, the whole problem of industrialization, reflecting the stoppage and movement, the major outlines of economic policy, and serving as a fair index of the volume of industrial production. The first serious movement toward industrialization in Mexico had roots in the revolution of 1857 and culminated in a laissez-faire period which achieved more industrial progress than is generally credited to it. Sugar statistics of the early Porfirian period are not very precise, but according to a reasonably reliable source, the production of refined sugar increased from about twenty-five thousand tons in 1877 to 137,000 tons in 1911. Most of this initial progress was, unfortunately, lost because it was made under sanctions which were not viable in the Mexican institutional structure. The second movement for industrialization in Mexico may hardly be said to have begun before the adoption of the constitution of 1917.

The article focuses on the international relations between the U.S. and Mexico. The Fourth Pan-American Federation of Labor Conference was held in Mexico City, from December 3 to 9,1924 where Samuel Gompers, as a guest of honor, attended the inauguration of President Plutarco Elias Calles. He also presided as chairman of the Pan-American Labor meeting which proved to be his last public appearance and his farewell to both Mexican and American Labor movements. He died a few days later, on December 13, 1924. Gomper's death was significant in that. It marked the beginning of a decline, in cooperation of the Mexican-American labor movements. However important the passing of Gompers might have been, the underlying meaning of the cooperative efforts of the Mexican and American Labor movements was to be found in the activity of the two groups in 1924 and succeeding years in the realm of international affairs. Both groups realized that the labor movement was to become increasingly international in scope.

The article presents a demographic analysis of First and Second generation Mexican population of the United States. For two decades many Americans have been cognizant that all is not well with the Mexican in the United States. Particularly after 1920, the so-called "Mexican Problem" was impressed upon the people by the increasing size of the Mexican population coupled with declining immigration from Europe. The presence of large numbers of Mexicans in the U.S. has occasioned serious social, economic, and political problems which have been reflected in discrimination, segregation, misunderstanding, social distance, and even intermittently in conflict. Briefly, the Mexican population of the 1930 Census embraces a complete inventory of first and second generation Mexicans and a substantial number of those of later generations. Despite the omissions resulting from this definition it appears that the 1930 Census classification yielded a valid sample of the universe of "Spanish" or "Mexican" culture population.

The article presents information about financial condition of France during the reign of emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Finances have played a very important part in French history, especially during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic period. When Bonaparte began his military career, France became, a "parasitical state" which could not maintain its war government from its internal revenues. In casting about for a likely source of revenue, Bonaparte naturally turned to his southern neighbor, Spain, a country which had access to the great treasures of the New World. Many of Bonaparte's policies were concerned with the struggle for the silver of Mexico, which he sought by means of commerce, subsidies, and conquest. Spain had long supplied the powers of Europe with specie. The man who played the most spectacular part in these international financial schemes was Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard, a businessman with a flare for speculation. It was in provisioning the Spanish fleet that he first became interested in Mexican silver. Bonaparte's gateway to success was therefore to be through Spain. This was later to be accepted by Napoleon himself, but in the meantime he tried to reestablish the French colonial empire in Louisiana, only to give it up again when war was resumed with Great Britain.

The article focuses on an Anglo-American plan for the colonization of Mexico. If the Southern Confederacy had triumphed in its struggle with the Federal Union, if it had succeeded in its set purpose to attain International position, it would have been easily capable of invading Mexico with an army of veterans under the command of such officers as Lee and Johnston. The ultimate submission of the Southern Confederacy to the force of Union arms changed the aspect of the Mexican invasion in part. It was not to be an expansive movement of a new and vigorous nation; it developed into a deliberate effort on the part of fugitive Confederates-generals, governors, congressmen, cabinet officers-men who imagined that the whole power of the United States government was bent upon their capture, to seek asylum in the republic south of the Rio Grande under the protection of whatever governing group was in power. The Anglo-Americans crossed the Rio Grande in large numbers providing with little delay a mobile groundwork for the Gwin enterprise.

The article discusses about some observations regarding the nature and work of the international boundary commission in the U.S. and Mexico. The boundary between the United States and Mexico is about 2,000 miles long. As defined by the treaties of 1848, 1853, and 1884 it follows the Rio Grande for 1,300 miles between the Gulf of Mexico and a point near El Paso, thence about 560 miles over land to the Colorado River, tip this river some 20 miles, and thence about 130 miles overland to the Pacific Ocean a few miles south of San Diego, California. In respect of the use and control of boundary waters the contrast between the past and the present is equally striking. When the treaties of 1848 and 1853 were negotiated, the only concern was the preservation and protection of the right of navigation. Many of the problems and some of the powers and functions of the existing International Boundary Commission are, however, closely related to the boundary commissions set up by the two states under the treaties of 1848, 1853, and 1882.

