The Mexican Government has decided to stop the subsidy to Mr. Manuel Romano's line of steamers plying between Tuxpan, Vera Cruz, Coatzacoalcos, Minatitlan, and Frontera, as soon as the term of the present concession expires. The concession was promulgated December 12, 1889, and was to remain in force for five years counted from the date of the inauguration of the service which took place May 26, 1890. The subsidy drawn by Mr. Romano is $1,000 per round trip, such trip having to be made every twenty or twenty-five days.

From a recent message of President Diaz to the Mexican Congress it appears that the foreign postal business is steadily increasing, the number of packages having increased over 5,000 in the last six months.

The national telegraph lines have been extended 40 kilometers (24.856 miles), and now reach a total of 41,000 kilometers (25.477.40 miles). During the past four months 146 kilometers (90.72 miles) of railroads have been completed. The President says that the completion of the important Tehuantepec road was contracted for. Under this 16 kilometers (9.94 miles) have been constructed and the former work repaired. The completed line now measures 255 kilometers (158.46 miles), and only 40 are lacking for the "termination of this the first interoceanic line in the Republic. "

Operations have been begun under the Orozco scheme, for flushing the sewers of the City of Mexico, and the work, it is thought, will be completed by the end of April. Mr. Orozco purposes diverting a continuous supply of water from two lakes, and carrying it along the southern outskirts of the city, and sending it into the sewers from the western end and through the Ramon Guzman Canal, which extends from the Chapultepec road to Nonoalco, the northwestern point of the city. It is believed that the work will be of great benefit to the city from a sanitary point of view.

Mr. Scougall, the engineer who has been engaged in surveying the route for a canal to irrigate 100,000 acres of land in the neighborhood of Camargo, State of Tamaulipas, Mexico, estimates that a capital of $750,000 will be required for this purpose. The soil and crops of the region are said to be similar to those of the Nile Delta in Egypt, and the company represented by Mr. Scougall, holds a concession for the development of the agricultural resources. The

works comprise a dam some fifteen miles above the San Juan River, which rises in the mountains near Monterey and falls into the Rio Grande nearly opposite Fort Ringold or Rio Grande City, and a canal 90 kilometers(55.93 miles) long, which will reach the city of Reynosa on the Matamoras division of the National Railroad; also a 1,500 feet tunnel, and a short open cut some 25 feet at its deepest part, together with 5,000 feet of fluming along the steep bank of the river San Juan. Provision is also made for lateral or distributing canals, with regulating gates to measure out water from the main canal.

The Scandinavian steamship line to Mexico will probably be established by the beginning of September, 1894. The vessels starting from Copenhagen, Denmark, will call at Gothenburg and either Bremen or Antwerp. West Indian, Central American and Mexican ports will be visited, the terminus being Vera Cruz, Mexico.

According to the Mexican financier, Mr. W. H. Clarke, who has a State concession for the erection of smelting furnaces at Culican, in the States of Sinaloa, Mexico, has purchased the plants of a smelting and mining company, heretofore operating at Crittenden, Ariz., with the intention of putting it up on Mexican soil.

"The Secretary of the Treasury of Mexico," says the Mexican Financier, "has recently cleared up a doubt as to the application of the mintage tax on the exportation of silver when associated with baser metals. He reminds custom-house collectors that smelting companies operating under special government concessions enjoy exemption from export duties on argentiferous lead not running higher than seven-thousandths in silver, the regular duties being payable with respect to any silver contained in the lead in excess of the proportion named. Argentiferous lead not exported by the smelting companies is subject to the export duty on its silver contents in excess of three-thousandths. Copper in mattes or bars is exempt from the export tax on silver, when the amount of the latter metal contained in the copper does not exceed fifty-thousandths.

The Oficial Gazette of the State of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, is urging local agriculturists to engage in the cultivation of coffee, for which there is abundance of suitable land in the eastern section of the State. Advices from Mazatlan, Sinaloa, state that preparations are being made for growing coffee in that district. From all parts of the Republic an active inquiry for coffee lands continues to be reported.

Cuernavaca and

Mexico after an

Mr. J. H. Hampson, President of the Mexico, Pacific Railroad Company, has just returned to absence of several months in the United States. He says that they have just closed a contract with Messrs. Canmell & Co., of Sheffield, England, for 2,300 tons of steel rails and fastenings, which should reach Tampico early in April, and will be sufficient to complete the road to kilometer 75, near Huitzilac, on the south side of the mountains, and overlooking the Cuernavaca Valley.

The grading and masonry work is being finished rapidly. Five large construction camps are located on the line, employing about 1,000 men and 150 teams; and he hopes to have the road built and in ope: ation to Huitzilac by not later than August 1.

In addition to their present equipment, they expect to place an order shortly for fifty wood cars and two more large ten-wheel freight locomotives. The four new passenger coaches now being built at Wilmington, Del., will reach Mexico about May 1.

