Industrial and commercial South America

by Annie S. Peck

Road Transportation and Building

Road building in Colombia is only less difficult than railways; hence few good roads exist. The Central Northern extends 200 miles or more towards Bucaramanga; as far as Sogamoso, population 16,500, 140 miles, it is used by automobiles, the best stretch of road in the Republic. A Northeastern Road extends for some distance. The Carretera de Cambao leads from that Port on the Magdalena 130 miles to Bogotá, thereby avoiding the changes by way of La Dorada. A road from Bogotá to Pasto, the Southern, is partly in use or in construction. From Pasto it is being continued to Tumaco and may be to Ibarra in Ecuador. A road with parts in service leads from Pasto by way of Mocoa towards Puerto Asis on the Putumayo, important for national defense as well as for the development of the region. A road from Pamplona, an old town, population 14,000, in Santander del Norte, is partly made towards the Casanare region. In Antioquia several roads diverge from Medellín. The Cauca Valley has a few, on one of which from Palmira to Buga auto service is established. Other roads are in various sections, as the important highway building from Cúcuta to the Magdalena. Many bridges have recently been constructed.

Aside from the river traffic by steamers and small boats, the greater part of travel and transport over this extensive territory is by means of horses and mules on caminos or bridle paths of varying degrees of excellence, many of them extremely poor, at times almost or quite impassable; a few paths are for foot passengers only. The best known camino is from Ibagué over the Quindio Pass to Cartago in the Cauca Valley. Another ancient way of great importance is from Neiva across the paramos of the Central Cordillera to Popayán. A network of these caminos overspreads the well settled part of the country, the meshes greatly varying in size.

CHAPTER VI
COLOMBIA: RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES

While the varied sources of Colombia’s wealth have already been touched upon, some paragraphs follow concerning the different lines of production and export.

Agriculture

The country has such variation in altitude as well as such fertility of soil that not only does almost every sort of vegetation thrive within its borders, but it exists in most of the Departments. An enumeration of all the localities where the different articles are found would be needless repetition. Reference will be made, however, to Departments where certain products are chiefly grown. With proper cultivation and ample labor food stuffs might be produced to satisfy every requirement, but many are imported from other countries more easily than they could be carried from one section of Colombia to another.

Coffee, from the commercial and export point of view, is the most important agricultural product, in quantity coming next to Brazil, while in quality the coffee by some is considered second only to Arabian. Preëminent for its culture are the Departments traversed by the Central and East Cordilleras, especially Cundinamarca, Antioquia, Caldas, Santander del Norte; also Cauca, El Valle, Tolima, and the north slope of the Nevada de Santa Marta. In Colombia coffee grows best at altitudes of 2000-6000 feet, the higher the milder the coffee. At 5000 feet no shade is required, though necessary when first planted in most places where it is raised. Everywhere coffee seems to prefer sloping ground. In Cauca, where 720 trees are planted to the acre, they produce for 50 or 60 years. Coffee from Santander, mostly going out by way of Maracaibo, is sold under that name. We hardly think of coffee as a product of the temperate zone, but in Colombia it is so classed, growing in the same altitudes as temperate fruits, vegetables, and cereals.

Bananas are the most important crop of the lowlands, especially since the exploitation of the Santa Marta district by the United Fruit Company. Ninety per cent of the bananas raised in this section are exported by the company under contract with private growers. Banana land of the company is well laid out with irrigating canals, managers’ and laborers’ houses, etc. Export has increased enormously. As the section is watered by five rivers and many brooks, it is especially favorable for the irrigation needed. The trunks and leaves of the plant, which might be utilized for cordage, paper, card-board and textiles, at present go to waste. The cost of clearing and preparing land for the industry, with 350 trees to the acre, is about $45. Within two years the annual receipts are $40, largely profits. The Company owns 28,000 acres of improved land (10,000 devoted to cattle) and twice as much land unimproved. The bananas are free of export duty and taxation. The fruit may be grown in all the lowland sections where irrigation is practicable, which is almost everywhere. Before the War the Germans near the Gulf of Urabá started a plantation of 12,000 acres, one third of which is under cultivation.

Plantains are widely raised for native use, as they form the chief article of food for the masses in the lower districts. Higher up maize is the staple. The plantain requires little cultivation, the crops are heavy, and the plantations last for years. The fruit is eaten either green or ripe.