Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/155

Rh and for some time after its close, the industrial interests of the nation were almost entirely agricultural, pastoral, and mining. Intelligent and persistent effort to develop railroad construction, manufacturing, and other new business enterprises appears to have been first begun under the patriot, Juarez, continued under his successor, Tejada, and to have been most successful under Diaz, because of the long period of law and order which his stern methods maintained. Previous to the attraction of foreign capital to Mexico her original industries had been conducted in the primitive and slip-shod manner characteristic, even at the present time, of most Latin-Mexicans. As a result there was little or no attempt at intensive cultivation of the lands, assisted by comprehensive modern methods of irrigation, which so large a part of the lands require. The same condition existed in the pastoral industry, which was little assisted by any intelligent effort to increase the value of its product by improvement of breeds and supplementing the food supply of the natural ranges by the production of forage crops.

Shortly after foreign capital became interested in Mexico under Diaz, it was only natural that the attention of investors should have been attracted to the opportunities for making money by acquiring lands and applying modern methods to their management. It became evident to foreign