in important quantities.  That they are not now so produced is due to lack of both labor and capital.  The industries of Cuba are, and always have been, specialized.  Sugar, tobacco, and at a time coffee, have absorbed the capital and have afforded occupation for the greater number of the island people.  The lack of transportation facilities in earlier years, and the system of land tenure, have made difficult if not impossible the establishment of any large number of independent small farmers.  The day laborers in the tobacco fields and on sugar plantations have been unable to save enough money to 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