who if allowed to do so, would crowd into the island by tens of thousands. There are already a few thousand foreign negroes in the country between whom and the native laborers there has been friction that necessitated the intervention of the police. PORTO RICO. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. The Early Industries of Porto Rico The Growth of Sugar Cultivation - The Need of Irrigation and Higher Cultivation - The Future of the Industry Depends on New Methods Coffee - The Decline of Coffee Culture - The Uncertain Feature of the Industry - Method of Coffee Cultivation Tobacco Preparing the Berry for the Market -Growth of the Tobacco Trade - The Possibilities of Development Live-Stock - Other Agricultural Products Cocoanut Products A Neglected Resource- - Our First Legislation for the Island Admirably Conceived - The Amended Foraker Act is a Drag to the Wheel of Progress. Agriculture is practically the only occupation of the people of Porto Rico. There are no manufacturing industries of consequence except those that are incident to the marketing of agricultural produce, in which category would fall distillation of rum, grinding of sugar-cane, and cigar-making. Of the total area of Porto Rico three thousand six hundred square miles slightly more than seventy-five per cent is occupied by farms. Something less than twenty-one per cent of the entire area of the island is under cultivation. These figures are in strong contrast with those for Cuba, where the farm-land falls short of thirty per cent and only three per cent of the island is under cultivation. The condition in Porto Rico is more nearly ap proached by that in the United States, where sixteen per cent of the land is in tilth. When, however, we consider the extraordinary density of the population in the insular possession, the proportion of its cultivated area does not appear to be as great as it should be. In comparison with the condition of Illinois, for instance, Porto Rico seems to be almost backward in this respect. The State has a rural population of about forty to the square mile, as compared with more than two hundred and sixty in the island, yet seven-tenths of the entire area of the former territory is under cultivation. The average size of the farm in Porto Rico is about forty-five cuerdas (a cuerda being very nearly the equivalent of an acre) and the average proportion of a farm under cultivation, twelve cuerdas. In Cuba the corresponding figures are one hundred and forty-two and thirteen respectively. In general the farms in the western portion of the island are smaller and have a larger proportional cultivated area than in the eastern half and the coastal regions of the north and south. Nearly half the cultivated area is devoted to coffee, Humacao and Bayamon being the only departments in which sugar-cane receives more attention than the berry. The principal coffee districts are those of |