RETURN of Exports through Vera Cruz with their Values during the Fiscal Years 1906-09.

NOTE. Decrease 1907-08, 354,1887.; 1908-09, 600,1997.

COMPARATIVE Statement of Movement of Goods and Passengers through the Port of Vera Cruz during the Fiscal Years 1906-09.

COMPARATIVE Statement of Movement of Goods and Passengers through the Port of Vera Cruz during the Fiscal Years 1906-09continued.

Mr. Vice-Consul C. W. Rickard reports as follows:

The State of Tabasco up to the present time is practically an agricultural State, the only manufacturing plants that I know of being for the manufacture of bricks, tiles, and drain pipes and cigars from native tobacco.

Rubber. This product of the variety known as Castilloa elastica grows wild on the highlands of this State, as well as in a great portion of the State of Chiapas, and especially in the latter State is being cultivated by a few foreign companies as well as by some native planters.

The cultivated trees-when well taken care of by being kept clean of second growth and weeds-grow rapidly, look healthy and give promise of favourable results.

From San Juan Bautista I am told by merchants that the amount of rubber shipped from cultivated trees is heavy as compared with that from wild trees.

Sugar. Sugar cane is grown to some extent and gives good returns in this State. A great advantage as compared to some localities is that the cane does not require planting for many years, the juice apparently not deteriorating in quality, which is a feature of great importance to the planter.

Tobacco. In the district of Huimanguillo there are a number of tobacco plantations which produce a very good quality of tobacco, and in the city of San Juan Bautista, the capital of this State, there are several cigar factories which consume most of the product of the district named.

Cacao. There are a number of planters in this State growing this product, and I am reliably informed that it gives good returns on the investment.

Cocoanuts. Several plantations of cocoanuts, especially those near the coast, are giving very good results. None of them are on a very large scale, but enough to demonstrate that they do well here and can be made a profitable crop.

For some time past there has appeared a worm (borer) that has killed a number of these trees, of which I believe the Department of Agriculture is making a study.

Bananas. This plant is most prolific in certain parts of this State. In the district of San Juan Bautista several native planters are making regular shipments of the variety called "Roatán," and speak well of the returns on their investment. The places alluded to are on the Grijalva River, from 40 to 60 miles from the port of Frontera, and vessels that can come over the bar at the mouth of the river can go up to these plantations, as well as from 100 to 150 miles up the Usumacinta River. On the latter river, which empties into the Grijalva about 10 miles above the town of Frontera, there are several banana plantations being developed, with the prospect of beginning exportation in the near future.

Live-stock. There are immense tracts of low grass lands, especially along the large rivers, some of which are utilised for cattle ranges. Most of these lands are flooded from two to four months of each year during the rainy season, beginning in September or October. After the water recedes they are rich in nutritious grasses, highly suitable for fattening cattle. Some of these cattle ranches have highlands adjoining the lowlands, on which the cattle feed during the rainy season, thus combining very desirable conditions, giving cattle good feed the year round, as when the highlands become too dry in the dry season to furnish good feed then the cattle can be driven down to the lowlands.

Land. The prices of land range from 2 to 5 pesos per acre, according to class and position, some tracts fit for banana culture being held at a high figure (the Mexican peso represents approximately 2s. 1d.).

Cabinet woods. This is one of the principal industries of the State. There are several substantial firms in Tabasco engaged in this industry, principally in mahogany and cedar woods, although the heaviest percentage of their lands lie in the State of Chiapas mostly along the border line with Guatemala.

The higher timbered lands of this State and Chiapas produce many kinds of fine cabinet woods, some of them greatly superior to mahogany and cedar, but from the fact that very few of them float, in rafts, it renders transportations too costly to enable their being profitably marketed.

Entry. Frontera is the natural gateway for the two States mentioned, but the shallow depth of water on the bar at the mouth of the river seems to be a hindrance to the development of their resources, as vessels of more than 10 feet draught can seldom if ever come over the bar, while there is over 30 feet of water inside.

Exports. The principal exports are mahogany, cedar, coffee, cacao, chicle, sugar, cattle, hides, vanilla, feathers, tobacco, rubber, and fruit the latter principally bananas and limes.