A _hacienda_ run upon modern American methods would certainly be a much more profitable enterprise than when conducted after this style. In a few sections of the country, one will find a plantation here and there where some new methods have been introduced and American machinery employed, but these are rare. Even in the Valley of Mexico, not far from the City of Mexico, the most antiquated methods will be seen employed at all times. The richness of the land and its cheapness has caused the floating of many land companies in the United States. They can show great prospects on paper, but the trouble is that many of them have been floated by unscrupulous men, who care nothing for the interests of the stockholders, but are looking simply for promoters’ profits. When the real buyers reach the land they discover that things are not as represented, do not find conditions of living to their liking, and in a very short time the whole enterprise is dropped. Many have probably lost practically all of their savings. These things, of course, cannot be entirely guarded against, and they certainly fail to prove that Mexico is not a rich agricultural country. They simply demonstrate what fraud can be perpetrated upon people in a country where the land is teeming with fertility. Land values have undoubtedly advanced in the past few years, and some enormous tracts have been purchased by Americans, which are already showing profits for the owners. There has been much criticism heaped upon the Mexican courts, and a great deal of it has been deserved. The judicial system of Mexico is copied rather after the French and Spanish than the Anglo-Saxon system. In recent years the procedure has been improved greatly, but it still needs other changes in order to bring it up to the twentieth century standards. In years past American railroad engineers, who were unfortunate enough to run over some one, received harsh treatment in Mexican jails. The law of _incommunicado_, by which an accused person is locked up for three days, is still in force. It used to be that a wounded person could not be touched or moved before the arrival of the authorities, which caused much suffering; but this at least has been abolished. The judicial system, which includes supreme courts, district courts, circuit courts, police courts and other minor courts, is intended to give justice to the defendant in a criminal action, and to both parties in a civil action, but in many cases—to an American—the result does not seem to be satisfactory.