1 pound sterling is now worth about 15 milreis, so that four 
shillings (about one dollar U. S.)=3 milreis. 
On the lower Acre, goods are much cheaper and they fall 
still lower down to Manaos, where many articles only cost one- 
third or one-fourth as much, or even less, but Mandos is never- 
theless an expensive city. 
The large profits which fine rubber often yields, make all 
labor very dear. For this reason agriculture has developed but 
slowly and most food supplies must therefore be imported. 
Nevertheless cattle raising is constantly growing, stock being 
brought in from Bolivia. Bananas, the tubers of the sweet man- 
diola, beans and some vegetables are extensively grown, especi- 
ally by Peruvians and Bolivians. Often the seringueiro will 
plant some bananas and cultivate a small patch of cleared land, 
but this is not favorably regarded by the proprietor. In some 
seringaes, even the marriage of the seringueiros is opposed; 
everything is directed towards obtaining the largest possible 
quantity of fine rubber. 
Although the Acre is not very full of fish, fishing, in the dry 
season, is attended with some success, which particularly benefits 
dwellers on the banks of the river. Hunting also, in some 
sections, furnishes residents with fresh meat. As animals of the 
chase may be enumerated, monkeys, Taca, Aguti, wild swine, 
small varieties of deer, sloths, tapirs, various wood fowl and 
ducks. 
Very different from the arrangements customary, as a rule, in 
the Acre, are the conditions in the Bolivian rubber districts, 
which for the most part are owned by a single proprietor, N. 
Suarez y Hermanos. He is said to produce 1,500 tons of fine 
rubber per year, and could produce more than four times the 
quantity if the entire forest concession, which is probably as 
large as South Germany was all put in operation. One portion 
of this rubber forest is situated on the Acre, but the greater part 
includes the Southwestern tributaries of the Rio Madeira. In 
the properties on the Acre, the working methods are adapted to 
Brazilian customs, especially where Brazilian seringueiros are 
employed. 
While in the Seringaes, trade is conducted mostly through 
the Baracdes, there are in some places, notably in Cobija, Ha- 
pury and Empreza, various business houses, through which the 
owners of seringaes, captains of ships and other persons, can 
supply their wants, for before the steamer returns, there is often 
a scarcity in some products. 
The retail trade is mainly in the hands of so-called Turks, 
various Orientals, from Syria, Arabia, Tunis and Morocco. They 
have large boats, propelled by poles and oars and which contain 
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