Hi Walter,
Bingo !
Optimised it little bit so new performance test reads as folows ;
(BTW download today's version FAQ#29297 )

*** Test machine: P2-400 mhz with 196mb ram *** (donkey slow)

- 2580 records without memo - in 0.6 seconds

- 2580 records WITH 1 memo - in 1.1 seconds

With each additional memo field add aprox 0.3 seconds (on 2580 records).
So after all, it is not all that bad :)

I don't know how this compares to CorsorToXml/XmlToCursor
as I cannot test. (Still with VFP6 Service Pack 5)

It wld be very kind of you, if you (or anybody else who has VFP8 + ) could make comparison tests with xml transfers and post some results here.