s who are best
able to judge; and I feel confident that the following estimates are
nearly, if not entirely, correct:--

The chief agricultural products of the island are cotton, rice, cacao,
corn, cocoanuts, pepper, bananas, tobacco, vegetable dyes, coffee, sugar,
pineapples, and vanilla. Of all these I shall only pause to deal here with
the last four.

Coffee and sugar are regarded by the Puerto Ricans as their most valuable
crops. The first takes six years to come into full bearing, and during this
time will cost an expense of about 162 pesos an acre, with a return in the
last year of 86 pesos an acre,--a net deficit for the full period of 76
pesos. Afterward the expense should be about 66 pesos an acre, and the
return 90 pesos. Sugar requires a heavy investment at the start. A
plantation of 250 acres, together with the necessary buildings and
machinery, will call for about 52,500 pesos. The total cost of a crop, from
beginning to end, should be 152 pesos an acre, and the return about 170.

A pineapple plantation, for the investor of limited means, ought to prove
profitable and encouraging. The first year of cultivation will produce a
crop, at a final cost of 40 pesos an acre, including the land-rent. The
return is put down at 200 pesos, leaving a gorgeous net profit of 160
pesos. It would seem perhaps that under such circumstances it is odd that
there is not a more general raising of this fruit by the local planters;
but the reason for an apparent neglect of a golden opportunity lies in
the difficulties heretofore encountered in finding swift and adequate
transportation from field to market. With this handicap removed there is
little doubt that pineapple-growing will become a tempting industry.

The vanilla bean, however, is king-pin of the list in the claim of profit
to be derived from its culture. It is said that the yearly cost of raising
the crop will be 94 pesos an acre, chiefly for manure and irrigation. And
the annual return for every acre is figured at 652 pesos,--a net profit
that is fairly dazzling.

While all these details--which I have digressed so many times to give--do
not properly form a part of the story of our campaign, yet it is by
no means unusual for one who has put his hand into a grab-bag to look
carefully and well at the prize withdrawn. And that is what I have been
doing.

The material result of General Schwan's campaign may be briefly summarized
thus: He marched his command ninety-two