Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-26
Department of Agriculture to
Issue Bulletin on Subject.
POSSIBILITIES ARE MANY
Land Can Be Leased for Twenty
Five Years From Canal Commission.
ON BOTH SIDES OF WATERWAY
Practically aoo,o Acres to Be
Thrown Open to Americans
Who Desire to Migrate

Farming Possibilities in the Canal
Zone is the title of a bulletin about to
be issued by the Department of Agricul-
| ture According to the bulletin there are
good many possibilities, but few of
them are taken advantage of at present.
The bulletin is timely because there is at
present great deal Of interest in the de-
velopment Of the zone and there is little
! known about the land laws or the farm
ing chances there.
The zone. as nearly every one knows,
is strip Of land ten miles wide, five on
cash side of the canal, reaching across
the isthmus. 1t belonged to Panama and
all the land that was public land then
passed to the United States government
and is being disposed of in small farms
by lease from the Panama canal commits
sion. There is nominalIy $50 square miles
of territory in the zone, but when the
Gatun Lake and the Mirafiores Lake are
full and the land occupied by the towns
and canal works are subtracted it leaves
, about 325 miles of agricultural territory,
practically 100000 acres.
1t might be supposed that being rich,
tropical country most Of this would be
potential farming land. But, in fact
so much of 1t is rough hill country that
the real farming land is largely confined
to the river bottoms and valleys. 1t is
like the northern India kingdom of which
kipling tells, that was very small, but
had a lot Of land in it because so much
of it stood on end.
The Zone is restricted largely to what
they call patch farming" little areas
that are carved out of the jungle by the
fruit and some vegetables, but barely
enough to supply their owners. At the
same time there is a good local market
for all the fresh vegetables. that can be
cold-storage vegetables. and welcome any
chance to buy fresh ones. There is a good
deal of truck farming done in a small
way by the Chinese but they are so filthy
culture that the whites will not buy Chi
nese raised vegetables If they know it..
Experts Visited Country.
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson re-
Gently setn two experts to the Zone to
report on the farming situation They
were II. H. Bennett of the bureau Of
soils and w. A. Talot of the plant indus
try department. They report that there
is but one pillow in the whole Canal Zone.
and that is owned BY an American. The
natives merely scratch the earth with a
sharp stick. Their other cultural meth
DDS are of the same primitive sort
Land in the Zone can be bought from
the Spanish holders at varying rates.
Close to- the towns it is more valuable
for building than for farming, but in the
remoter regiohsrit Is very cheap. The land
that belongs to the government cannot be
bought, but It can be leased from the
canal commission at the rate Of So per
hectare. which is about three and one
half acres. The great objection that Amer
lean farmers find to this arrangement is
that no lease can over more than fifty
hectares, and the leases only run twenty
five years. Owing to the nature of the
country there is but little available land
in a fifty-hectare farm.
The transportation facilities are con-
spicuous by their absence. Outside Of the
canal works there are no roads at all.
The farms are never more than five miles
from the canal. but they are reached by
little jungle trails that are scarcely passa-
Bile for pack horse and utterly out of
the question for wheeled traffic. There