deep and 21⁄2 inches wide at the top and cut around the trunk 1 foot apart, from which the sap or milk flows through funnels formed. of leaves into calabashes of holes made in the ground and lined with leaves.

2. The tree is left standing and two or three vertical channels, according to the size of the tree, are cut through the bark from top to base; then numerous oblique channels are cut connecting with the vertical ones. To do this work, the huleros improvise ladders from the vines and creepers which everywhere abound in the tropical forests. The milk from these channels is collected in the same manner as in the first process.

3. The huleros scrape off the outer bark of the tree with a "machete," commencing 8 or 10 feet above and extending down to within 1 or 2 feet of the ground. A ridge of clay, or a vine and clay, is so placed around the tree as to direct the flow of the milk into the receivers at the foot. This process is somewhat similar to that used in the turpentine orchards of North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. The milk having been collected, coagulation is hastened by adding to it a decoction made from the vines of the liana or vines of the convolvulus or morning glory tribe, which abound in the forests, in the proportion of 1 pint of the decoction to a gallon of the milk. The rubber is then kneaded into round cakes. Sometimes, after the coagulating decoction is added to the milk, it is heated in the calabashes to 160° or 175° F., which produces a more elastic and less sticky rubber than is obtained by other processes.

The huleros make waterproof blankets and bags, which they prefer to any imported articles, as they do not become so heated when exposed to the sun and are less liable to crack or scale off. Their process is to spread the cloth on the ground, pour the milk over it, and distribute it evenly by paddles or cocoanut husks. A short exposure serves to dry the milk, and the goods are then ready for service.

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Although the Government of Nicaragua has exercised no supervision of the forests and has taken no steps to prevent the ruthless destruction of the rubber trees, it has endeavored to stimulate their cultivation by issuing a decree giving a premium of 10 cents for every tree planted where the number does not go below 250 planted by one person. The decree also provides that the trees must be planted in squares of not less than 6 varas for each plant, equal to about 16 feet.

In all the lower regions of Nicaragua, particularly in those extending toward the Caribbean coast, there are large tracts of land suitable for growing rubber trees, and there is no doubt that their cultivation would prove very profitable to anyone who could afford to wait for a return from the capital invested until the trees reach maturity, which is from seven to ten years, or they could be planted as an investment where the planter is deriving an income from the other crops.

The value of the India rubber exported from Nicaragua, according to the latest report, which covered the period from July 1, 1888, to June 30, 1890, was $519,447.85.

BANANAS.

The cultivation of bananas for export has hitherto been largely confined to the Caribbean coast, finding the principal outlet at Bluefields, in the Mosquito reservation; but whenever the bars at the mouths of the rivers are improved so as to freely admit ocean steamers, and the interoceanic canal and railroads afford means of transportation, this fruit will become a still more prominent feature in the exports from Nicaragua, and the large profits yielded to the producers will stimulate agricultural operations on thousands of acres of fertile but now unoccupied lands.

The lands that have been generally used for the culture of bananas are the rich alluvial deposits of the valleys and river bottoms, but there are many upland regions where rain is abundant

