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136 reader hurry to his broker. If Mexican rubber is grown under proper supervision, it is as good as any other variety; but how many Mexican rubber companies are paying dividends? The ridiculous boom some years ago definitely injured the cause of rubber in Mexico, as it did elsewhere. Let the prospective investor bear in mind that the price of land suitable for the growing of rubber is invariably high, and when he reads ninety-nine out of a hundred prospectuses his common sense will do the rest; also let him beware of rubber companies whose headquarters are in the United States. By this, I do not for a moment intend to suggest that American company promoters are any more dishonourable than other company promoters, but I do maintain that they have greater chances of being dishonourable in Mexican affairs than those of any other country. Americans are fond of enlarging upon the responsibility they feel with regard to the Republics of Latin- America, and the best manner in which they can impress the world that this feeling of responsibility is genuine is by playing the game in commerce as well as in diplomacy.

The principal cattle-raising districts are in the North, which has been the scene of the greatest revolutionary disturbances. Within the last twenty years, settlement by British and American stock-raisers has been frequent, and that the former make by far the best managers is shown by their brilliant record in the Argentine, which country they have practically "made." Mexican cattle-raising under Mexican native auspices is a shabby affair enough, resulting in poor beasts of light weight and unsatisfactory strain generally. There is, perhaps, no industry to which the Northern provinces are more naturally suited than that of cattle-raising. Yet neglect and, perhaps, lack of native common sense have greatly retarded progress. The native products for the fattening of cattle are, for example, nearly all exported, and the animals have often to be content with inferior grass instead of the