TABLE H.-Summary for the four years ending September 30, 1881, consular district of Matamoros.

* Taken from imports at Brownsville, and estimated at 50 per cent. of total actually sent out.

WEST INDIA ISLANDS.

HAYTI.

Report by Consul-General Langston, of Port-au-Prince, on the commerce and condition of Hayti for the years 1880–281.

CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES,

Port-au-Prince, Hayti, June 30, 1881.

Peace has prevailed in all parts of the republic during the past year; the people and the army have seemed to be satisfied with the present administration of the government, but everywhere throughout the country there has obtained unusual inactivity in commerce, with continuing languor in general business.

The crop of coffee for the past year, though large, has commanded a comparatively small price, while from other products, staples of the country, there has been no larger income than that secured usually.

AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT.

This condition of things has commanded the attention of the govern ment, and several measures having in view the promotion of the agriculture of the country have been proposed by it. Chief among these may be mentioned the separation of the department of agriculture from that of the interior, and the appointment of a special secretary of state thereto, on the 9th day of December, 1880.

Upon his assumption of the duties of this new department, General F. D. Légitime submitted a carefully prepared plan of agricultural encouragement and administration to the government and the country. In its introduction he refers to the fact that heretofore, under the administrations of Presidents Boyer and Geffrard, when this subject commanded the attention of the government, immigration was proposed as the means of promoting agriculture. There was failure, however, in this regard, as he claims, even when such proposition, submitted under President Geffrard at the close of the late civil war in the United States, and when President Andrew Johnson had refused his approval of a law of Congress according civil and political rights to the colored citizens of that country, was attended with prospects of the most assuring success. He concludes, therefore, that other means must be adopted to accomplish the object had in view. Accordingly, his plan proposes, first, the award of prizes to planters who shall discover special and improved culture of the coffee and cocoa tree, cotton, and sugar-cane, as well as certain advantages for establishing manufactories in special localities and of special character; second, more efficient administration of agricultural affairs in each department and commune of the country, as conducted by a more intelligent and trustworthy class of officers appointed to such service.

For each coffee tree planted in one or several squares of ground newly

cultivated, and for each cocoa tree planted in like conditions, the secre tary would award from one to two cents; for every field of cotton of from two to three carreaux, from $1.50 to $2; and to him who shall grow the largest quantity of such products shall be paid $300. Upon concessions of land he proposes that there be made a deduction of one per cent. on all rents due the government to every substantially organized agricultural company, and that interest, at the rate of 6 per cent., for any time to be agreed, be guaranteed to any company establishing central sugar manufactories in the plains of Port-au-Prince, Cape Haytian, and Aux Cayes. Three classes of premiums are proposed for those planters who shall produce the largest amount of sugar in their own establishments, to wit: the first, $100; the second, $200; and the third, $300; and three other classes, the first of $50, the second of $80, and the third of $100, to be paid those persons cultivating the largest amounts of the staple products. Special encouragement for the cultivation of tobacco is commended by the secretary to the consideration of the government.

The products, coffee, cocoa, cotton, and sugar-cane, mentioned are not the only ones whose culture the secretary would be pleased to see advanced by judicious and generous management, while those named are regarded by him as constituting the foundation of the commerce of the country, and as supplying the internal wants of the people, indirectly, chiefly, and therefore specially recommended by him for the encouragement indicated. He favors the cultivation of ramie, white corn, tapioca, indigo, vanilla, nutmegs, pineapples, figs, bananas, and the India-rubber tree, at present, upon individual effort and outlay, but as being so important to the common welfare and as promising such valuable results, if cultivated here, as to make the improved and more general growth thereof a subject, it may be, of future government encouragement.

As regards the improved administration suggested, the secretary proposes that there be named in each department of the republic an inspector of agriculture, in each commune a subinspector, and in each section a chief. These officers are to be qualified for this service, especially the first, who shall be required to be sufficiently imformed as to agriculture, and to bear to that effect a certificate. They are to be reasonably paid for their services, each inspector at the rate of $200 per month.

According to the plan of the secretary, it is further recommended that no one shall receive the premium fixed oy the state who has not made in advance official declaration as to the quantity of land he intends to cultivate, with the special product. This declaration, made before a notary public of the commune, shall be enregistered gratui tously at the bureau of the council of the commune as well as at the office of the subinspector, and an extract thereof shall be sent to the inspector of the department. No declaration shall be admitted by a notary public except in the presence of the officer of the section, who shall become then responsible for the engagement taken toward the state. Three months before the time fixed for the payment of the premiums a verification shall be made of the condition of the grounds in cultivation by a commission composed of a deputy of commune, the subinspector, and an officer an intelligent attaché of the bureau of the place. This commission shall be accompanied by the chief of the section.

The plan provides for a committee of agriculture to be formed at the capital, which shall have its place of meeting at the department of agriculture. It shall be composed of nine members, including the inspectors, and shall hold an annual session.