This article discusses on issues related to colonel Anthony Butler's brief urging to the purchase of Texas in August 1829. U.S. President Andrew Jackson sent Butler shortly to Mexico with secret instructions the U.S. ambassador to Mexico Joel Poinsett offering sums up to five millions for various slices of Texas. Although Mexico had been hostile to any cession, no means of attainment were to be left untried. Thus, it seems the General connived at Sam Houston's plan of filibustering against Texas through Arkansas, cleverly saving the appearances of neutrality. Jackson professed to consider Houston's reported design and activities as "the effusions of a distempered brain." Hardly candid, however, was his equivocal protestation in his formal instructions of October 16, 1829, to Butler, for Mexico's eye, that the United States had always had "good wishes for Mexico, under the control of a strict and persevering neutrality. The idea of military invasion of the Mexican territory has never entered into the imagination of the United States, nor, it is believed, of any one of their citizens."

The article focuses on international problems that arise from water diversion on the United States-Mexican boundary. The rivers, including tributaries that form the water-boundary between the United States and Mexico and thus give rise to intern national problems are the Colorado, the Rio Grande, and the Tia Juana. In the case of the Rio Grande intensive development began shortly after the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexican Railroad was built to Brownsville in 1904. The rich soil, combined with a semi-tropical but salubrious climate and an abundance of cheap labor, soon made the lower valley of the river the scene of one of the most marvelous agricultural developments to be found in the United States. Available records indicate that Mexico supplies from the Conchos, the Salado, the San Juan, and lesser tributaries 70 per cent of the river yield below Fort Quitman, whereas Texas uses 70 per cent of the water devoted to irrigation. It will be observed at once that the Rio Grande above El Paso presents problems similar to those that have arisen in respect of the Colorado. The Tia Juana is only 17 miles long, is of intermittent flow, and is of primary importance as a source of water supply for San Diego city and county-and Tia Juana.

The article describes the sequence of settlement in the Lower Rio Grande of Texas and of Tamaulipas in Mexico. This settlement can be viewed in the context of Hispanic and Anglo-American cultures at different levels of technology that have occupied the region contemporaneously. Two occupance phases, pastoral and agricultural, are salient. The agricultural phase is composed of periods based on population growth of the region's two largest cities and man's changing impress upon the landscape.

The article examines the movement of miners from the state of Sonora, Mexico into California, their influence in creating the permanent trade and service center of the Southern Mines region, and their sudden departure and its consequences. It was stated that the number of persons involved in the Sonoran migration is unknown. But it was estimated to be around five to six thousand persons leaving the state of Sonora, most of whom entered into California.

The article offers information about the water problem at Mexicali Valley in Baja California, Mexico. The place has been successful as the world's great processors of raw cotton, recovering from its waterless condition. However, due to draining irrigation waters, salinity has been left in the soil and only the salt-tolerant cotton may survive conditions which have become an international issue. Information concerning the place' water problem is discussed.

The article offers information about the coastal geographical features of the Laguna Guerrero Negro found on the lower western coast of Peninsula de Baja California, Mexico. Information regarding the lagoon's salt processing, climate, plants and animals living in it, as well as the communities in the place is discussed.

The article describes the physical features and topography of the Sierra Juarez and the San Pedro Martir highlands in Baja California, Mexico. Located in a fault block of crystalline rocks, these mountains contain valuable natural resources. The climate in the mountains is classified as Mediterranean. Decades ago, Indians permeated the highlands to hunt and to gather piñon seeds, and livestock herds grazed in the San Pedro Mártir. Another source of income is gold mining.

