buy a little farm and equip it even if the land could
be purchased at all. Yet only a very small percentage of the area is
actually under cultivation. Cuba now imports nearly $40,000,000 worth of
alimentary substances, altogether too much for a country of its productive
possibilities. It is true that a part of this, such as wheat flour for
instance, cannot be produced on the island successfully, and that other
commodities, such as rice, hog products, and some other articles, can be
imported more cheaply than they can be produced locally. But the imports of
foodstuffs are undoubtedly excessive, although there are good reasons for
the present situation. It is a matter that will find adjustment in time.

The island has mineral resources of considerable value, although the number
of products is limited. The Spanish discoverers did not find the precious
metals for which they were seeking, and while gold has since been found,
it has never appeared in quantity sufficient to warrant its exploitation.
Silver discoveries have been reported, but not in quantity to pay for its
extraction. Nothing is ever certain in those industries, but it is quite
safe to assume that Cuba is not a land of precious metals. Copper was
discovered in eastern Cuba as early as about the year 1530, and the mines
near Santiago were operated as a Government monopoly for some two hundred
years, when they were abandoned. They were idle for about a hundred years
when, in 1830, an English company with a capital of $2,400,000 reopened
them. It is officially reported that in the next forty years copper of a
value of more than $50,000,000 was extracted and shipped. During that
time, the mines were among the most notable in the world. In the meantime,
ownership was transferred to a Spanish corporation organized in Havana.
This concern became involved in litigation with the railway concerning
freight charges, and this experience was followed by the Ten Years' War, in
the early course of which the plant was destroyed and the mines flooded. In
1902, an American company was organized. It acquired practically all the
copper property in the Cobre field and began operations on an extensive and
expensive scale. A huge sum was spent in pumping thousands of tons of
water from a depth of hundreds of feet, in new equipment for the mining
operations, and in the construction of a smelter. The best that can be done
is to hope that the investors will some day get their money back. W