AGRICULTURE AND STOCKAZAISING. Venlezu elm's chief industry is agriculture. However, only about one-third of the area is estimated as culti vable, and of this cultivable portion only about one-third is tilled. Coffee easily ranks first, both as all agricultural product and as all article of export, but its cultivation has been greatly handi capped by the serious decline in prices. in 1896 the acreage in coffee was estimated at IS0.000, with an average yield of five hundredweight an acre. Cacao is an important product, for which the warm moist lands of the coast are especially adapted. Sugar cane is extensively grown, owing to the duties, which exclude foreign sugars, but the product is almost wholly consumed at home, largely in the distillation of native spirits. Cot ton is not now grown, The same is true of indigo, displaced by coffee. For domestic consumption cereals, beans, potatoes, manioc, fruits and vege tables are produced, but the demand for what exe(eds the home supply. Tobacco thrives in the lowland regions, though the present grades are inferior and the cultivation is much interrupt ed by civil commotions. Some natural forest prod
ucts, such as copaiba, vanilla, and camitehone, are gathered for the purpose of exportation; but in general, the agricultural resources of Vene zuela are poorly developed and the methods em ployed antiquated and wasteful. Cattle-raising has always been an important industry, but the cattle of the Rano.: were greatly depleted (hiring the revolutionary days between 1860 and 1865. Now, however, these plains are becoming re stocked, while in the northwest the of sheep and goats has become an important indus try. The following holdings, are given in round numbers: Oxen. 2,000,000; horses, 191,000; goats, 1,700.000; sheep, 177,000; mules and asses, 400,000.
MANuFAcrunEs. In the large cities there are some establishments for cotton-weaving and the making of shoes and hats, agricultural imple ments, vehicles, and furniture, and breweries and distilleries. The more important industries are largely in foreign hands.