than it can be marketed from any other part of the world. "Cattle-raising in Panama is a field of endeavor which a man may confidently enter into with five thousand dollars, or even less. He can hardly fail of success. He may count on tripling his investment in five years, with a greater ratio of enhancement thereafter. This statement is not based on mere conjecture, but on actual experience of Americans and others. "The unsettled political conditions previous to the independence of Panama prevented the investment of large capital in any industries. The biggest ranch in the country contains fewer than five thousand head of stock, and probably there has never been a much greater number in single ownership. It is quite certain, however, that cattle-raising on a comparatively extensive scale would be much more profitable than the smaller operations. There are two or three of the latter earning twenty-five per cent. net profit annually, although worked by the crude and wasteful methods of the natives. It is practically certain that a company which should handle twenty-five thousand head of cattle, combining ranging on the llanos with fattening in potreros, and employing machin ery, would clear from forty to fifty per cent. annually on the money invested by it. "The yield of sugar-cane per acre in Chiriqui is equalled only by that in Hawaii. In the former country, however, there is no more than the most meagre cultivation, and replanting is necessary no oftener than once in twelve years. In the latter, the cane must be renewed every seven years and stimulated by fertilizers and irrigation. A ton of Hawaiian cane will represent at least twice as great a cost of production as a ton grown in Chiriqui. Sugar manufacture at present is confined to the primitive bullock-power, wooden press, and the product is the coarse brown, molassesladen article, known throughout Latin-America as dulce. Its superior advantage in the matter of cane production, and its prospective facilities for shipping the finished article, should enable Panama to market a high-grade sugar in competition with any of the present cane-growing countries. Two companies with ample financial resources are preparing to erect modern mills of large capacity that will turn out a high test sugar. These concerns must depend in the main upon small cultivators for their cane supply, after the manner of the Cuban centrals. The company will sell or lease a certain acreage to the settler, under a contract which will bind the latter to plant the land, or a minimum portion of it, in cane, and require the former to take the product at a price to be regulated by the season's market conditions. The company may take the cane off the ground, after it has been cut, or require the cultivator to deliver it on the cars of the field railway. Under such an arrangement, the company's interests and those of the settler overlap. The latter can depend upon an equitable contract which will enable him to make a fair profit. If, in addition to his sugar tract, he has a few acres in coffee, cacao, or bananas, he may realize a good income from a comparatively small investment. With a few thousand dollars an American might handle one hundred and twenty acres for a sugar company. His only considerable expenses would be cost of labor, draft animals, and purchase price or rent of land. "The best returns are to be had from the cultivation of long-time crops, such as rubber, cacao, coffee, and cocoanuts. None of these will begin to yield short of six years, but soon afterwards they will afford a life-income, representing an enormous percentage of profit, with little |