"The laws of Mexico formerly prohibited foreigners not naturalized, or provided with special licenses, from owning or working mines; but this provision was repealed, and foreigners may now legally acquire mines in any part of the republic, provided one of the partners in each mining company resides in Mexico."
From Zacatecas our friends proceeded in the direction of the capital, their next stopping-place being at Aguas Calientes, 120 miles farther south and nearly 2000 feet lower in elevation. Zacatecas is 8044 feet above sea-level, while Aguas Calientes is 6179.
For the first part of the journey the railway winds among the hills; then it comes out into a rich and comparatively level country, where great quantities of corn, wheat, barley, and wool are produced. The plains and hill-sides were dotted with flocks of sheep, and the numerous fields showed that the land was favorable to farming industries.
AN OLD-FASHIONED PLOUGH.
Farming in Mexico is in a backward condition, the implements being mainly of the primitive type. American ploughs, harrows, mowers, reapers, and other farming implements and machines have been introduced, as already mentioned, since the advent of the railways, but the Mexican laborer does not take kindly to their use.
It is said that on the haciendas where improved farming implements and machinery have been introduced they have been maliciously destroyed or put out of working order by the peons; their hostility to labor-saving inventions is just as great as that of the same class of people in other parts of the world. During the construction of the railways some of the contractors brought a supply of wheelbarrows, to replace the gunny-sacks with which the peons have been from time immemorial accustomed to carry earth on their backs or heads. Being made to understand that they must use the wheelbarrows instead of the sacks, they filled the vehicles with earth and carried them on their heads. The contractors were obliged to return to the use of the gunny-sack, as they found more work was done with it than with the wheelbarrow.
The Indians living in the neighborhood of the cities come down from their homes in the hills, bringing on their backs large baskets filled with garden vegetables, chickens, and other marketable things. The story goes that when an Indian from the hills has sold his burden, he puts a stone weighing fifty pounds or more in his basket, in order to give him a "grip" with his feet on the ascending road which leads to his home.