TABLE 28.-Different classifications of prisoners confined in the penal institutions on June 30, 1917-Continued.

TABLE 29.—Statement showing occupations of prisoners when convicted and confined in the penal institutions on June 30, 1917.

REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF PORTO RICO.

TABLE 30.-Summary of offenses on June 30, 1917.

Percentage of total

popula- number of

offenses.

30.05

14.45

12.82

6.84

5.98

4. 13

3.49

2.99

2.21

1.71

1.49

1.50

1.21

.92

.85

.64

56

50

50

43

43

43

.43

36

TABLE 31.-Classification of prisoners by judicial districts, on June 30, 1917, and percentage in relation to the population of Porto Rico.

TABLE 32.-Principal offenses for which prisoners have been sentenced, by calendar year, on and after 1887.

TABLE 34.—Number of days' work performed by prisoners employed on the insular highways during the fiscal year 1916-17.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the report of the department of agriculture and labor for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917.

By virtue of the organic act of March 2, 1917, the department of agriculture and labor has been created, the board of commissioners of agriculture having been discontinued and its work taken up by the new department, together with the bureau of labor, which was in operation under the abolished department of labor, charities and correction and is now a branch of the new department.

The bureau of labor is now organized for the performance of such duties as are appropriate to it.

To the legislature it now belongs to shape an organization of services as concerns the branch of agriculture that shall propend to the development of the latter, in order that the best practices shall be established in accordance with the conditions of the country for increasing and improving production, bettering the existing cultures, and introducing new ones that shall contribute to the economic development of the island.

The rural organization should be a preferent object of the law and should cover the needs of country life, in order to make agricultural pursuits agreeable, beneficial, and profitable, cooperating to the formation of agricultural societies in the rural districts, as the best means to carry out the social and economical purposes of the rural organization.

The study of animal and plant industries should be a part of the services to be assigned to the new department, so that it shall exercise its influence upon the development and perfecting of the existing industries and the introduction of new ones, thus increasing the productive capacity of the country and the best utilization of the products of the soil.

To this department should be assigned the study and investigation of the sources of wealth of the subsoil of the island, which, by means of a carefully studied organization and with the cooperation perhaps of the United States Geological Survey, could be carried out in a short number of years.

It is necessary to organize the forest service as an important branch of this department and to create services by means of which attention could be given to agricultural hydraulics, geology, mines, the formation of an agronomical plan of the island, and of statistics of production.

Here below are shown the activities of the branches of agriculture and labor during the fiscal year 1916–17:

AGRICULTURE.

The department of agriculture and labor, upon taking charge of the work carried on by the board of commissioners of agriculture, has continued through the bureau of agriculture the work that long ago was started for the benefit of the agricultural interests of Porto Rico.

Therefore, during the four months through which this bureau has continued performing its duties it has constantly furnished interested applicants such information as was consistent with and beneficial to the development of the agriculture of the island, as far as cultivation and exportation of economical plants of Porto Rico are concerned.

Keeping pace with this work intended for and promoted in behalf of our native economic plants, efforts have been made to introduce into the island such foreign plants as could prove of great benefit to our industrial and agricultural spheres.

The work thus far outlined, in its connection with the importation of foreign plants, and the development of the intensified cultivation of those existing in the island,