The British Consul at Santiago de Cuba, in 1895, reported the discovery of a coal deposit within fifty miles of that City. The analyses claimed for samples seemed to indicate commercial possibilities, but no operation of the deposit has followed.

The extent and richness of the deposits of iron ore in Cuba are beyond question, and, although their operation has become an important industry, development in that direction has hardly more than commenced. As to other mineral resources, there is a decided probability of their proving great in the future. At present little is definitely known about the matter. With the exception of the geological reconnaissance to which reference has been made, and which was necessarily somewhat cursory, no scientific investigation of the Island's mineral wealth has ever been made. The Government might profitably devote some of the money which it is wasting on needless consulates abroad to such a useful purpose.

CHAPTER XII

LATENT AGRICULTURAL WEALTH

CUBA is, first and last, an agricultural country. The climate, soil, and proximity to favorable markets, create unusually favorable conditions. The recent extensions of the railroad system, and the additions to the calsadas, or government highways, of which one thousand miles were built in the last year, have greatly improved the facilities for interior transportation. The Government has established experiment stations, and in other ways encouraged farming and stock raising; railroad and development companies have extended generous aid in the same direction. Millions have been sunk, during late years, in organized efforts to promote agricultural industries in different parts of the Island, aside from the investments in sugar and tobacco. But, notwithstanding, agriculture has not advanced in Cuba at anything like the rate that should have been experienced.

Before the last war there were upwards of one hundred thousand plantations, ranches, and farms in the country, of which the value was not less than $200,000,000. Very few of these properties were made to yield adequately. Among the sugar and tobacco estates, good management was the exception, rather than the rule. Despite the natural advantages that he enjoyed, or perhaps because of them, the Cuban farmer hardly ever made the most of his opportunities, nor displayed a respectable degree of enterprise. It is true that he labored under heavy handicaps in the political and economic conditions, but since these drawbacks have been removed he has not shown any marked improvement. Nor has any great advance in agricultural development followed the introduction of American capital and American settlers, save in the sugar and tobacco industries. The former has often been misapplied, and the latter do not appear to have gained a grasp of the situation.

That something is radically wrong in the state of Cuban agriculture is made glaringly apparent by the fact that the country imports annually $25,000,000 worth of foodstuffs that it might produce. Not only that, but several

of the items that make up this aggregate represent products that might be raised in Cuba to an extent sufficient to supply the domestic demand and leave a considerable surplus for exportation. It is not to be supposed, however, that under present conditions any such results are possible. The Cubans might do much more than they are doing to make their country productive, but until the population is greatly increased no approximation to the utmost agricultural possibilities can be attained. Estimates differ widely as to the extent of the area under cultivation, but it is certainly a very small proportion of that adapted to agriculture.

Although the soil is distinctly suitable to such treatment, intensive cultivation and scientific methods are practised only in a few places, and by foreigners, the usual proceeding is to plant over an extended tract, burning the fields in the dry season and leaving the ashes on the ground. When the rains have sufficiently moistened the earth, holes are made in it with a pointed stick, called a jan, and into the holes are dropped the seed or root from which the crop is to be derived. This method continuously robs the soil of the elements in