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For some years past, in consequence of the high price of coffee, a 

 great impulse has been given to its production. According to the 

 public records 24,598 manzanas of public land were taken up in 1890, 

 of which 16,740 manzanas were intended for the cultivation of coffee. 

 Of these, 8,491 manzanas are in the department of Matagalpa, and 

 4,101 in that of Managua. In the department of Matagalpa alone, 

 there are at the present time about 2,000,000 young trees under culti- 

 vation, which will begin to yield in about a year's time. The con- 

 struction of the Nicaragua Canal, and of railroads that are projected 

 to the Atlantic coast will, it is expected, give an immense impetus to 

 coffee- growing. The production of India-rubber is an important in- 

 dustry in Nicaragua, but it is annually decreasing from the reckless 

 slaughter of the trees. India-rubber, called in South America caucho, 

 and in Central America hide, is obtained in South America from the 

 Siphonia elastica, a tree growing to 50 or 60 feet in height. The col- 

 lectors of rubber, called huleros, employ several methods to obtain it. 

 In some cases the trees are felled, and channels cut round the trunk, 

 from which the sap or milk flows ; in others the tree is left standing, 

 and two or three vertical channels, according to the size of the tree, 

 are cut through the bark from top to base ; then numerous 

 oblique channels are cut connecting with the vertical ones. To do 

 this work, the huleros improvise ladders from the vines and creepers, 

 which everywhere abound in the tropical forests. In all the lower 

 regions of Nicaragua, particularly in those extending towards the 

 Caribbean coast, there are large tracts of land suitable for growing 

 rubber trees and it is said that their cultivation would prove very pro- 

 fitable to anyone who could afford to wait for a return from capital 

 invested until the trees reach maturity, which is from seven to ten 

 years. Bananas are largely grown, and when the bars to the mouths 

 of the rivers are improved, and when the inter-oceanic canal and rail- 

 ways afford means of transportation, this fruit will become a still more 

 prominent feature in the exports from Nicaragua, and the large pro- 

 fits yielded to the producers will stimulate agricultural operations on 

 thousands of acres of fertile land now practically uncultivated. There 

 is a variety of the banana family, the plantain whose production in 

 Nicaragua need only be limited by the demand for it, which must 

 become immense when its merits are appreciated. In Nicaragua this 

 fruit is boiled, stewed, baked, roasted in the ashes, fried, dried and 

 ground into flour, cooked in the skin or out of it, green or ripe, and 

 produces much more nutriment per acre than is yielded by wheat, 

 maize or potatoes. Cacao is grown in Nicaragua, and is sold with ad- 

 vantage in the markets of the world. The sugar-cane grows with ex- 

 traordinary luxuriance. The canes are soft, and contain no more 

 woody substance or less saccharine matter than those produced in the 

 East or West Indies, where their duration is wonderful. A great 

 deal of the sugar manufactured in Nicaragua is of a coarse brown 

 quality, the juice being merely boiled until it crystallizes, without 

 being cleared of the molasses. In this crude state it is poured into 

 moulds forming small cakes, which are sold to the poorer classes. A 

 very large quantity of the sugar-cane is used in the manufacture of a 

 species of rum called aguardiente. The bulk of the sugar produced in 

 the Republic is manufactured in the district of Jinotepe, in the De- 

 partment of Granada, where, although very primitive and imperfect 