The recommendations of the secretary with regard to certain police regulations concerning agriculture in his plans comprehend, among other requirements, that every person offering for sale in a city such products as coffee, cotton, and cocoa in any quantity exceeding ten pounds shall have the certificate of the chief of his section, attesting the quantity and quality of such products, and that in default of such certificate such products shall be seized and sold to the benefit of the commune as stolen articles, provided that the vendor is not able to prove that he is the real owner thereof. Such certificate shall be upon printed paper, and the charge therefor, for any quantity of products not weighing more than 100 pounds, one cent; and two cents for any quantity above that weight. Every broker in such products shall be held personally responsible for his demand of such certificate; and he as well as the merchant may have seized and sold to their advantage and that of the state any products which may be delivered with any foreign articles. Besides, an inspector, such as is employed at the customhouse, shall be charged with the surveillance of products at their embarkation, and he shall seize and have sold to his advantage and the public treasury any products in bad condition sought to be embarked. The growth of domestic animals is commended by the secretary in his plan to the consideration of the government, he insisting that now more than ever improvement in this regard should command attention, and claiming that proper culture therein would afford an abundant source of income. He states, in this connection, that the tendency to degeneration of the various useful animals which live in this climate is to be attributed to the fact that such animals are abandoned, left to run at large in the savannas, without proper care had with respect to their cross-breeding.

It is well known that horses, mules, cattle, sheep, goats, and hogs are all easily grown in this country, of excellent breeds and qualities, and should suitable attention be given to their growth and culture they would soon become an element of great importance in the national wealth.

As regards agricultural exhibitions, the secretary recommends that on the first day of May of each year a local exposition of the industrial and agricultural products of the country be held in the chief places of the several arrondissements, and that every three years a general or national exposition be held at Port-au-Prince at the same time, where there may be exhibited the industrial and agricultural products of Hayti and the neighboring islands as well as those of Central and South America.

As to special local industries, the secretary recommends that the gov ernment, by a credit of from $40,000 to $50,000 accorded in that behalf, establish two companies-one for manufacturing clothes, and the other for making shoes. He claims that such industries might be advantageously fostered, giving as they might employment annually to hundreds of persons, and educating apprentices who would be able to promote such trades in various sections of the country, while besides this the people would be able, through their own agency, to supply largely their wants as regards the articles manufactured.

The judgment and purpose of the president of the republic concerning agriculture and labor are found in the words employed by him when he says:

To elevate credit abroad; industry at home; to seek fortune only in efforts of individual activity, and not in the pursuit of suspicious affairs; to divert youth, anxious for want of employment, from the search of public place toward agriculture and labor, and for that to create, with order and security, the means of credit and currency,

without which nothing can be undertaken; finally, for political revolutions, which are only a coalition of interests for the assault and destruction of the general resources, to substitute an economic revolution, by the encouragements and facilities placed at the door of all such, is my programme; such is that which I desire to see accepted by all.

With such unanimity of sentiment on the part of the Secretary of State of Agriculture and the President, with relation to the propriety and importance of consideration and action to promote the agriculture and general industry of the republic, with a growing feeling among all that some proper means, opportunely adopted, might check the downward tendency apparent in that behalf, it is not surprising that several of the more important recommendations of the Secretary, as submitted in his plan, have already been embodied in appropriate legislative form. The more important bills framed on these subjects, without doubt soon to become laws, provide encouragements for the improved culture of cotton, by the removal of all export charges thereon, for the increased production and better preparation of coffee and sugar-cane by the grant of special aid in the case of the former, and the removal of certain import duties in favor of the latter, and for the erection of a sugar refinery, two manufactories, the one of clothes and the other of shoes, and a tannery, upon large pecuniary government assistance to those who shall establish and conduct the same. Should such proposed fostering legislation tend reasonably to aid in the accomplishment of the end had in view, it will deserve to be generally supported, and its authors will be entitled to the cordial gratitude of their countrymen. In concluding the recommendations presented in his plan, the Secretary says:

Agriculture, for which no one has dared to do anything as yet, being with us as in a primitive state, and our cultivators themselves being always opposed to the employment of a totally new system, we have not deemed it proper to leave to time alone the care of introducing therein necessary improvements.

To prepare the way for new generations, we have only to establish model-farms, where the example of labor in full fructification shall be the best lesson of agriculture which one can give.

If we do not enter this way of realities, volumes will have been written, the columns of our journals filled with articles of agricultural learning, and circular-letters emanating from official sources published, in vain, since, after all, we will not succeed in making another sheaf more grow upon our soil; this would be to preach in vain, for it would be puerile to attempt to teach and at will apply, per jas et nefas, the transcendental methods of the doctors of science, where only administration is required. Thus our plan, as we have had the courage to present it, is the result of the observations which we have made upon our real situation and the practical knowledge which we have acquired of the character and habits of our people.

THE RICH AND PRODUCTIVE CHARACTER OF HAYTIAN SOIL.

The soil of Hayti is remarkably rich and productive. It is easily worked, and by well-devised methods of irrigation it might be made, if not the very best, as good as any soil in the world, for the growth of coffee, sugar-cane, cotton, and tropical products and fruits generally.

In many localities in this country there may be found orchards of coffee-trees and fields of sugar-cane, that have been, practically, uncultivated for years; the trees not being improved and sustained by pruning and culture nor the cane by resetting. Nevertheless, the harvests therefrom are regular, seasonable, and generally abundant. Then, it is not at all uncommon to see here and there, as one passes about the country, large-sized cotton-bushes growing neglected in fields and yards, but yielding from season to season a burden of cotton, excellent in texture and quality.

The system of irrigation employed here has always been, at best,