fair average crop is about 700 pounds to the acre; the cost of harvesting and hulling and sacking is rarely more than $5 per sack of 110 pounds each. The wholesale market price per sack ranges from $17 to $21, thus giving a net profit to the planter of from $12 to $16 per sack. There are planters in Venezuela whose net income from their coffee estates alone is sometimes over $90,000 annually, or say about 80 per cent on the actual investment, made some eight or ten years before. But perhaps the very next year they may lose nearly everything by a local or general "revolution." Indeed, that is by no means an unusual occurrence either in Venezuela or Colombia, and the fact is mentioned in this connection merely to show that there are two sides to the picture. Still, it is undoubtedly true that, all things considered, a good coffee plantation, convenient to market, is about the best piece of property a man can own in either country.1

Another profitable industry in Venezuela is the cultivation of Theobroma, or chocolate plant. It is indigenous to the soil of both Venezuela and Colombia, and its fruit is, as every one knows, the chocolate bean of commerce. The average height of the plant is about thirteen feet; its average diameter at the ground about eight inches. It requires more care and attention than the coffee plant, but the fruit itself requires less labor in its preparation for market. For full development and remunerative crops, the plant requires an even

1 Within the past decade there has appeared in Ceylon, and still more recently in Java, a coffee plant disease as yet unknown in South and Central America. I allude to the rust fungus (Hemileia vastatrix) which destroys the foliage on the coffee plantations in whole districts, year after year. This (and not adverse local legislation, as has been asserted) satisfactorily accounts for the decrease of the coffee product of those islands during the past few years.

temperature of about 80 degrees Fah., and a damp rich soil. Hence the available area being thus limited, the cacão planter has little fear of that fierce competition which is already being encountered in the coffee culture, whilst the annual average profit on the original investment is equally good, if not better.

The cacão plantation is set out in very much the same manner as an apple or peach orchard, except that the young stocks or slips may be transplanted from the nursery at two months of age. One acre will accommodate about one hundred plants, which, like the coffee-tree, requires shade. And, in addition to the shade, there must be constant and regular irrigation. This is usually accomplished by means of small trenches into which little streams of water are diverted from some creek or river conveniently near. At five years of age, the plant begins to bear, and will produce two crops annually, ripening in the months of June and December. The average life of the plant is about forty years, and the average crop about 600 pounds per acre. The fruit is a crescent-shaped pod, from ten to twelve inches long, and grows from the lower trunk as well as from the branches. In its green state, it looks very much like a cucumber, except that it is much longer. When ripe, it is of a reddish-brown color, especially on the side exposed to the sunlight. When fully ripe, these pods are gathered and thrown together in heaps on the ground, where, after a few days, they ferment and burst. The bean which looks somewhat like a large almond, except that it is smooth, bright, and glossy is then shelled out, ground into powder, and thus prepared for market.

For many years past, the European demand for cacão has been large, regular, and constantly increasing. Even in the United States, where the consump

tion has hitherto been insignificant, the demand is steadily increasing. In southern Europe and in Mexico, as in fact in all Spanish-American countries, cacão, in the form of prepared chocolate, is in common use by all classes; while in France, Germany, England, Russia, and the United States, it is employed chiefly in the manufacture of confections. Its use has become so varied and extensive that it is already a world staple of commerce, like tea and coffee; and the annual export, from Venezuela alone, amounts in value from $1,600,000 to $2,000,000. During the year 1890, it amounted to nearly $2,000,000, and it continued to increase until the breaking out of the civil war of 1892.

V

CHAPTER XX

MINERAL RESOURCES OF VENEZUELA

ENEZUELA, like Colombia, is peculiarly rich

in minerals, and some of the richest gold mines

in both countries have been profitably worked for more than two centuries. Early in the sixteenth century, Spanish prospectors searched the Caribbean coast and on the margins of the great rivers for gold deposits; and it was by these prospectors that the mines of Buria and San Pedro were first discovered, and the first white settlements made at Barquisemeto and Nirgua. These rich mines continued to be somewhat crudely though profitably worked under the old Spanish regime through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but were abandoned after the great earthquake of 1812, which obstructed the shafts and totally destroyed the mining property. In 1560, the same Fajardo (or Faxardo) who made the first attempt to found the city of Caracas discovered the gold mines of Los Teques; but owing to the hostility of the Indians, who killed his miners and destroyed his works, he was soon forced to abandon the enterprise and seek safety on the coast. Some twenty years later, another company of Spaniards discovered the marvellously rich gold fields on the Tuy river, which, however, were soon abandoned owing to the insalubrity of the climate and the hostile character of neighboring tribes of Indians.

Since then, gold has been discovered in nearly every province and district of the Republic. But the deposits

of greatest extent and value are those recently found in the territories of Guayana, east of the Orinoco. There are abundant outcroppings of gold-bearing quartz in the entire region between the river Cuyuni and the province of Barcelona, and also in the valleys of the western tributaries of the Orinoco as far inland as the Colombian border. The mines of San Felipe, Nirgua, Barcelona, Calläo, and Carupino have yielded as much as seven and eight ounces of pure gold per ton. During the years 1880, 1890, 1891, the smallest product of these mines was about $920,000, and the largest about $3,400,000, the average annual yield being about $2,160,000.

Copper deposits are abundant in many parts of the Republic, but hitherto not much disturbed. Those in the foot-hills near San Felipe, some seventy miles distant from Puerto Cabello, have been very successfully worked by an English company, and there are said to be equally rich, but as yet undeveloped mines of this metal in the vicinity of Coro, Carabobo, Barquisemeto, and Merida. In the decade from 1880 to 1890, the largest annual product of copper was about 30,000 tons, valued at $1,162,000; the smallest annual product, during the same period, being about 10,000 tons, valued at $175,000.

In various parts of the Republic, but more particularly in the foot-hills of the Parima range of mountains, there are rich deposits of red hematite and magnetic iron; but the most valuable deposits of this metal are found in the valley of the river Imataca, an important affluent of the great Orinoco, in part of the territory recently claimed by Great Britain. Here the ore is found in great quantities, generally near the surface, and has been assayed as high as eighty per cent of pure metal. The beds of ore are near the margins of the