plateau. Few things, comparatively, are manufactured at the present day. The establishment of industrial schools, however, in the cities of Guadalajara, Mexico, Puebla, and Orizaba, and recent industrial expositions in these cities, have given an impetus to domestic industry. The Hercules cotton-mill at Querétaro furnishes employment to 1,400 operatives (for description, see Section V). It is by far the largest mill in Mexico. A few others have been erected by French and German capitalists in the central part of the Republic.
A company has recently been organized at Mapimi, in the State of Durango, to manufacture cotton goods at a place known as Ojo de Agua. The region affords fine water-power, and the factory will be started with forty looms. Small tread-mills are used extensively in making woolen cloths and blankets or zarapes. There are a few small silk-factories.
Although the data are wanting to give an accurate list of all the manufactures of Mexico, together with their amount and value, we will take the following figures from Señor Busto's great work on Mexican statistics: The number of factories in Mexico is 99; their value in machinery, $4,690,776; and in buildings, $4,816,999—making a total of $9,507,775. They contain 258,458 spindles and 9,214 looms. Their annual consumption of cotton amounts to 258,962 quintals,[1] and of wool to 59,240 arrobas.[2] The number of operatives employed is 12,346.
The manufactures of the country may be concisely stated as follows: Cotton and woolen goods; hats of straw and felt; leather-work of every kind; soap;[3] wax, either in the form of candles, matches, or ex votos; silk; glass; furniture; pottery; marble-work; rope; palm-leaf work of all kinds, as matting, baskets, brooms, brushes, etc.; a few
