on by license, and is principally confined to the larger producers. The bulk of the sugar produced in the Republic is manufactured in the district of Jinotepe, in the Department of Granada, where, although very primitive and imperfect methods are employed, it is stated that in the year 1890 the production amounted to about 2,500,000 pounds. The soil is admirably adapted for producing the cane, and a superior quality of sugar is made, but scarcity of water is a great drawback, and for this reason, unless artificial means of overcoming the difficulty can be devised, it will be impossible to carry on large plantations in the district. In the neighborhoods of Granada, San Rafael, and Pital, in the same department, there are also a number of plantations; those at Granada producing from 300,000 to 400,000 pounds of good vacuum-pan sugar, while those near San Rafael and Pital yield annually about 150,000 pounds of muscovado sugar. These plantations are under English management.

A company with a capital of $300,000 has lately been started. for the working of a large plantation in Chinandega, at a place known as San Antonio. It is intended to use a first-class plant, with all modern improvements as regards machinery and cultivation, and to produce at least 300 tons of sugar yearly. Another company has taken in charge the Polvon plantation in the same department, and has imported new machinery capable of producing 500 tons of sugar annually. In the department of Leon, there are two plantations, the Polvoncito and San Pedro, producing together about 600,000 pounds of excellent vacuum-pan

sugar.

The total production for the year 1890 amounted to about 3,500,000 pounds, in addition to which Nicaragua yearly imports from her neighbor Salvador nearly half that quantity.

COTTON.

Cotton is indigenous in Nicaragua, and the finest quality can be produced in vast quantities. Columbus, when he discovered the

be required, either to supply manufactories at home, or in to some demand from abroad, it can be produced in ur quantities and of quality equal to the best. Instead of b annual plant as in the United States, it is here perenni growing much larger, yields double the quantity that it the most favored locality in the Northern Republic.

OTHER AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.

Corn (maize) flourishes luxuriantly and forms, both and beast, literally the staff of life. Three crops can be rais the same ground annually.

Tobacco. All the tobacco used in Nicaragua, which is erable in quantity, as every one smokes, is raised in the It is of good quality and can be cultivated to any desired as there are large tracts of land well adapted to its use.

Rice is abundant and is extensively used. The clim soil are suited to it, and it can be raised to supply all d for it.

Indigo and cochineal were formerly produced in large qu but as they have been superseded by the introduction of dyes, the cultivation of these articles has almost entirely particularly of the latter.

The yuca, the yam (ñame), and the sweet potato are the p farinaceous roots that are extensively cultivated. The pot thrives well and produces large crops in the more elevated

The yuca is not only useful for food, but valuable from an industrial point of view, as the starch it yields could readily be made an extensive article of commerce.

The bread fruit grows to perfection in Nicaragua, although few of the natives seem to appreciate its full value. It can be easily raised from a slip and forms a tree with massive trunk and large dark green leaves, as handsome as it is useful. It begins to bear about three years after planting. It yields two crops in the year, one lasting through March and April and the other from August to October, although if a variety of trees were planted judiciously the fruit could be obtained every month in the year. Each fruit will weigh from six to ten pounds, and it is delicious either fried or boiled.

The cocoanut tree, which in the tropics is one of the most useful productions of nature, is abundant. It commences bearing at from five to seven years old and continues to yield for many years. On the Caribbean coast, it is an important article of commerce, although no efforts have been made to utilize the fiber of the husk, which in the East Indies has added so largely to the profits derived from cocoanut groves.

Frijoles, the brown beans that form such a prominent article of diet throughout Spanish America, are produced abundantly in all parts of the Republic, while all other edibles and fruits of the tropics yield ample crops, such as oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, shaddocks, pine apples, mameys, chirimoyas, guavas, mangoes, and aguacates (alligator pears). The vegetables of the temperate zone grow luxuriantly in the more elevated districts, where cabbages, turnips, radishes, lettuce, egg plants, and tomatoes can be obtained with a minimum of labor and care.

CATTLE-RAISING INDUSTRY.

Cattle-raising is one of the greatest sources of the public wealth of Nicaragua. Its production is large enough to supply with

Chapter VI.

THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL.

While the question of interoceanic communication across the American Isthmus has been continually presented to the attention of the civilized world, with more or less persistency, since the days of Columbus, and while the route by way of the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua has always been among those which offered the strongest claims for consideration, yet the special prominence of that route as a means to the end proposed may be said to date from the beginning of this century only, when that eminent explorer and scientist, the Baron Alexander Von Humboldt, published the account of observations made by him during a period of ten years spent in explorations and scientific research in the Spanish-American States of South and Central America. In his "Personal Narrative of Travels," Volume VI, he remarks:

The five points that present the practicability of a communication from sea to sea are situated between the fifth and eighteenth degrees of north latitude. They all consequently belong to the States washed by the Atlantic-to the territory of the Mexican and Colombian Confederacies, or, to use the ancient geographical denominations, to the intendencies of Oaxaca and Vera Cruz and the provinces of Nicaragua, Panama, and Choco.

They are the Isthmus of Tehauntepec (latitude 16°-18°), between the sources of the Rio Chimalapa and the Rio del Passo, which empties itself into the Rio Huascualco or Goazcoalcos.

The Isthmus of Nicaragua (latitude 10°-12°), between the port of San Juan de Nicaragua and the coast of the Gulf of Papajuyo, near the volcanoes of Granada and Mombacho.