208 



CUBA AND l'OHTO 1UC0 



amounted to $2,987,666. The public debt is $7,581,000, 



most of which is for the recently constructed railway 

 systems, irrigation canals, and new bridges. 



In general the government of Jamaica is humane, 

 civilized, and just. In fact, the perfection of its organiza- 

 tion and wo iking seems too good for an islam 1 whose 

 population is not yet entirely out of the savage state. 

 What might Cuba have been with such a government! 



Agriculture is either flourishing or decadent in Jamaica, 

 according to the point of view. The large English estate- 

 owners, shorn of the old-time profits of sugar-culture, 

 believe that the island is in its decadence, because of the 

 extermination of this industry. Americans and the natives 

 believe, however, that Jamaica has passed through the 

 crucial tribulations resulting from its former dependence 

 upon the sugar-producers, and is entering, for the first 

 time, upon a state of true prosperity, owing to the in- 

 creasing number of diversified small farms. 



The island embraces about 2,700,000 acres, of which 

 about 80,000 acres, or 2.97 per cent., are estimated to be 

 occupied by swamps or lands otherwise useless for agri- 

 culture. About 12 per cent., or 330,000 acres, are covered 

 by forests. There are now beneficially occupied in culti- 

 vation about 694,000 acres, or a little more than one fourth 

 of the whole cultivable area. The following table shows 

 the area occupied by each crop and the annual value of the 

 export products. 



CROP. 



ACRES. 



VALUES. 



Ground provisions 



Pimento 



Sugar-cane 



Coffee 



Bananas 



Cocoanuts 



Cocoa 



Tobacco 



Ginger 



Guinea-grass 



Common pasture . 



95,808 



63,193 



30,036 



25,559 



19,227 



10,940 



1,632 



261 



84 



126,877 



342,020 



$2,055,510 



1,617,684 



1,594,048 



116,024 



99,881 



