60 



AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



Liberian plant, whieli tlirives admirably in tbe Surinam territory, better even 

 than in Java itself. 



In the north-western distiicts some attention has been paid to the baîata, a 

 plant which has been called the gutta-percha of Guiana. Cotton is no longer 

 grown, being entirely supplanted by cacao, the staple product, the cultivation of 

 which requires little care. Although the cacao tree produces nothing for eight 

 or ten years, after that it yields a certain and regular harvest. 



As a rule, the large plantations, whose products feed the export trade, enrich 

 the country less than do the small holdings, in which the negroes and peasantry 

 of various races raise provisions, vegetables, fruits, and especially bananas. An 

 experiment in communism has been carried out on the Onvericacht estate, which is 



Fig. 17. — Cultivated Zone, Dutch Guiana. 

 Scale 1 : 4,000,000. 



jointly held by a colony of 300 negroes, engaged in husbandry and the lumber 

 business. 



In Dutch, as in British Guiana, the gold industry has lately acquired 

 some importance. Diggings had already been carried on for some 20 years 

 in the French territory, when the Dutch Government had the affluents of the 

 Maroni explored, and here the precious metal was discovered by the prospector, 

 Alma, in 1874. Since that time further discoveries have been made in the upper 

 valleys of all the rivers, and especially on the banks of the Awa, the tributary of 

 the Maroni recently awarded to Holland. 



The yearly yield of gold has steadily increased without having yet reached 

 the sum of £160,000. At first the auriferous sands alone were washed; but 



