produce woods excellent for underground use and especial able for railway ties or sleepers.

Oaks of several varieties, and particularly the live oak grows to an enormous size, and the long-leaved pine, ca the natives jocote, grow abundantly in the more elevated The latter are particularly rich in resinous juices and wo duce abundant harvests of turpentine and tar.

Dyewoods also abound in the dense tropical forests. the most valuable of these is that called morán.

Brazil wood, a variety of which is called in the country raguan wood" (madera de Nicaragua), is abundant, also wood, nance, elequeme, and many others that produce valual tures and dyes well known to the natives, but which have mercial nomenclature and are unknown in the markets world, although they can be found everywhere in Nicarag

The several varieties of palms are very beautiful and features of Nicaraguan forests. They are often so numero form groves extending for miles. The best known are th or cohune palm and the coyol, both of which produce gre of oleaginous nuts. The vegetable oils that can be prod these forests present an admirable field for commercial en The trees and plants producing them exist in great vari abundance, such as the jolio, the marango, the cacaguate, castor-oil plant.

Medicinal plants of all kinds abound in countless numb

infinite variety, a few of them known in the pharmacopoeia of the United States, but these latter are insignificant in number when compared with the vast resources of medical botany in tropical America. Among those known to commerce, Nicaragua produces sarsaparilla, ipecacuana, jalap, croton, hellebore, cundurango, belladonna, quassia, ginger, copaiva, aloes, vanilla, and great numbers of others, the virtues of which are well known to the natives, although even their names are unknown outside the country.

This slight sketch of the products of the Central American forests is merely an indication of their vast resources; anything like a full list or description would occupy a volume of no inconsiderable dimensions. It may serve to direct attention to the subject, and invite enterprise to their utilization.

FIBROUS PLANTS.

Besides cotton, which will be mentioned more fully in another chapter of this Hand-Book, Nicaragua has many other textile plants that are valuable to commerce.

The pita (Bromelia pita) produces a fiber the roughest of which is superior to manila hemp for length, strength, and suppleness, but when bleached and carefully prepared for mixing with silk, it can not be distinguished from it except by aid of the microscope. Its length, from 5 to 9 feet, makes it available for twines of single thread and its lightness and durability render it valuable for cordage. Monsieur Chevremont, a Belgian engineer, who has closely studied the question, says: "Ropes made from pita possess a greater average strength by four times than those made from hemp

of similar dimensions."

Squier also tates that this fiber is probably more valuable in every sense than that of any other tropical plant.

There are three varieties of yuca, bearing leaves from 18 to 36 inches in length, which produce valable fibers.

The Agave sisalana that produces the henequen or sisal hemp

The consumption of fibers in the United States is and constantly increasing. During the year 1891, there ported 733,296 bales of jute from the East Indies and an quantity of other fibers. With such a market in close and with vast facilities for production, this industry mus an important interest in Nicaragua and Central Amer ally. There is so little realization of the hidden weal direction that nobody moves or takes the opportunities m The plants abound; all that is wanting is energy and capitalists.

Chapter V.

AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.

Peter Heylyn, in his Cosmography, published in London in 1652, says, in reference to Nicaragua: “It is stored with plenty of cotton wool and abundance of sugar canes, and is so pleasing to the eye that the Spaniards call it by the name of Mahomet's Paradise." Its productions, however, far from being limited to the staples mentioned by the old geographer, are of the most varied character, but its resources have been very imperfectly developed. The facilities for transportation have been so poor that little more has been raised than is sufficient for the wants of its population, and the portion of land brought under cultivation has been relatively small. With the development that is now in progress, and the opening up and improvement of roads and other means of transport, the condition of affairs is gradually changing, and the boundless wealth of its resources is beginning to be recognized.

COFFEE.

The principal agricultural wealth of Nicaragua lies in its coffee plantations. Although this industry is still in its infancy, every year witnesses its augmentation, and the time is near at hand when the coffee of Nicaragua will take the prominent position to which it is certainly entitled. There are millions of acres of land in the Republic that are especially adapted to the cultivation of coffee. Señor Don José D. Gamez in his Noticias Geográficas de la República de Nicaragua, already cited, says:

Coffee grows well almost everywhere in Nicaragua, but preferably in the mountainous districts. The production at a height of from 200 to 2,000 feet above the level of the sea is generally at the rate of one-half pound, and in some cases 1 pound per tree. At an elevation of 2,000 or 3,000 feet, the production

until it ceases entirely on account of the cold temperature. There are Nicaragua certain coffee regions offering the best possible advantages for cultivation of this plant. They are to be found in the departments of Manag Carazo, Matagalpa, Chontales, Jinotega, and in the skirts of the hills and v canoes of the other departments.

The Government charges $1.50 for each manzana of public land. (A ma zana is equivalent to 14 acres.)

The number of coffee trees which have been planted in Nicaragua up to month of August, 1892, is as follows:

The number of trees planted in the present year (1892) will raise the ab total to 27,000,000.

The expenses vary in proportion to the quality of the ground, the height which it is situated, the distance from the coast, and the facilities of transpor tion. The results thus far obtained allow the following statement to be ma