414 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



give but little and soon go dry. Milk sells in the towns and cities from 

 6 to 9 cents per quart. The more advanced dairyman delivers the milk 

 in cans hauled on a spring cart, while others carry it to market in 

 small cans on the backs of horses. Still others drive the cow about from 

 door to door and milk directly into the customers' receptacles A form 

 of cheese is made which resembles our cottage cheese, but is in reality 

 more solid. Practically no butter is made, and indeed butter is but 

 little used by the people of the island. Cattle enjoy much comfort in 

 the island, suffer little from the heat, are quite free from the annoyance 

 of noxious insects, and are seldom bothered by diseases. They 

 range on luxuriant pastures and seldom want for abundance to eat and 

 drink. Export cattle for beef sell for $2.25 per arroba (25 pounds). 

 This is discounted 40 per cent for shrinkage in dressing, which makes 

 the price about $5.40 per 100 pounds, corresponding very nearly with 

 the prices in the United States. In recent years the price has been as 

 high as $3 per arroba, which equals $7.20 per 100 pounds. The rais- 

 ing of live stock in Porto Rico may be considered a paying business 

 as conducted for the past few years. The demand for some of the 

 present pasture lands for the production of sugar will have a tendency 

 to increase the cost of production. 



The swine of the island are of a very inferior kind, being small and 

 of the "razor-back," " rail-splitting" variety. They are commonly 

 tethered out by a rope and get their living largely from grass and 

 weeds, but are at times allowed to range in the tuber patches, where 

 they can root up the yams, potatoes, etc. , and they are also fed plan- 

 tains and the small nuts that grow on the royal palms. 



Goats are of the short-haired, milk-producing kind and are used 

 for flesh and milk. They apparently do well. 



Sheep are rather scarce and have comparatively little wool. It is 

 probable that sheep for the production of wool would not do well in 

 so warm and wet a climate. 



Fowls, which consist chiefly of chickens, are small and active, the 

 cocks being of the kind used for fighting. Eggs in the markets can 

 seldom be purchased for less than 2 cents each, and chickens are as 

 correspondingly high in price. 



There is room for improvement all along the line of live stock, the 

 demand being greatest in the case of the milch cows, horses, swine, 

 and chickens. The essentials in such improvements will be the intro- 

 duction of new blood, care in selection, and more rational methods in 

 the feeding, care, and treatment of the animals. 



INSECT PESTS. 



Of the insect pests nothing is more pernicious than a mole cricket, 

 known as u la changa." It is believed to have been introduced from 

 Peru, and is very destructive to a wide range of plants in their early 



