4 BULLETIN 29, PORTO RICO EXPERIMENT STATION. 
large numbers of cattle were exported to Cuba for work in the cane 
fields. Within recent years, however, the extension of sugar-cane 
plantings has taken many cattle for working purposes. Cattle are 
used in plowing the land, cultivating and hauling cane to the mill, 
and in the old days they were employed for grinding. The cane 
fields are rotated hy letting them go back to grass, and the only use 
that can be made of the grass is in the feeding of cattle. 
The Porto Eican farmer finds it easy to shift into one of these in- 
dustries when the other is on the wane. As soon as the margin in 
sugar growing falls, the fields are allowed to grow up to pasture with 
the resultant increase in the number of live stock raised. The sur- 
plus stock is then shipped to Cuba and other islands of the West 
Indies, where the Porto Eican ox is in demand as a work animal and 
preferred on account of his strength and gentleness. When sugar 
rises in price, the fields are plowed and the number of cattle on the 
cane plantation is greatly reduced. Since the American occupation, 
sugar has been the leading industry, and for this reason the cattle in- 
dustry has not kept pace with the other lines of agriculture. No 
cattle were exported during the time sugar was bringing high prices. 
The production of beef and milk is not large enough to supply local 
needs. The value of meat products imported into Porto Eico during 
the year 1920 was $6,887,519, and of condensed and evaporated milk, 
$643,047. 
NEED OF DAIRYING IN PORTO RICO. 
No system of agriculture is complete or well grounded unless 
it includes within its scope the production of cattle. Cattle are 
needed, if for no other purpose, to consume the waste - products of 
the farm and to help conserve the fertility of the soil. Probably 
no other branch of farming would pay as well at this time in Porto 
Eico as dairying. With the steadily increasing population there 
has been a growing demand for milk. Fresh milk, perhaps the most 
perfect of all single foods, is scarce in all sections of the island, and 
retails at the excessive price of from 15 to 25 cents per quart or 
liter (approximately 2 pounds). The supply is far below the de- 
mand. Canned milk, cream, and butter are imported from the 
States, but canned dairy products, no matter how good they may be, 
are not equal to the fresh articles, and in many cases they can not 
be substituted for them. Dairies have sprung up in all parts of the 
island. In some instances the milk is produced by native cattle 
alone, and in others by native cattle that have been crossbred with 
improved sires. In a few instances purebred herds have been intro- 
duced with varying success. All the recently imported cattle have 
come from the States. 
