Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-02-10
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
SOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL POSSIBILITIES



Dairy farming is another opening
which has future, notwithstanding the
attendant drawbacks of hot climate, no
cold springs for cooling the milk, and ice
at a premium. If entered into on suf-
ficiently large scale to warrant the In
stallation of an EGGPLANT, the returns
would leave large margin OF pT0ft.
As things are today, the cattle are milk
ed but once in twenty-four hours, before
daylight each morning. The warm milk
must reach the consumer in very few
hours, or be lost by souring. The sell
ing price ranges from eight to twelve
cents a quart. Cream is unknown; not
because. as one of the army officers put
1t, "Ths damn PuertoRican milk is so
poor that never particle of cream csn
rise" but because it is never sufficiently
cool for cream ito rise. Canned butter
sells for from 60 cents to 81 pound, in
two, three, and five pound tins. This
article, which delicate people should
never have analysed, was imported in
1895 to the extent of 800 900 pounds.
Cheese. another of the by-products of
the milk-farm, is annually imported to
the amount of a million and quarter
pounds. Also, there Is made on the is
land good, palatable, hand-pressed cheese,
too white, too dry, and too tasteless for
the average foreigner, but largely CON
sumed by the natives.
Diaries established with proper re-
frigerating facilities, near any of the
larger towns, will be more than able to
compete with the methods in vogue
Cream, fresh butter. and cheese would
find ready market at prlces-for the
present, at least-much higher than
those of America.
Poultry-culture, as it exists today,
seems to consist mainly of breeding
game fighting-cocks. Miserable little
chickens of pound and half bring 30
cents each. Eggs are to be had in limited
quantities at sliding-scale prices, rang
ing from 80 cents to 80 cents dozen,
determined largely by the age of the hen
fruit, which becomes painfully over
ripe in forty-eight hours.
Fresh mutton is always in demand in
the market, and it is an easy matter TO
keep sheep fat and in good condition.
Wool growing would not be success,
unless hair cloth becomes fashionable. as
the imported lamb soon turns into goat.
Judging by his bristling coat.
Pork, to the amount of nearly 10000
600 pounds, is annually imported by
Puerto Rico, and is almost wholly pur-
chased from the United States. The
raising of hogs in large numbers would,
however, be a doubtful experiment,
owing to the high price of corn, though
there is much mast in the mountain re-
gions, upon which they are said to grow
fat. The indigenous animal is an ex-
tremely poor specimen of the razor back
species.
Corn is scarce and high-prlced. and
cannot be raised with much success on
the northern half of the islands, on &C.
count of the quantity of rain. The lands
of the drier southern portions of the is
land are capable of producing very ex-
cellent corn, though during exceptional
ly wet seasons 1t is apt to mature badly
and be injured by canker and must.
The failure of corn crops in certain
years is made apparent by the variable
importation of this grain, which some
times rises as high as 10000 bushels, and
falls IN other years to one-fourth this
amount. This year QS9S), the island
crop is very promising, and in the
Yauco and Mayaguez districts several
thousand acres of this ,cereal wave ten
feet high, usually bearing two large
ears to the stalk. While the local price
of corn is high, ranging from so cents to
95 cents bushel, it is not at all probable
that in the future, with open markets,
island corn can compete with the
American product. The benefits, there
fore, will accrue to Americans exporters
of maize.-Hs rper's Weekly.
PHILOSOPHY OF KlPLlNG'S NEW POEM.
The poet, whose message is concealed
in pleasing rhythmic verse, frequently
carries conviction to the receptive soul
because the philosophy of his poetry is
so obtrusive as to excite challenge,
Kipling's new poem, "The White Mans
Burden" published in McClure's Maya
zine for February, has such a majestic
movement, and appeals so forcibly to
the Instinct of duty in the strong to
cherish the weak, that one cannot but be