BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1901-08-14
Agricultural Experiment Stations
THE ABACA PLANT.
BY
r. A. Van Midde1dyk.

the agricultural Department in Washington
for the purpose OF establishing the first
agricultural experiment Stations on the
American plan in this island, received but
pass ng notice in the press, but is neverthe-
less an event of transceudental importance
t. all who have the future welfare OF this
island at heart.
During the Spanish administration there
we're Botanical gardens" in Rio piedras,
Mayaguez and one ur Two other places ace
ht lleve but though useful and Interesting
of their kind they had not the scope given
10 the American Experiment Stations for
The spread Of agrlc ultural knowledge and
he practical demonstrations Of the possi5Ill-
ties Of cur soils and cl mate.
There is an impression am"ng the "gente
del campo" OF this island that experiment
Stations are good for amateur agricuturlsts,
but that they ere of little value IN cOun-
ry where the staple products from tine
mmemorial are the same and will remain
the same indefinitely.
But this is q lamentable errer, which 1t
behoves them to correct and which is born
of the sur ne Indifference for the fate OF
future generations which is so characteristic
If man ind in general and OF the latin
American races in particular.
The progressive movement in all branches
of agricultural industry, the new regions in
all parts of the globe that are being taken
from the domains of the sylvan god Pan
and added to those of the benefCent Deva
Ceres, nake the permanent duration of the
marketable value Of any product uncertain
to degree; This is the case especially with
tropical produces for The reason that the
greater part of The Earth's surface, now
neing brought under The sway Of civilized
nan are.suDtropical and sooner or later will
food the worlds ma kets with the very
products that the people of this Antille count
upon as a sure source Of income for all time
to come. Already the growing beet root
sugar industry y lowering the price OF canf-
sugar in the Hawaiian islands and what
protects Porto Rican from tie same effects
If competition in The future 2-hundreds, OF
thousands of acres OF the most fertile land
IN the world are actually beng cleared IN
Brasil to be turned into Cane, coffee and
tobacco plantations which in a very few
years will begin to fiood tho markets; Cen
Jral America, central Africa The Philip.
pine islands and many other places where
these products will grow are only just
awakening to a sense Of the possibilities OF
their sells and it is becoming clearer everG
day that in the near future LO people will
be allowed TO possess in soil and climate
potential agricultural wealth without using
1t for their own and the universal benefit
of mankind.
1t behoves us therefore to look to the
future and scan the productions OF Other
climates like our own to see what there is
among them that can also be produced in
our privileged soil and give remunerative
employ to capital and labor when through
some evensualIty or other, our present pro-
ductons cease TO be So What the agri-
cultural potentislities of a soil and climate
like those of Porto Rico are,-no one who
has not visited the Botanical Gardens of
Welteyreden in Java of Calcutta, Of R'O
Janeiro or of Jamaica Can lOrm an adequate
idea and we suggest thet the future super
lntendent of the Porto Rcan experiment
stations be instructed to visit either of the
above mentioned institutions that be may
be thoroughly imbued with sense of the
incompatible wealth of plant-life that ma
ture is capable of developing in such an
island as this.
W hen he sees there dozen varieties of
the finit hearing palm; about seventy va
rieties of the musae or banana family, when
he sees the pepper the vanilla, and other
precions vines winding themselves round
the stem and branches OF the bread fruit,
the chinchona, the rubber the mangosteen
ard Thousand other trees unknown to him
yet ali OF them of great commercial value,
he will then understand that the eternal
routine in this island of cane, coffee and
tobacco is as misplaced as it would be Tor
an American farmer 10 maintain that his
land could produce nothing but corn or
potatoes.
In the writer's life long ard sincere desire
TO assist in the development OF the literally
inexhacsiib!e resources of the latin Ame.-
can countries amorg which he has passed
b life, he has, with his own limited resour
ces tried 10 call the attention of the people
and their rulers to few Of the new ban
ches of agricultural industry that night be
introduced with an almost certainty Of sue
cess, but he has received Bisr labor for bis
pairs neither. have the proposals made
to the same effect to the American auth0- |
rites in this island met with any encoura
cement
notwithstanding this negative result nov,
that the agricultural department Of Wash
ngton seems disposed to take practical
,fpps to discover and make known til.
Dormant resources If their island to the
inhabitants of Porto r Rco, Will bring to
he notice Of that learned Institution one
more plant which has constituted the prin-
;ipal source Of wealth for the inhabitants
If the ph'Iippiue islands under the Spanish
eason TO doubt, could be successfully in
reduced here.
This plant is the world famed Abaod.