PORTO RICO 111 



The mountain areas present but little, if any, barren indurated 

 rock surface, but are covered with a deep red arenaceous clay soil, 

 to which vegetation clings tenaciously. Decay is so rapid under 

 perpetual warmth and moisture that the volcanic rocks consti- 

 tuting the major area quickly rot and weather. This mountain 

 soil is one of the most marked features of the island, and to it 

 are largely due many of its agricultural and forestal conditions. 

 Were it less tenacious and sticky than it is (and language can 

 hardly convey an idea of the unctuousness of this stickiness, 

 which is especially disagreeable as a road material), the moun- 

 tain slopes of Porto Rico would now be washed and dreary 

 wastes of ban-en rock. 



Owing to this soil, which clings to its framework, the moun- 

 tains are cultivated to their very summits, verticality of slope 

 presenting no obstacle to cultivation in the minds of the natives. 

 I have seen the steepest possible slopes cultivated to the highest 

 degree in coffee and tobacco — in fact, the most productive crops 

 of this character are grown upon declivities upon which the 

 American farmer would not risk the danger to life and limb. 



As a result of long cultivation, much of the soil of Porto 

 Rico is now abandoned and in the condition known through- 

 out the English-speaking AVest Indies as "ruinate." This has 

 resulted from overcultivation, from the failure to apply fer- 

 tilizers, and in some cases from erosion. Land of this character 

 was observed by the writer in many parts of the island. On 

 the north coast, in the vicinity of Rio Grande and Carolina, 

 ruins were seen of what were once houses of extensive sugar 

 estates, the former fields being grown up in grass. In the 

 western part of tbe island, in the high summit region seen in 

 passing from Adjuntas to Lares, many abandoned fields were 

 observed, which are now entirely denuded of trees and cultivated 

 crops. Considerable areas of ruinate were also observed on the 

 south coast, between Juana Dias and Ponce. The reclamation 

 of these lands by forestization or other methods of scientific 

 agriculture is one of the problems which Porto Rico presents 

 to the civilization of its new owners. 



The climate of Porto Rico is being well studied upon tbe 

 gmund by Professor Mark W. Harrington, of the U. S. Weather 

 Bureau, and I shall not attempt to describe it other than to state 

 a few facts concerning its bearing upon the distribution of life 

 and culture. Professor Harrington has already published many 