The line near the city has been changed recently, shortening the distance about two kilometers, besides securing a better alignment, throwing out two railroad and street crossings and avoiding the low land along the Consulado River, which is subject to overflow in the rainy season. This is a great improvement. Trains began running into the city over the new line recently. Two parties of engineers are in the field-one making the final location from Huitzilac to Cuernavaca, and the other running reconnoissance and preliminary surveys from Cuernavaca through to Acapulco. The country through which this road will pass is one of the richest and largest sugar and rice producing districts in Mexico; a large traffic is thought to be assured, and the people interested in these industries expect to double their output as soon as they can secure railroad transportation. In addition to this, the road passes through heavy forests of pine and oak timber near the summit, on the line between Mexico and Cuernavaca, from which a large freight traffic may be secured.

One of the industries that is likely to prosper and become one of the principal ones of the State of Tobasco, is the manufacture of furniture.

Tobasco is very rich in valuable timbers. For centuries, they have been allowed to decay in the forests. Mahogany is seen everywhere, but like the other kinds, it is wasted.

A fortune awaits the manufacturer who would engage in such an industry in that State of our neighboring sister Republic, for there is an abundance of valuable timber at a low price, and labor is cheap. Mr. William Henry Butler, of the city of New York, through a representative in Mexico, has applied to that Government for at patent of a machine to make cigarettes. He has requested that the patent be extended in the name of the "Bansac Machine Company," a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Virginia, and whose principal office is at Salem, Va.

Recent advices show that there are in the entire Republic of Mexico about 84,000 hectares (21⁄2 acres each) dedicated to cotton growing, producing 30,000,000 kilograms (66,138,000 pounds), in value about $18,000,000. The quantity of cotton raised is far from being sufficient to supply the demands of the country. For this reason there are imported annually from the United States about 4,500,000 kilograms (9,920,700 pounds), worth about $3,000,000. The cotton zone of to-day includes all the Gulf and Pacific States with the exception of Yucatan, but the region best adapted for cotton growing is La Laguna, situated northwest of the State of Durango and southwest of that of Coahuila.

Abundant rains have fallen along the line of the International Railroad and in the district of Laguna, Mexico. This fact insures a good cotton crop this year. The district named is the most important, so far as cotton growing is concerned, in the Republic, and its output is rapidly increasing.

Messrs. W. Broderick Clote and Roberto W. Symon have concluded a contract with the government of Mexico for the purchase of 50,000 acres of land in the State of Sonora, district of Guaymas, lying along the right bank of the river Yaqui, on the condition that the conces sionaires settle 100 colonists on the land within three years. The price to be paid is 75 cents per hectare (about two and one-half acres), payable in the bonds of the Government. The privileges and exemptions from taxation usual in such concessions are granted.

A copper smelter is being erected at the Imagen and Begonia copper mines at San José, in the State of Nueva Leon, on the line of the Monterey and Mexican Gulf Railway. The ore is a rich copper, bearing from $10 to $16 per ton near the surface. at a greater depth the product will be still richer.

It is thought that

The enterprise is

in control of parties residing in Monterey, Mr. J. W. Sharpe, of that city, being the manager. Several other strong companies are operating in the San José districts, and excellent results may be looked for.

Mr. Monnom, representing a Belgian syndicate of Brussels, has recently spent in Monterey several weeks making a thorough and exhaustive examination into the business and operations of the Monterey and Mexican Gulf Railway. The Belgian syndicate is the principal owner of the stock of the company, and it is stated that if Mr. Monnom's report is satisfactory the syndicate will assume all the outstanding obligations of the company contracted prior to the appointment of a receiver. In this event, the road will be taken out of the hands of the court and placed solely under the management of the above-mentioned syndicate.

RAMIE.

From the Two Republics of May 19, we get the following information as to the introduction of ramie into Mexico:

Ramie was first introduced in Mexico by a Swiss botanist, Benito Boezl, in 1867, who imported a few specimens from the Island of Java. For many years afterward it abounded in the States of Vera Cruz and Puebla in a wild state. Thanks to the indefatigable exertions of General Pacheco (then Minister of Public Works) in 1887 a large number of these plants were planted on the Motzorongo estate, State of Vera Cruz, which served as an incentive to farmers throughout the country.

In the State of San Luis Potosi a company was some time ago organized to raise the ramie plant and extract its fiber. On the Gua. dalupe farm, in the State of Michoacan, several successful attempts have been made to raise it, and in the State of Morelia, from the districts of Uruapan, Apatzingan, Ario and Tacambaro, samples were sent to the Paris Exposition of 1889, that were declared to be as good as the best specimens of China or India.

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In Mexico the ramie plant is known by the names of Ortiga," "Chinchicastle," etc. In China it is called "Tchon-nia," in Japan Osjo Karao," and in England "China grass."

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