or water is plentifully supplied by other means, which will produce abundant and it is well known that bananas grown on high crops; ground are finer fruit, being harder and less liable to damage from a sea voyage, and reach their destination in better condition. There is perhaps no industry in Central America that is more attractive to men of small capital than banana-growing, from the fact that the clearing of the land is effected cheaply and from the small cost of after cultivation which is limited only to such clearance of weeds and undergrowth as may be sufficient to allow access to the trees, and the short time necessary to produce a paying crop. When the trees and brush that have been cut in clearing the land become sufficiently dry, they are burned, and the banana suckers are then planted among the charred remains and ashes without any further preparation of the soil. The best results are obtained by giving the trees plenty of space, say from 15 to 18 feet apart. In about ten months, the first fruit can be gathered; but in the second year, the trees reach maturity, and by a proper management of the fruit stalks in a fair-sized plantation, a constant succession in the crop may be secured and fruit gathered every week throughout the year. The only careful work necessary on a banana plantation is in handling the heavy bunches so as to avoid bruising them, as - any such injury causes a black spot to appear, beneath which decay rapidly commences as the fruit ripens. The natives have learned by experience, when they cut into the fruit stalk, so to gauge the strength of the blow as to cut just deep enough to cause the stalk to bend slowly over until the end of the bunch reaches the ground when another slash with the machete severs it, and it is loaded carefully into the cart. A plantation of 40 manzanas (about 69 acres) will, during and after the second year, produce about 54,000 bunches. The lowest price paid for bananas, for some years past, is 371⁄2 cents per bunch, which would give an annual value for the crop of $20,250, or more than double the expenditure for purchase of land, clearing, cultivating, gathering the crop, and all expenses to the end of the second year.

There is another variety of the banana family, the plantain, with which the people of North America are only slowly becoming acquainted, but which deserves to be better known. Its production in Nicaragua need only be limited by the demand for it, which must become immense when its merits are appreciated. There, it is boiled, stewed, baked, roasted in the ashes, fried, dried and ground into flour, cooked in the skin or out of it, green or ripe, and produces vastly more nutriment per acre than is yielded by wheat, corn, or potatoes. When the cooks of the northern countries learn its use, it will become as valuable an article of food as the potato, and its cultivation in Nicaragua will become a large business.

САСАО.

Cacao (Theobroma cacao) is too well known to need any expression of opinion as to its value. That grown in Nicaragua is sold with advantage in the markets of the world.

The tree which produces it seldom exceeds 20 feet in height. The leaves are large, oblong, and pointed. The nuts are contained in long oval-pointed pods. It produces two crops a year. The trees are planted about 15 feet apart. When young, the plants are delicate, requiring to be sheltered from the sun in the same manner as is practiced in coffee plantations. At first, plantains or bananas are used for that purpose, but other quickgrowing trees, such as that called by the natives madre de cacao (mother of cacao), are planted with them; and as these reach sufficient size, the plantains are cut down, leaving the trees as a permanent shade. The cacao begins to bear in about seven years, and continues to produce for from thirty to fifty years. Capital is therefore necessary to start a plantation, but when once well established and in full bearing, very little outlay is necessary, and the revenue is large, sure, and steady. It may be well to notice here the confusion that exists in the United States in respect to the

words cocoa, cacao, and coca. Although very similar in sound, they represent widely different articles.

Cocoa is the name of the species of palm that produces the cocoanut, a fruit too well known to need description; also, the fiber so largely used for making matting, mats, brushes, etc.

Cacao is the fruit of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) from which we obtain chocolate, and what is universally misnamed by the manufacturers as cocoa.

Coca is the name given to the South American shrub (Erythroxylon coca) which is used by the natives of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia, as the betel nut is in Asia, to allay hunger and thirst and supply a stimulant which gives energy to endure extraordinary exertion, and from which the well-known drug cocaine is prepared.

SUGAR.

Sugar cane grows in Nicaragua with extraordinary luxuriance. The canes are soft and contain no more woody substance or less saccharine matter than those produced in the East or West Indies, while their duration is wonderful. A crop can be secured within twelve months after planting, and thenceforward two, and in some localities, three crops a year can be cut for an indefinite number of years. It is not uncommon in traveling through the country to find fields of sugar cane in full production of which no one in the neighborhood can remember the date of planting. A great deal of the sugar manufactured in Nicaragua is of a coarse, brown quality, the juice being merely boiled until it crystallizes, without being cleared of the molasses. In this crude state, it is poured into molds forming small cakes, which are sold to the poorer classes.

A very large quantity of the sugar cane is used in the manufacture of a species of rum called aguardiente. The sale of spirits being a Government monopoly, the distillation can only be carried