Of all the rich soil so abundant in this republic, there is little systematic cultivation. There is no necessity to plow the land after it has been cleared of the timber and undergrowth. Even corn, of which three crops can be raised in a season, without the aid of fertilizers, is planted in holes made by a stick, and rice is scattered broadcast. Corn will often grow twelve feet in height and produce three generous ears on the stalk. The land laws are liberal in order to encourage settlers from other lands to locate here. The public lands are divided into lots of not more than fifteen _caballerias_, which are sold for a price ranging from $250 to $300 each by the government. A _caballeria_ comprises one hundred and thirteen and five-eighths acres. Premiums have been offered by the government for the cultivation of India rubber, cacao, sarsaparilla, cotton, and tobacco; and no tax will be levied for ten years on lands devoted to the cultivation of these products. The small farmer, however, cannot make a small farm pay as well as in northern lands, for he could not stand it to work so hard and so regularly. Plantations to be successful should be large enough to justify the establishment of a colony of peon labourers on the premises.
One plantation of three thousand acres, and employing from nine hundred to thirteen hundred labourers, produced in one year three hundred thousand pounds of sugar, twenty-two thousand gallons of milk, three million bottles of brandy, two thousand head of cattle and more than a million pounds of coffee. The labour laws require the owner of a plantation to preserve order on his estate; to keep a record of his employees, their wages, etc., in Spanish; to provide suitable dwellings or materials with which to build them (this, however, is simple enough); to furnish medicines and medical assistance in case of sickness; to keep a free school for the children where more than ten families are employed, if there is no public school in the neighbourhood; and to see that all persons are vaccinated.
Nature has done all that could be expected or could be hoped for on her part. The only thing necessary for success is the proper selection of ground and intelligent cultivation of the crops to which it is adapted. The diversity of altitudes and climates allows a great range of products. In no country in the world of equal size, in all probability, is there such a great variety of surface or such a diversity of natural products. There are more than four hundred species of wood of which one hundred and fifty are commercially valuable, and some three hundred and forty medicinal plants have already been discovered; and the end of discoveries in this line has not yet been reached.