Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/167

Rh furthermore, through a direct permission of the Minister of Foreign Affairs that a foreigner in Mexico is accorded any standing in a court of justice. By the Constitution of Mexico, a foreigner who purchases any real estate in that country, without declaring that he retains his nationality, becomes a citizen of Mexico; and it is difficult to see how under such conditions he could properly invoke any protection from the country of his prior citizenship, in case he considered his rights in Mexico to be invaded. Again, the laws regulating mining property in Mexico are very peculiar. No one in Mexico, be he native or foreigner, can own a mine absolutely, or in fee, no matter what he may pay for it. He may hold it indefinitely, so long as he works it; but under an old Spanish law, promulgated as far back as 1783, and still recognized, if he fails "to work it for four consecutive months, with four operatives, regularly employed, and occupied in some interior or exterior work of real utility and advantage," the title is forfeited and reverts to the state; and the mine may be "denounced," and shall belong, under the same conditions, "to the denouncer who proves its desertion." The denouncer, to keep the property, must, however, at once take possession and begin the prescribed work within a period of sixty days. This practice has one great advantage over the American mining system; and that is, that litigation about original titles, and conflicting claims to mining property are almost unknown in Mexico.

On the plateau of Mexico, where nine tenths of its present population live, there is undoubtedly much good land; but the great drawback to this whole region is its lack of water. During the rainy season, which commences in June and lasts about four months, there is a plentiful rainfall for Central and Southern Mexico; but in Northern Mexico the rainfall, for successive years, is not unfrequently so deficient as to occasion large losses, both in respect to stock and to crops. For the remainder of the year, or for some eight months, little or no rain falls, and the climatic characteristic is one of extreme dryness. During the most of the year, therefore, the whole table-land of Mexico is mainly dependent for its water-supply upon a comparatively few springs and storage-reservoirs; and agriculture can not be generally carried on without resorting to some form of irrigation. One rejoinder to what may be an unfavorable inference from these statements has been the counter-assertion that "in the immediate neighborhood of the large cities enough grain is raised by irrigation to keep constantly more than a year's extra supply ahead to provide against a possible failure of crops"; and, further, that the storage capacity of the existing reservoirs of Mexico might easily be increased, and thus greatly extend the area of land capable of cultivation. But, admitting this, how great must be the obstacles in the way of developing any country where there is a liability to an almost entire failure of the crops from drought; and where the small agricultural proprietor,