birth records. In nearly all countries omissions of births occur much more frequently than omissions of deaths. The birth rate in Arecibo and Mayaguez is higher than elsewhere, a condition which leads one again to suspect that the figures for Mayaguez are probably more accurate and careful than those kept by the other departments. Much the lowest birth rate in the island is found in Bayamon.

It is probable that the proportion of children under 5 in 1899 to the total population would vary from department to department in rough agreement with the variations in true birth rate during the preceding years. That they do not thus vary is indicated by the following list: Departments arranged in the order of

Increasing proportion of population, 0-4: Increasing birth rate, 1895–1898:

From these figures one's belief is strengthened that the differences in birth rate and death rate are due primarily to differences in the accuracy of registration rather than to differences of actual rate.

MARRIAGES AND MARRIAGE RATES.

The proportion of marriages to population in Porto Rico, is so low as to make the figures insignificant. One notices from the table (p. 113) that marriages were apparently much more numerous during the years from 1890 to 1895 than during the two years before or after that time. This may be an indication that the economic conditions on the island were somewhat worse during the earlier and the later parts of the eleven-year period than they were in the intervening time, but beyond this scarcely any inferences from the table seem warranted.

In the following table the departments are arranged in the order of the average marriage rate for the eleven years, and in the second column the proportion of white to the total population is stated:

It will be noticed that, with a slight exception in the case of Guayama, the two columns vary concomitantly. This confirms what was also shown by the figures for marital condition, that lawful marriage is much more common among the white population than among the colored.

AGRICULTURE.

While agriculture is now the principal source of wealth to Porto Rico, the early settlers were for many years engaged in cattle raising, and this is still an important industry, the rich and luxuriant pastures and many streams providing all that is necessary for this purpose. It may be said that all fruits and vegetables adapted to a tropical climate will yield abundantly in Porto Rico, and this is especially true of the coffee tree, the sugar cane, and the tobacco plant, the three staples of most importance in the order named, and grown widely over the island.

The following reports, prepared especially for the census by Señors M. Badrena, supervisor of the department of Mayaguez; Ricardo Hernandez, supervisor of the department of Bayamon, and M. Planella, of Cayey, give interesting facts concerning the history and cultivation of coffee, sugar, and tobacco. They are printed substantially as received.

COFFEE.

Report of Señor RICARDO HERNANDEZ,

"The coffee plant is a shrub 2 or 3 meters high with permanent leaves, a delicate, flexible trunk of some 6 centimeters in diameter, with opposite and alternate ramifications forming crosses. It generally bifurcates at the surface of the ground, giving the appearance of two or three plants being joined together. This is due to the fact that each grain of coffee gives origin to two plants. The system of cultivation has limited the development of the height to the point above indicated, but in Arabia and in some parts of America where the tree is allowed to grow freely, the coffee becomes a thick tree with sharp lanceolate erect leaves, dark green in color, permanent, thick, and smooth.

"The blossom of the coffee is white, fragrant, and resembles the jasmine blossom, with five stamens grouped together and implanted in the axila of the leaves; tubular corolla, small globulous calyx with five teeth.

"The fruit is oblong, fleshy, resembling the cherry, bright green in color, which on ripening turns to an intense red, and contains in the interior the seed composed of two coriaceous plano-convex discs, so firmly united at their plane surfaces that they sometimes break before separating.

"The coffee has a central or tap root which penetrates the ground about 80 centimeters, and also many secondary rootlets near the surface."

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SUITABLE CLIMATE.

"In Porto Rico the select and renowned coffee is produced between 200 and 800 meters above the sea level. At this elevation are found the towns of Yauco, Lares, Maricao, Utuado, Cayey, etc., which form the productive region of the renowned coffee of Porto Rico. This region, which includes something more than the southwest quadrant of the island, is characterized by a climate of perpetual spring. The constant breeze refreshes the atmosphere and the frequent rains equalize the seasons so that not even in times of drought does the vegetation suffer as occurs on the southern coast of the island, nor during the rainy season are the rains so heavy as on the north coast. Owing to these favorable climatic conditions and to the fact that the coffee groves are situated in valleys sheltered from the strong winds, and the soil, of which we will presently speak in detail, is due the enviable reputation of the coffee of the country.

"In the central range of Porto Rico is the Sierra Luquilla, which has an elevation of 1,500 meters above the level of the sea, and it is observed that above the middle height of this mountain coffee groves do not exist. Whether owing to the climate or to the soil, which may be unsuitable, where only grow some shrubs in thickets and some worthless herbs, it is true that after 800 meters have been passed the coffee is not seen, and all attempts to grow it at that altitude have been without results.

"Coffee growers modify the climate by employing shade, that is, they plant their coffee groves beneath the shade of a grove of thick trees, as, for example, the hucares, guaba, jobo, guama, mango, etc., and under the banana trees when the coffee groves are young.

SUITABLE SOIL.

"The coffee grows on hills of low elevation, associated with many other trees, which afford shade, modify the temperature, and protect the coffee from the hurricanes and torrential rains.

"The composition of these coffee soils is variable, but in all of them sand predominates and on the surface there is an abundant covering the product of the decayed vegetation of the forest.

“The land which produces the renowned coffee of Porto Rico, as to its physical appearance, seems to be a very fine clay, and when it rains becomes as slippery as soap, and transit at such times is dangerous. It has a red color when moist, and when squeezed through the fingers resembles in its color and smoothness the oxide of iron paint, but when dry it becomes very hard.