AGRICULTURE AND MINERALS. The principal industry is agriculture, for which the country is well adapted on account of its fertile and well watered soil, as well as its favorable climate. Government lands are sold at from $250 to $500 a caballeria (113.62 acres), or leased on favor able terms. The most important product is cof fee, Guatemala producing half the crop of Cen tral America, and being surpassed only by Brazil and the East Indies in the quantity harvested. The large destruction of plantations by the vol canic eruptions of 1902 will reduce the yield for some years. Coffee is cultivated by German and United States planters on very large plantations, and is also grown on a smaller scale by a great number of Guatemalans. The average annual yield in recent years has been about 65,000,000 pounds. In the lower regions where coffee is raised, the trees are shaded by the banana-plant, which also yields good crops. Cane-sugar yields
an average of about 45,000,000 pounds, nearly all consumed at home, the rum distillers taking much of the crop. The cocoa product of northern Guatemala is about 700,000 pounds a year. Tobacco, indigo, rubber, vanilla, and sarsaparilla are also important. The output of cereals, con fined to narrow areas in the higher lands, is in sufficient for the domestic demand. Cattle on the plateaus yield hides for export, and the cotton-fields and high, dry sheep-pastures pro vide fibres for the spinners and weavers who ply their trades in the homes. The mineral de posits have received little attention, although the mining code encourages the industry. They in clude gold, silver, salt, iron, lead, and coal, of which only placer gold is obtained, to some ex tent, in the valley of the Motagua River.