Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/171

Rh that the company has been unable to begin the construction of its large dams. Pending this work, however, the company has constructed a wing dam and has built about 400 miles of canals which provide irrigation for 30,000 acres of land, about one half of which belongs to Mexican citizens. The company also established an experimental station for testing the value of various agricultural products, and published, in Spanish and English, bulletins giving the result of these experiments, which were distributed gratuitously to all applicants. In other words, it established a fully equipped agricultural experiment station, giving to the Mexican people a service which their own government had never adequately performed.

In 1915 the Carranza government installed General Calles as military governor of the state of Sonora. Among the first acts of this governor was the issuance of a decree, No. 17, dated December 23, 1915, the apparent object of which was the confiscation of property by levying high taxes impossible of payment, especially so that the land could not be used because of Yaqui Indian depredations and generally abnormal conditions. When the company objected to this taxation and referred to its contract with the state government of Sonora, dated 1909, it was told that Governor Calles had cancelled this contract and that it must pay the taxes provided in the decree.