The cabinet officer known as Minister of the Interior and Worship has authority in rela tion to the welfare of the clergy of the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church and under the constitution Roman Catholicism is the state religion; there is, however, complete toleration, and about one-third of the adult population should be classified as Protestants, Liberals, etc.
The Judicature.— The judicial system of the republic was reorganized in 1907. It now includes a High Court of five justices, the latter being chosen by the general assembly of the chambers, and the presiding officer of the court being chosen for one year by the members them selves. This High Court has original jurisdic tion in constitutional, international and ad miralty cases, and hears appeals in cases in which the decision has been altered in the minor courts of appeal, of which there are two, each with three justices. Montevideo has three courts for ordinary civil cases, two for commercial cases, one for government cases, two for criminal cases, one correctional court and three for criminal investigation. At each department capital there is located a depart mental court and there are 214 judicial seenons in the republic, each with a justice of the peace court. Lesser local divisions are known as dis tricts in which deputy judges have a limited jurisdiction. The death penalty was abolished in 1907, penal servitude for 30 to 40 years being substituted.
Agricultural and Pastoral Industries.— Although the soil is fertile and the climate favorable, to agriculture, less than 4 per cent of the country is under cultivation • (in 1916 about 2,000,000 acres out of a total of more than 45,000,000 acres). Uruguay is still, despite the efforts that have been made by the govern ment to extend the cultivated area, essentially a pastoral country, 41,350,000 acres being devoted to sheep, cattle, etc. The chief agricultural products are: Wheat (average crop 360,000, tons); Indian corn (average crop 200,000 tons) ; linseed (average crop 27,000 tons) ; oats (aver age crop 27,000 tons) ; wine (average annual production 34,000 tons) ; tobacco (average crop 1,000 tons).
The staple products of Uruguay are meats, hides and wool. A livestock census which was provided for by a government decree in Janu ary 1917 shows the different classe§ of cattle in each department of Uruguay, but in sub mitting the figures the director of the census states that they are to be considered as only partial statistics. The total number of cattle in the whole country is given as 7,942,212, the largest number in any department, 711,224, being in Tacuarembo, and the smallest number, 26,373, in the Department of Montevideo. Each of the departments of Artigas, Cerro Largo, Durazno and Salto has more than 600,000 cat tle; Paysandii and Rio Negro are in the 500,000 class; Florida, Minas, Rivera, Rocha and Soriano show over 400,000 each, while the re maining departments have in the neighborhood of 200,000 or 300,000 each. The taking of this
cattle census is only one of various measures which the government of Uruguay is adopting for the development of its livestock industry, the chief source of the country's wealth. The stock of sheep was estimated in 1916 as about 27,000,000; hogs, over 500,000; horses (statistics of 1917), 560,000. Livestock statistics are pre pared, primarily, by the animal sanitary police, a well-organized force empowered to treat, to quarantine or to destroy diseased animals. The value of wool sheared each year is given as $25,000,000. Favorable conditions of climate and pasturage, together with intelligeit methods of propagation, have induced that steady in crease of the flocks of sheep which has made the Uruguayan wool-clip such an important matter. As statistics show, the sheep to-day may be divided into two classes — Spanish and British, omitting the Asiatic breed. The finest sheep in the world came originally from Spain, and the authorities of Uruguay have not only bestowed great care upon the selection and development of types that thrive best under local conditions, but also have spared no ex pense in their search for the finest varieties developed in other lands. The value of the slaughtered livestock of all classes was shown in statistics submitted to the First Pan-Ameri can Financial Conference to be less than the value of the "wool crop" — about $22,000,000 as compared with $25,000,000. But in 1915 when the total value of exports of the grazing and meat industry increased nearly 50 per cent, wool exports showed no corresponding gain. An im portant product of the livestock industry is tasajo (jerked beef), chiefly exported to Brazil, Cuba and Porto Rico. In 1914 more than 11,000 tons of tasajo were shipped from Uruguay to other countries, but in 1915 only 5,334 tons.
Commerce and Manufacturing Industries.
— The value of Uruguay's imports from all countries in 1915 was $36,378,925, and of her exports to all countries, $76,222,298. The value of her imports from the United States in the same year was $7,519,654, and of her exports to the United States, $12,148,464. In 1916 the six countries leading in exports to Uruguay were, in the order of total value of such ex ports: United States (which exported to Uru guay, increasingly large quantities of agricul tural implements, binder twine, cotton cloths, railway material, and miscellaneous manufac tures of iron and steel), Argentina, Great Bri tain, Brazil, Spain and Italy. The six coun tries leading in imports from Uruguay in 1916 were, in the order of total value of such im ports: Italy, United States, France, Argentina, Great Britain and Spain. In 1917 the imports amounted to $37,500,000 and the exports to $67,516,275. The exports were principally live stock, $2,311,190; canned goods and extracts, $26,567,006 and wool, $18,601,275. The follow ing tables show at a glance the chief groups of articles imported and exported: