Since the 1st of July, 1904, the fruit has been sold by the hundredweight. Prior to that time it was sold by the bunch, the bunches, or stems, being classified according to the number of "hands" of bananas they contained. Most of the fruit which commands the best market price is on stems of 8 hands, each hand containing about 12 bananas, so that a bunch consists of from 90 to 100 bananas, and weighs some 45 or 50 pounds. With the quality of the fruit the same, the full-sized bunches of 8 or 9 hands command a higher price than the smaller bunches, per hundredweight. Green fruit alone is shipped to any distance from the steamer port. There are always some ripe bananas in the cargo, and these, together with the bunches of green fruit which are rejected because of defect in size or in the number of fruit on the stem, are sold to local dealers or consigned to short-haul points. The capacity of the larger vessels of the company is from 25,000 to 30,000 stems, equivalent to some 2,750,000 bananas. The capacity of the smaller vessels, constituting the majority of the fleet, ranges in the neighborhood of 18,000 stems. The report last issued, that for the year ending September 30, 1903, showed that the company owned an improved plantation acreage of 92,523 acres and an unimproved acreage of 172,996 acres, giving a total acreage of 265,519. The largest holdings are in Costa Rica, where 108,902 acres are owned, of which 32,060 are improved. In Cuba 75,761 acres are owned, and the aggregate holdings in Jamaica, Santo Domingo, and the Republic of Colombia amount to over 80,000 acres, besides which 500 acres of improved plantation land were owned in Honduras. The company has recently been increasing its holding of sugar-cane plantations in Cuba, and now owns some 10,000 acres in addition to some considerable acreage of cocoanuts and oranges, but the center and heart of the industry at present is the production and transportation of bananas. It has its own railroad facilities, in whole or in part, in each of the main territories where it works, amounting in 1900 to a total of 124 miles. A ventilated fruit car of the kind in common service has capacity for about 450 bunches, which are laid in two layers, the lower one of stems standing on end and another one laid across on top of them. Sales by the Fruit Despatch Company during 1903, representing what might be called the gross operating earnings of the United Fruit Company, aggregated over $8,000,000, and the company disposed of nearly 25,000 carloads of tropical fruit. NEW COMMERCIAL HOUSE IN CARTAGO. Under the name of "The Byrd Commission Company" a new commercial house has been established in Cartago, the direction and ownership being in the hands of two citizens of the United States, Gen. PHILL G. BYRD and Col. R. LEE BYRD. The interests of the firm. extend also to Bocas del Toro, Panama, and in a communication received from them it is stated that although in operation for a few weeks only, the business of the company has exceeded their expectations by over 100 per cent. The purpose of the enterprise is to secure the sole agency in Costa Rica for several lines of United States manufactures and to introduce them into all sections of the Republic. CUBA. MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT PALMA. The Cuban Congress resumed its session on November 7, 1904, and a message was read from President PALMA, in which he touched on all the usual subjects, such as education, the courts, and the rural guard. He referred to the case of yellow fever near Santiago, which he said was probably due to some mosquito coming aboard ship from Veracruz, Bahia, and Puerto Cabello. He called the attention of Congress to the fact that by the treaty with the United States Cuba is responsible for maintaining sanitary conditions, and he recommended that the State take charge of the sanitation of Santiago at once, Congress giving the necessary credit therefor. He said that the condition of the country is as satisfactory as it was last year. He went extensively into the question of paying off the balance of the debt due the army. The total of the debt thus far passed on by the Claims Commission amounts to $56,768,426. The outstanding claims number 1,220. President PALMA assumed that the total army debt will not amount to more than $57,000,000, of which $28,500,000 is now being paid off. He asked how the rest should be dealt with and then pointed out the importance of not burdening the State with too heavy a financial debt. He said that Cuba is only just beginning her national life and should take care not to strain her financial capacity nor weaken the foundations of the Republic so as to throw it down. The expenditures for the present year considerably exceed $16,500,000, and the imperious needs of growing public obligations and the necessity for encouraging the agricultural wealth of the country by building roads, in addition to other demands, have made a budget of $19,000,000 necessary. If the revenues continue to increase in the same proportion as in previous months the total revenues by June, 1905, will considerably exceed $20,000,000, and it is probable that future expenditures will exceed the present. It can therefore be assumed that there will not be large surpluses in future years. If the revenues continue to increase there will be by July, 1905, an unencumbered surplus of from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 in the Treasury, unless new special credits are voted. Meanwhile, however, when once the expenditures reach $20,000,000 annually a surplus such as this will not reoccur. However, it should be remembered that the State pays $5,764,811 annually on account of municipal matters, such as schools, prisons, and hospitals, all of which shows the need of a large budget. It will therefore not be safe to count upon surpluses in the future, especially in view of the growing demands for harbor works, dredging, etc. There will also fall due within twenty months the contract with the Church, when the State will have to pay for the custom-house and other church buildings now occupied by the State the sum of $1,431,000 or build new buildings. The special loan taxes now produce $3,360,000 annually. Deducting $337,562, the cost