FORESTS OF PORTO RICO. 



11 



f&2B 



During the same period the area of so-called pasture land had more 

 than doubled, so that it exceeded in extent all the other land classes 

 combined, and privately owned forests 

 had increased slightly. Private owner- 

 ship was thus almost doubled, having 

 absorbed nearly 95 per cent of the 

 total land area. 



During the period of American occu- 

 pation the cultivated area has nearly 

 doubled, amounting in 1912 to 23.28 

 per cent. 1 Of this area cane covers a 

 trifle more than two-fifths, coffee more 

 than one- third, minor fruits about a 

 fifth, and tobacco, coconuts, oranges, 

 and pineapples, in the order named, 

 the remainder. This agricultural ex- 

 pansion has been carried on about 

 equally at the expense of " pasture" 

 and " timber and brush" lands. On 

 account, however, of the much greater 

 area of pasture lands, these were rela- 

 tively little affected in the aggregate, 

 while the forest lands were reduced 

 nearly two-fifths. 



There is no information available 

 showing the average-size holdings in 

 the various classes of property or in 

 what proportion the economically de- 

 veloped lands are held in conjunc- 

 tion with the waste and forested 

 lands. The data upon which the dia- 

 grams (fig. 3) are based most nearly 

 approach this information by showing 

 for the assessment area analyzed the 

 proportion of the total, "by num- 

 ber" and "by area" of the farms in 

 certain acreage groups. 



CULTIVATED LAND 

 M PASTURE 



TIMBER AND BRU3H 



HTT^ UNCLASSIFIED 

 (1912 ONLVT 



Fig. 2. — Land in Porto Rico. The changes 

 from public to private ownership and the 

 main uses to which it is put. 



1 This figure differs from the one (56 per cent) given 

 in the Register of Porto Rico for 1910, which also varies 

 from the so-called "improved area" (75.3 per cent) given 

 by the Thirteenth Decennial Census (1910). Both of these 

 percentages have included in- them a considerable area 

 of so-called "pasture" land. The grass land in the 



low country might be considered "improved," because it is used part of the time as pasture and 

 is then plowed up and put into cane, but it is impossible to conceive of more than one-fourth to one- 

 half of the total of land classified as "pasture" as being thus alternately cropped and pastured. This 

 would make the "improved" acreage aggregate 35 to 50 per cent of the total territorial domain. The 

 remaining one-half to three-fourths of the land classed as " pasture ' ' could more properly be classed as waste 

 land or "ruinate," as is done in Jamaica and elsewhere, because it serves no productive economic use. 



