62 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Grinding Grain 



are in such an undeveloped stage that no 

 definite statement can be made as to 

 their potential value. 



The agricultural resources of the coun- 

 try are greater than ordinarily supposed. 

 There is excellent grazing land near 

 Colon, along the Panama Railroad, and 

 within a few miles of the city of Panama. 

 Further west, in the Chiriqui district, and 

 on the Pacific side of that portion of the 

 Isthmus, there are extensive stretches of 

 country well adapted to agricultural pur- 

 poses, both for grazing and for the rais- 

 ing of all those tropical products which 

 grow in such luxuriance throughout the 

 fertile portions of Central America and 

 the Isthmus. Fine grades of stock in 

 substantial numbers are already found 

 on some portions of the Isthmus, and 

 dairy farming is already conducted in 

 the vicinity of Panama. 



Targe stretches of native forests of 

 valuable timber, such as mahogany, both 

 light and dark, and other similar woods 

 are found throughout the Republic, but 



are yet practically undevel- 

 oped. Such valuable tropical 

 products as cacao, bananas of 

 all kinds, sugar cane, indigo, 

 cotton, tobacco, vanilla, corn, 

 rice, and other similar pro- 

 ducts grow in abundance, and 

 conditions of systematic in- 

 dustry only are needed to de- 

 velop them into sources of 

 great wealth to the country. 

 Under the encouraging influ- 

 ences of a stable government, 

 where life and property are re- 

 spected, the natural resources 

 of the Republic of Panama will 

 be productive of an amount of 

 wealth which, if stated in a 

 quantitative way, would now 

 be incredible, in view of the 

 crude and depressed condi- 

 tions of industry which have 

 prevailed from the beginnings 

 of its history to the present 

 time. 



COMMUNICATION 



There are practically no roads found 

 in the Republic except those of a crude 

 and ill-kept kind near to the cities or 

 towns along the line of the Panama 

 Railroad Company between Colon and 

 Panama. The only marked exception 

 to this statement is the old so-called 

 Royal road built between Cruces, on the 

 upper Chagres, to Panama, a distance 

 of about 17 miles. This old road, for- 

 merly a crude paved way, was traveled 

 by passengers crossing the Isthmus be- 

 fore the construction of the Panama 

 Railroad. This traffic found its way up 

 the Chagres River to the small native 

 town of Cruces, now containing a few 

 scores of people, and then passed over- 

 land from that point either on foot or 

 horseback, or by such crude vehicles as 

 the country afforded, to Panama. It 

 was by this route that many people 

 went to California during the gold ex- 

 citement of 1849 and the years immedi- 



