152 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The Carib is short of stature, well built, active, industrious and prov- 

 ident, with the aid of his wife or wives. They are clean and have a 

 great talent for acquiring languages, most of them being able to talk 

 in Carib, Spanish and English; some even add Creole-French and Mos- 

 quito. Polygamy is general among them, some of them having as 

 many as three or four wives, but the husband is compelled to have a 

 separate house for each. It is the custom when a woman can not do 

 all of the work required on a plantation, for her to hire her husband. 

 Men accompany them on their trading excursions, but never by any 

 chance carrying the burdens, thinking it far beneath them. 



The Apostolic Roman Catholic Church is the prevailing religion, and 

 there are no churches of other denomination in all the republic, except 

 in the Bay Islands and two on the north coast, where many of the 

 inhabitants are Protestants. The government does not contribute to the 

 support of the church, but exercises the right to regulate it under the 

 laws. Support for the church is obtained through voluntary contri- 

 butions. The women constitute the church-goers, and support the church; 

 the men seldom go, but bury all of the dead. A woman never goes 

 to the burying ground. 



A narrow-guage road built thirty years ago with French and English 

 capital was originally intended to extend from one coast to another, but 

 never extended beyond sixty miles. From the terminus of this road to 

 the capital it is six days hard ride on mule-back over the mountains. 



As in most tropical countries, so in Honduras, there are large areas 

 suitable for the pursuit of agriculture. The wealth of a nation is found- 

 ed on its agricultural activity, and the returns from the tilling of the 

 soil. In Honduras there is no farming on a large scale, and such plan- 

 tations as are now under cultivation are chiefly along the north coast 

 and under the direction and management of foreigners. It might be 

 assumed that this country, with its varied climate, its highlands and 

 lowlands and undulating plains, covered with fertile soil, would be a 

 great agricultural region. The situation, as a matter of fact, is quite the 

 reverse. The native rarely raises more corn, beans and rice than will 

 barely keep his family until another crop can be gathered. It is 

 sometimes difficult to buy bananas, potatoes, and even corn in the capi- 

 tal of the country. 



What little plowing is done is accomplished by a crooked stick and 

 a pair of oxen, with a yoke lashed to their horns. The care bestowed 

 upon the crops amounts to nothing. A small hole is made in the ground 

 and the seed is dropped in. A rake of the foot covers it, and that is 

 all it gets in the way of cultivation, for there is not a hoe or plow in 

 the country. Corn is the chief article of, food, the cereal being ground 

 and used in many ways. Two crops can be secured in a year, but with 

 this advantage there is never enough corn or maize. The latter is 

 grown in every section of the country. The same may be said of sugar 

 cane and red beans. Tobacco and coffee are chiefly raised in the moun- 

 tainous districts. Agriculture is still in a primitive state. Irrigation 

 has not been attomj ted by the natives, but there are districts where it 

 could be carried ^ <s:tv£ssfully and the lands made very fertile. 



