40 FOREST CONDITIONS OF PORTO RICO. 



and joists weatherboarded on the exterior, and has wide board floors. 

 In most houses of the middle class there is no attempt at interior 

 finish, such as walls or ceilings. The roof is usually pyramidal in 

 shape, covered with corrugated iron or tile. The large rafters are 

 utilized for swinging capacious hammocks and for storage. Around 

 the house is sometimes a crude platform Or porch used for drying pur- 

 poses. The houses of the lower class are of several types, the princi- 

 pal kind being crude bujios or huts made of palm thatch, elevated upon 

 low posts. 



In the western part of the island, adjacent to the large coffee planta- 

 tions, between Lares and Adjuntas, a species of tenement house for the 

 laborers was observed. This consisted of a low one-story elongated 

 house, about 10 feet in width and of various lengths, cut up into small 

 apartments by partitions, with a common kitchen in the rear for the 

 use of several families. The individual apartments, often inhabited 

 by a family of ten or more, did not exceed the space of the average 

 box stall in an American stable. These structures were made of plain 

 upright boards, sometimes of American pine, and roofed with corru- 

 gated iron. 



One superb country house, the residence of a wealthy coffee planter, 

 was constructed entirely of native woods except the roof, which was of 

 corrugated iron. This house was a combined residence and coffee mill; 

 it was an oblong structure about 150 feet in length and 50 feet in width, 

 surrounded by a covered balcony. The basement story was so arranged 

 that a number of flat cars, the length of the width of the building, 

 could be rolled under it. These cars w^ere covered with coffee in the 

 process of drying, and could be quickly shoved from beueath the build- 

 ing in times of sunshine and as expeditiously returned during the 

 showers. The second story was the living apartment. This was beau- 

 tifully ceiled and floored with rich brown native woods, smoothly 

 dressed but unpolished. The gabled roof was used for the storage of 

 dried coffee. In an L was a large coffee mill with pulpers, hullers, and 

 polishers, all driven by water power, and constructed of beautiful native 

 woods, principally hueso, maurito, and ausubo. Some of these woods, 

 especially those used in the construction of the large coffee hullers, 

 were exquisitely polished by contact with the workmen's bodies. This 

 building, the property of Mr. Pietre, 1 or 5 miles west of Adjuntas, is 

 said to be the most expensive and perfect coffee hacienda upon the 

 island. 



FUEL. 



Native wood and charcoal are largely used for fuel upon the island. 

 Cooking is done over open fires upon elevated braziers and with small 

 limbs and twigs, mostly the natural waste of the cultivated trees or 

 brushwood. This wood is costly, being sold in small bundles of fagots 

 at the country stores, and is used with rigid economy. It is safe to 



