Province of San José.
Province of Alajuela.
Province of Cartago.
Province of Heredia.
Altogether Costa Rica, in 1892, had 8366 coffee-fincas with 26,911,078 coffee-trees, and a crop of 378,224 quintals or 17,388,704 kilograms, valued at 10,954,744 pesos.
It may be interesting to learn the amount of the coffee crops since 1883, given in sacks of fifty-nine or sixty kilograms each.
Another important agricultural product of Costa Rica is the banana. Its cultivation was begun on the Atlantic coast in 1879, and the first 360 bunches were shipped, February 7. 1880, by steamer “Earnholm” from Port Limon to New York.
In 1884 there were 350 farms, comprising over four thousand acres of land, containing 570,000 banana plants, from which, in that year, 420,000 bunches were obtained. Before 1879 banana plants were set out in coffee plantations to shade the young trees and shelter their berries. The bananas were used to feed pigs. The laboring classes kept a few plants, using the fruit boiled with salt, or roasted on hot coals instead of bread.
The following table shows the banana export figures since 1883:
Sugar cane is used largely in Costa Rica as fodder and in the manufacture of aguardiente; also to produce the raw sugar or dulce, which is consumed entirely by country people.
In 1889 sugar cane by provinces was raised on the following number of acres:
In San José on 4819 acres; in Alajuela on 5076 acres; in Cartago on 1466 acres; in Heredia on 1114 acres; in Guanacaste on 719 acres; in Puntarenas on 1471, and in Limon on 122 acres. The aggregates were 14,787 acres, and a production of 1,368,000 pounds of sugar and 18,454,000 pounds of dulce.
Cacao culture has received but little attention in Costa Rica, because the more profitable coffee plantations absorb all the time and capital. The number of plantations regularly established up to 1888 was 198, having in all 56,426 trees that yielded in the same year 331,900 pounds valued at 165,770 pesos. Most of the cacao was cultivated in Aserri, Atenas, Naranjo, Heredia, Paraiso, Guanacaste and Limon.
Cacao was exported from 1884 to 1889 as follows:
Excellent cacao was grown during Spanish colonial days around Matina, but none is exported now.
With respect to wheat, up to 1860 there was sufficient for the consumption of the country. It was so intelligently cultivated that the finer grades were produced. The rise in the price of coffee and the competition with the flour of the United States and Chile drove out the native wheat almost entirely, and to-day the cultivation of this grain is badly neglected. To-day the only flour-mill in this country grinds imported wheat.
Tobacco was a monopoly for many years, and only recently has the culture been taken up by the people.
Other important agricultural products are rice, beans, corn and potatoes.
The cultivation of rice in Costa Rica demands very little care and no irrigation to produce two crops a year of a very superior quality. Beans and corn are successfully grown everywhere in the country, while the raising of potatoes is almost wholly confined to the hillsides of Cartago and Alajuela, where they acquire an extremely fine quality.
According to the census of 1892, the average annualproduction of these crops for that and the two preceding years was in liters as follows:
Important agricultural districts are, besides the Central Highlands about one hundred and fifty kilometers in length by sixty kilometers in width, the great valleys of Talamanca, Santa Clara, Tortuguero, San Carlos and Rio Frio. Along the Pacific the great valley of Térraba and the plains of Golfo Dulce and Guanacaste are fertile regions, which, if properly tilled, would offer advantages equal to the Central Highlands, where nearly the entire population of Costa Rica is concentrated.
Plants characterizing fertile lands, rich in humus, on the Atlantic slope, arePiper, especially that with large leaves,Loaseæ, and certainAcanthaceæ. On the Pacific side such characteristic plants arePiper, with smaller leaves, the Pacaya Palm, and some ferns. Especially are theAspidiumandPolypodiumfound in large quantities.
Considering the future of Costa Rica, the question of farm labor is of vital importance. There are only a few Indians, and they are rapidly decreasing. It looks as though the fertile lowlands on the Atlantic and Pacific sides, as well as those in the extensive and fruitful San Juan valley, must be turned over to the Negro race as the only one capable of enduring so inhospitable a climate. These regions are the richest of all and could sustain a large population.
Thelive stockof Costa Rica, though in general superior to that of the rest of Central America, is not yet sufficiently large to supply the local demand. Although there has been recent improvement in breeding cattle and horses, yet the high grade animals, which could be easily introduced into acountry of so many natural advantages, are still lacking. At different times the development of this industry has been attempted. Costa Rica has vast pasture lands splendidly adapted to cattle. It has very nutritious forage plants, like arrocillo, cola de venado, zacate de guinea, zacate de castilla, zacate pará, zacate ancho, grama, guate, caña de azucar, gamalote, sabanilla, teosinte, lengua de vaca, guácimo, jengibrillo, platanillo, etc.
Thelive stockof Costa Rica in 1892 was distributed as follows:
The consumption of cattle in Costa Rica is exhibited by the following data:
Further official reports disclose that in the capital the consumption of meat is quite uniform during the entire year, while in the country it is greater from August to January than from February to July.
The total value of the natural, agricultural and live stock products of the country has been calculated at 19,000,000 pesos.