One of the dominant surface materials in the Valley of Mexico is called tepetate, a term which sometimes is used simply as a synonym for caliche. The semantic confusion is traced to the Aztec taxonomic system of earth materials in which consistence rather than color is a primary attribute. Thus, a variety of earth materials may be termed tepetate As a construction material tepetate has played a major role in the development of modern Mexico. Tepetate is also marginal agricultural land cultivated under population pressure in the absence of better available land. The associated technology seems to have been developed during pre-Conquest times under similar conditions of population pressure, after tepetate was exposed at the surface through previous misuse of land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El Llano is the southwestern quarter of the State of Aguascalientes in Mexico. Its economy in 1962 and 1963 was based upon three major activities: corn and bean farming, dairying, and export of labor services to the United States. The low levels of per family income found in the region were caused by low levels of productivity of corn and bean agriculture, for two reasons. First, income from corn and beans formed nearly half the gross regional income. Second, several of the other sources of regional income were technically tied to the level of harvest of corn and beans owing to the use of the harvest and its by-products as inputs to the other activities. The level of productivity in the cultivation of corn and beans was very low primarily owing to two causes. El Llano is located on the arid margin of corn and bean agriculture in Mexico. Also, the level of traditional technology is primitive. Moreover, El Llano's farmers were cultivating their land so intensively that the marginal productivity of labor was zero and the marginal productivity of capital was equal to its marginal cost. A market for fluid milk developed just prior to the period of the study (1962-1963) through construction of farm-to-market roads and the opening of a powdered milk plant by the Nestle Corporation in the vicinity. The rate of return to investment in dairying was more than four times the rate of return to an equivalent investment in corn and bean cultivation. Investment funds were obtained by many of the region's families by performing contract labor services in the United States. The rate of growth of income from dairying as a proportion of gross regional income was less than optimal given the high rates of return to investment in dairying. The United States terminated the large scale importation of Mexican farm laborers in 1965, so this source of investment funds has been eliminated. The general future of El Llano's economy is bleak unless the process of conversion from corn and bean agriculture to some form of animal husbandry is continued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1880's, intensive accelerated erosion began producing large gullies throughout the Southwestern United States. This modem arroyo cutting was originally attributed to deterioration of the protective vegetation cover because of below normal rainfall and overgrazing by excessive numbers of livestock (4,000,000 sheep in New Mexico in 1880). However, recent studies have stressed the greater importance of increased high intensity rainfall. Additional perspective is provided by an examination of livestock numbers in the upper Rio Grande region of New Mexico during the 19th century, particularly during the Mexican period when the ranges were heavily stocked with sheep (possibly 3,000,000 head in the 1820's), but with little or no gullying. The incomplete record of livestock numbers in relation to climate and gullying backs up the climatic argument but also gives some new support to the older view that overgrazing was a major contributive factor causing severe modern gullying.

The largest Gulf coast alluvial plain in Mexico lies primarily in the state of Tabasco. Although predominantly a fluvial-deltaic plain the coastal landforms contribute beach-ridge topography which extends inland up to twenty miles. Beach ridges attain fullest development adjacent to distributory channels and reflect periods of active discharge. Trenching of the ridges disclosed their internal stratification to comprise forest units which suggest sequences of washover deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on land tenure in Latin America. Plantation agriculture exists in many parts of Mexico, and in northwestern Yucatán, an area famous for henequen production. Present land-tenure arrangements in north-western Yucatán can be grouped into two broad categories--private and communal which also tend to be associated with the two dominant settlement types of the region--the hacienda and the village or pueblo. The problems faced by the Yucatean henequen industry are compounded by recently increased competition from other hard-fiber producers in the world, notably Brazil, and by a rapidly increasing population.

Focuses on the distribution and affinities of Mexican mammals. Geographic ranges of genera; Natural units of the area.

Focuses on herpetogeny in Mexico and Guatemala. Phylogenies of groups; Fossil remains in adjacent areas; Modern physiography and herpesianlife areas.

Focuses on the climate of the Sonoran Desert Region. Desert nature of the lowlands peripheral to the Gulf of California. Boundary of the geographical region containing the Sonoran Desert; Topographic features of the region.

Se presentan documentos de la Segunda Reunión del Consejo Política Financiera y Monetaria de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Libre Comercio (ALALC), que tuvo lugar en México en 1965. Se presenta el informe final de la reunión, que explica, entre otros asuntos, la construcción de un grupo de trabajo para examinar el proyecto de Acuerdo entre Bancos Centrales de los Países Miembros de la ALALC y las actividades conjuntas del Banco Central de la República de Argentina y el Banco de México, S.A.

El artículo da información sobre el Fondo para el Fomento de las Exportaciones de Productos Manufacturados en México, empezado en 1963. Se explican los principios generales del fondo, manejado por la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público y el Banco de México. Se explican también las operaciones de redescuento del Fondo. Se mencionan las operaciones de garantía del Fondo y se explica la evolución del programa. Se presentan detalles financiaras del Fondo.