The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1898-08-19
FERTILE PORTO RICO
THE ISLAND is AS BEAUTIFUL AS 1T
is PRODUCTIVE.

It Has Thirteen Hundred Streams, q
Wealth of Vegetation. Highly CultivabIe
Soil and Vast Deposits of Minerals-Few
Reptiles, but Many Insects.
Mr.. Frederick A. Ober, late commits
Iioner in Porto Rico of the Columbian
EXPOSITION, contributes to Tie Century
IN article ON 1.-The Island of Porto
Rico" Mr.. Ober says:
In the extreme northeast rises the
highest peak of the central cordillera
in the Luquillo sierra, known as "El
Yunque, " or 1.-The Anvil" variously
estimated at from 3, 900 to 4, 500 feet in
height. The hills are of lesser elevation
toward the west and southwest, but
the whole north central country is rug
ged and uneven. Between the spurs
from the main range lie innumerable
secluded valleys, where the soil is Of
great fertility. The impressive features
of the landscape are the rounded sum-
mits of the multitudinOus hills, which
leave the coast in constantly rising bill
lows that finally break against the cor
dillera vertebra; yet all are cultivable,
and cultivated to their very crests,
though the higher mountain peaks are
forest clad
More than 1900 streams, it is said
Of which number perhaps 40 or 80 at
tain to the dignity of rivers, rise in the
hills ana seek the coasts, most Of them
running nOrtherly, though the best har-
| bOrs are III the west and south. But
Notwithstanding the great river flow
portions Of the island IN the southwest
are afflicted with drought at times,
owing to the precipitation of the north
east trades against the northern hills.
The higher hills are clothed in the
ezuberant and diversified vegetation of
the tropical forest, where tree ferns
flourish, and great gum trees and noun
tain palms tower aloft. At lower levels
are the cedar and mahogany, walnut
and laurel, with many others noted for
their useful woods Throughout the
island are found those trees and shrubs
valuable for their gums, as the nancy,
| guaiacum and cOpal, while the list Of
medicinal plants includes most Of those,
| Invaluable 10 our pharmacOpRlaS,
| which tropical America has given to
| the world. These are the silvestres, ma
| lures wild children, but of cultivated
| plants there is no species peculiar to
| the tropics that does not flourish here.
In the littOral levels between the
| mountains and the sea, grows the sug-
ar cane, which may be cultivated up to
an altitude Of 3, 600 feet. 1t was intro
| duced here from Santo Domingo, hav-
ing been brought to America either
from Spain or the Canaries The annu-
al yield Of sugar is estimated at about
20, 900 tons
In these fertile lowlands also tobacco
does exceedingly we'll, and the annual
| production is said to be quite 2, 200, 600
| pounds 1t may be cultivated on the
| hills, but the true mountain lover is the
| coffee, which does not do well below
| 600 feet and is at its best l, 900 feet
above the sea. 1t was first brought here
| from Martinique in 1922, and now
| yields to the extent of II, 900 tons an
| nually Maize, the true Indian corn, il
| indigenous, as is the yucca, the abOrigi-
nal "staff of life, =" and both grow ev-
erywhere, as we'll as the pineapple,
| which is more reliable and more uni
versal than the peach of our north tenn
| perate zone. Cotton and rice are found
| at nearly all elevations, the latter,
which is the chief food of many labor
| ers, being what is known as the noun
| tain variety.
Bananas and plaintains are wonderful
ly prolific, bearing fruit in ten months
from planting. The plants virtually
last 90 years, being equally long lived
| with the cocoa palm, which produces
nuts in six or seven years and there
after during the space of an ordinary
| life, its yield being reckOned at 100
nuts a year. The annual product of
bananas is given as 200, 900, 900 and of
cocoanuts 3, 600, OO0 The entire range
of tropical fruits is represented here,
such as the guava, lime orange, aqua
| cate, sapOdilla and avocado pear, while
! all subtrOpic vegetables may be raised,
| including those of the south temperate
| zone, such, for instance, as are grown
| in Florida.
The mineral kingdom has not been
so eXhaustively exploited as the vegeta-
| bic, but more than traces have been
| found Of copper, coal and iron, as we'll
as vast deposits Of salt The rivers at
one time ran to the sea over beds Of
golden sand, and from the streams t.
day (as in the neighboring island of
Santo Domingo, where the first Ameri-