ZACATECAS, a State of Mexico. Its area is 28,125 sq.m., pop. (1930) It belongs wholly to the great central plateau of Mexico, with an average elevation of about 7,700 feet. The State is somewhat mountainous, being traversed in the west by lateral ranges of the Sierra Madre Occidental, and by numerous isolated ranges in other parts—Mazapil, Norillos, Gua dalupe and others. There are no large rivers, only the small head streams of the Aguanaval in the north, and of the Guazamota, Bolanos and Juchipila in the west, the last three being tributaries of the Rio Grande de Santiago. As the rainfall is light this lack of streams suitable for irrigation is a drawback to agriculture. The climate is dry and generally healthy, being warm in the valleys and temperate in the mountains. The agricultural products are cereals, sugar and maguey; the first depends on the rainfall which often fails altogether, the second on irrigation in the lower valleys, and the latter doing best in a dry climate on a calcareous soil with water not far beneath the surface. A natural product is
guayule, a shrub from which rubber is extracted. The chief indus try of Zacatecas, however, is mining for silver, gold, mercury, copper, iron, zinc, lead, bismuth, antimony and salt. Its mineral wealth was discovered soon after the conquest, and some of its mines are among the most famous of Mexico, dating from 1546. The State is traversed by the Mexican Central and the Mexican National railways. Its manufactures are limited chiefly to the reduction of mineral ores, the extraction of rubber from guayule, the making of sugar, rum, mescal, pulque, woollen and cotton fabrics, and some minor industries of the capital. The capital is Zacatecas, and the other principal towns are : Sombrerete, pop. (1930) 5,056; an important silver-mining town 70 m. north-west of the capital (elevation 8,43o ft.) ; Villa Garcia, pop. (1930) 7,674 ; Concepcion, 6,028; Tlaltenago, 5,086; and the more rapidly growing silver-and-copper-mining centre at Fresnillo with 16,188 inhabitants in 1930.