Orizaba (´ r-sä´ bä) is a thriving, industrial city 70 miles southwest of Vera Cruz. It is on the Mexican Railway which connects Vera Cruz with the City of Mexico. It is the chief manufacturing center of Mexico, and contains the largest cotton mills in the country. Here are also jute mills, flour mills, sugar refineries, and cigar and cigarette factories. The city lies in a broad valley 4,025 feet above sea level. To the northwest of it is a high range of mountains. The chief near-by peak is Orizaba. It is 18,250 feet high. This makes it the second highest peak in North America. The city is one of the oldest in North America. Thirty-five years before Columbus discovered America, Montezuma I (mn´ t-z´ må) led his Aztec soldiers against the city, and captured it. How many hundreds of years before this time the city had thrived, the records do not show. In this carding mill, dozens of laps of cotton are passing through the machines. The purpose of the carding is to make the cotton fibers lie parallel to each other. Carding is the process that comes just before drawing and spinning. On the right are the rollers with the laps of cotton upon time. This is the way the cotton comes form the pickers, the machines at the right. The laps are then placed in the carding machine, and are run through the saw-tooth cylinder. This cylinder turns about 400 times a minute. The wire teeth of the cards on the cylinder straighten the fibers. At the same time, smaller teeth take out all the remaining dirt. The rich soil of Mexico is adapted to the growing of cotton. In 1912 the republic had within its borders 148 cotton factories, in which were employed over 30,000 workmen. Keystone ID: 10888 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.