Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-09-04
RESOURCES OF PORTO RICO.
It's Crops And Forests Investigated
By Agricultural Department.

In his notes on the Forest Conditions
of Porto Rico, soon to be published by
the department of agriculture, Robert
T. Hill gives a great deal of valuable
than that pertaining strictly to its
timber and timber lands. He spent
several months on the island and
learned much from observation and ex-
ploration and also from conversations
with the natives. No longer is Porto
Rico manttled by forests from the sea
to the brow of the mountains, but
enough is left of the primeval forests
TO indicate how luxuriant the growth
must have been.
Porto Rico is the eastward cOntinu-
alton of the Antillean chain of uplifts.
It is the most productive, the most
densely settled and the most estab-
lished IN it's customs and institutions of
all the Antilles The coast line of $50
miles is void of fringing keys and deep
indentations Throughout the noun
tains numerous and copious streams
ramify in every direction. The largest
and longest drain into the north coast,
the next largest flow to the west, while
the streams of the south and east sides,
although copious, are comparatively
short.
The ''plaza plains" are the wide, allu-
vial plains found at intervals along the
entire coast. They are usually fan
shaped, with their broader base next to
the sea- are many miles in width and
stand only few feet above the ocean.
These plains were formerly old alluvial
river estuaries, which, in late geologic
time constituted bays indenting the
land and have been reclaimed by the
general elevation of the island. Ponce
is situated on typical piazza plain,
which extends short distance back of
the city up the valley of the Rio Por
tugues.
Mr.. Hill has given to certain long
and narrow valleys sometimes occur
ring Between the foothills and the
front of the central mountains the
name of parting valleys" These
valleys are especially we'll developed
on the south side of Porto Rico, such
as the plain of Saba Grande and the
depressions of Guanica lagoon. The
former is almost exclusively devoted to
the raising of Indian corn. There is
radical difference between the red clay
mountain soils and the calcareOus foot
hill soils, the latter being of the open
textured, white limestone type which
abounds from Florida southwark, but
which is not common in the United
States.
The mountain soil is one of the most
marked features of the island, and to
it is largely due many of it's agricul-
tural and forest conditions. 1t resem-
bIes the red clay regions of the South
ern Appalachians, but is derived from
quite different rocks and is apparently
much richer in phosphaEes and lime
Decay is so rapid under perpetual
warmth and moisture that the volcanic
rocks quickly rot into soil of this char
acter. The decayed superfcies of the
rocks usually extends down SO or LOO
feet, affording a splendid medium for
roothold and penetration. Owing to
this soil the mountains were originally
wooded and are now cultivated to their
very SUBMITS, their vertical slopes
presenting no obsta Gle to cultivation
by the natives.
The most productive crops of coffee
and tobacco are grown upon declivities
upon which the American farmer
would not risk life or limb. Porto
Rico has in many places been overcul-
tivated. Extensive sugar estates have
been given over to grass and weeds be-
cause excessive cultivation has ex-
| hausted the land. The reclamation of
these lands by forestry or scientific