of collection, and $1,750,000 interest on the loan, the balance will be $1,373,438. When the amortization begins in six years the tax on exported sugars and cigars, which, it is estimated, will yield $550,000, will go into effect, giving a total of $3,910,000. The amortization will amount to $1,020,000. Thus the annual balance of the special-tax income after the first six years of the loan, when amortization begins, will be $802,436. In view, therefore, of the Platt amendment in regard to the contraction of external or internal debts on certain conditions only, Cuba must either reduce the debt to the army or create new taxes in order to raise a loan of $25,325,000. President PALMA advised the raising of a loan of $11,000,000 for paying the ex-soldiers 46 per cent of the balance due them. He pointed out that 26,103 persons have sold part of their claims at an enormous discount. The only available sum to pay off the balance due the army is the surplus of the special taxes imposed for the service of the $35,000,000 loan, which will permit a loan of $11,000,000. Another way to settle this obligation would be an internal debt paying 3 per cent interest, the State reserving the right to cancel it at the rate of 46 per cent. Regarding the Cuba Railway Company President PALMA stated it is in a difficult situation. The company spent $13,000,000 in construction and had to give a mortgage of $5,523,000 in bonds, which pay 5 per cent interest, being $276,150 annually. It would be a tremendous loss if the company had to suspend traffic owing to want of funds. The President recommended that the State guarantee interest on the bonds for three years. During the first six months of 1904 the imports amounted in value to $39,900,000, an increase of $7,400,000. Since 1901 the imports from the United States have shown a tendency to fall off, the loss in 1902 being $3,000,000. Therefore the change this year is doubtless due to the reciprocity treaty, though the time is too short to make a definite statement. For the fiscal year ending June 30 the imports were $74,492,000, an increase of $11,872,000. The exports for the same period were $94,399,000, an increase of $16,000,000. Sugar alone accounted for $57,700,000, an increase of $14,000,000. TRADE WITH THE UNITED STATES, FIRST NINE MONTHS OF 1904. During the first nine months of the calendar year 1903 the United States exported to Cuba merchandise valued at $16,752,179. During the first nine months of the present year those exports appear as $22,717,378. This is an increase of 35 per cent, undoubtedly due in part to the operation of the reciprocity treaty which went into effect on December 27, 1903. The following items of export to Cuba appear in the "Monthly Summary" issued by the Department of Commerce and Labor of the United States. They cover the first nine months of the present calendar year, during which time the treaty has been in operation, in conparison with the corresponding months of 1903. Some items are not given in detail in the official summary. A few of those which are given, such as oats, railway cars, tallow, cotton seed, hams, and salt pork, show a contraction, but it is in no way due to the operation of the reciprocity treaty. Other items, also virtually exempt from treaty influence, about hold their own. With the single exception of builders' hardware and tools, the foregoing list shows a very notable increase. Moreover, that increase touches a wide variety of interests. It is not confined to a few special items in which only a few of our people are concerned. It touches field and farm, factory and workshop, the woodman's ax, the farmer's plow, and the dairy, the lathe of the mechanic, the tanner's vat, and the cotton-spinner's loom. But it would be an error to credit all of this increase to the operation of the treaty. A fair share of it is due to the fact that the Cubans have done very well this year with their sugar and their tobacco. They have more money to spend than they have had in a number of years. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. MINING LAW. [Translation.] CHARLES F. MORALES, L., President of the Provisional Government of the Republic. Whereas there is urgent necessity of decreeing a law which shall regulate the conditions under which the mineral riches contained in the subsoil of the Republic may be developed; and having heard the opinion of the Council of the Ministers of State, I decree: Immediately upon publication in the official organ there shall go into force throughout the entire territory of this Republic the Mining Law, which is published, as follows: LAW ON MINES. CHAPTER I.-Concerning the ownership of mines. ARTICLE 1. No person, even though he is the owner of the surface of the land, shall be allowed to open and develop mines if he is not provided with an authorization issued by the Government. ART. 2. The substances for whose exploitation a mining concession is in each case indispensable are the following: 1. Gold, platinum, silver, mercury, iron (except ochers and alluvial clays suitable for paint), lead, copper, zinc, tin, antimony, nickel, cobalt, manganese, bismuth, and arsenic, whether those substances be found native or in ores. 2. Precious stones, rock salt, fossil resins, asphalt, sulphur, and coal. The substances which the proprietor of the soil may work freely and without the necessity of a special concession are the following: 1. Oils and mineral waters, building stone, clays of all kinds, and sands which do not contain the aforesaid metals. 2. In general, all other substances not specified in the preceding paragraphs. ART. 3. The authorization gives to the concessionaire the perpetual ownership of the mine, except in the case of relinquishment provided for by the present law, and is consequently transferable by gift or sale like other property, and may not be expropriated except in the cases and according to the methods prescribed by the Constitution and the Laws. ART. 4. Mines are real property as well as the buildings, machines, shafts, tunnels, and other works connected with them, in conformity with the Civil Code. ART. 5. The following also are real property "by destination:" The horses, harnesses, and other utensils employed in the exploitation of a mine. |