AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES OF 



PORTO RICO. 



General Statement. 



The island of Porto Rico is situated in latitude 18° north and lies 

 in the direct line of trade between New York and South America. 

 In a general way it may be described as about 100 miles long and 

 36 miles wide, and has an area, including its dependencies — the 

 islands of Vieques, Culebra, and Mona — of 3,530 to 3,860 square 

 miles. The whole island may be classed as mountainous except a 

 border on the seacoast and numerous interior valleys. The moun- 

 tains are not in bold and forbidding ranges, but consist of an endless 

 variety of immense segregated and fertile hills, with interspersed 

 valleys, in an ascending series, but without special order, from the 

 north coast to two-thirds the distance across the island, where the 

 hills attain an elevation of 1,500 to 2,600 feet, and the valleys, many 

 of which are of considerable extent, are from 500 to 1,500 feet above 

 the sea. 



Climate. 



The temperature of the island is tropical, but is so modified by alti- 

 tude and ocean winds that extreme heat or cold is never experienced. 

 Cold never reaches the frost line and rarely drops below 65° F., while 

 91° is usually the extreme of heat in a season, and that only for a 

 short period. As the temperature is largely modified by the winds 

 from the ocean, and especially by the trade winds, considerable varia- 

 tion is found in different portions of the island, it being warmer where 

 the trade winds are shut off by mountains. A much greater differ- 

 ence is observable in the rainfall. Some sections are ordinarily deficient 

 in rainfall; in others it is very heavy. 



In a recent report on the water resources of Porto Rico, H. M. Wilson ' 

 states ' ' that all the crops which the soil will produce can be grown 

 over three-fourths of the extent of the island with the aid of the abun- 

 dant rainfall alone. The other one-fourth, including all the region 

 near the coast and from Cabo Rojo on the extreme west to beyond 

 Guayama on the east, must be irrigated if the soil is to produce the 

 full measure of crops of which it is capable. The total area of these 

 irrigable lands is, however, relatively small. " 



The weekly crop bulletin issued by the Weather Bureau of this 

 Department, San Juan, P. R., June 18, 1900, confirms the above 

 statement. 



'Water Supply and Irrig. Papers, U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 32, p. 28. 



