Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1899 — WAYS TO MAKE MONEY. [ARTICLE]

WAYS TO MAKE MONEY.

Some of the Indaatrial Posatbtlttlaa of Paerto Bico. Dairy farming la another opening which has a future, notwithstanding the attendant drawbacks of a hot climate, no cold springs for cooling the milk, and ice at a premium. If entered into on a sufficiently large scale to warrant the installation of an ice-plant, the returns would leave a large margin of profit As things are to-day, the cattle are milked but once In twentyfour hours, before daylight each morning. The warm milk must reach the consumer in a very few hours, or be lost by souring. The selling price ranges from eight to twelve cents a quart Cream is unknown; not because, as one of the army officers put it, “This damn Puerto Rican milk is so poor that never a particle of cream can rise,” but because it is never sufficiently cool for cream to rise. Canned butter sells for from 60 cents to $1 a pound, in two, three and five pound tins. This article, which delicate people should never have analyzed, was Imported in 1895 to the extent of 365,000 pounds. Cheese, another of the by-products of the milk-farm, is annually imported to the amount of a million and a quarter pounds. Also, there is made on the island good, palatable, band-pressed cheese, too white, too dry, and too tasteless for the average foreigner, but largely consumed by the natives. Dairies established with proper refrigerating facilities, near any of the larger towns, will be more than able to compete with the methods In vogue. Cream, fresh butter and cheese would find a ready market at prices—for the present, at least —much higher than tbose of America. Poultry culture, as it exists to-day, seems to consist mainly of breeding game fighting cocks. Miserable little chickens of a pound and a half bring 50 cents each. Eggs are to be had in limited quantities at sliding-scale prices, ranging from 30 to 50 cents a dozen, determined largely by the age of the hen-fru.., which becomes painfully overripe in forty-eight hours. Fresh mutton is always in demand in the market, and it is an easy matter to keep sheep fat and in good condition. Wool-growing would not be a success, unless hair cloth becomes fashionable, as the imported lamb soon turns into a goat, judging by his bristling coat. Pork, to the amount of nearly 10,000,000 ponnds, is annually Imported by Puerto Rico, and is almost wholly purchased from the United States. The raising of hogs in large numbers would, however, be a doubtful experiment, owing to the high price of com, though there is much mast in tne mountain regions, upon which they are said to grow fat. The indigenous animal Is an extremely poor specimen of the razor-back species. Corn is scarce and high-priced, and cannot be raised with much success on the northern half of the island, on account of the quantity of rain. The lands of the drier southern portions of the island are capable of producing very excellent corn, though during exceptionally wet seasons It is apt to mature badly and be injured by canker ■and must. The failure of com crops in certain years is made apparent by the variable importation of this grain, which sometimes rises as high as 20,000 bushels, and falls in other years to one-fourth this amount. Last year the island crop was very promising, and in the Yauco and Mayaguez districts several thousand acres of this cereal wave ten feet high, usually bearing two large ears to the stalk. While the local price of corn is high, ranging from 80 cents to 95 cents a bushel, it is not at all probable that in the future, with open markets, island com can compete with the American product. The benefits, therefore, will accrue to American exporters of maize.—Harper’s Weekly.