Corn is cultivated everywhere in all kinds of soil from sea level up to 9000 feet, but it grows best between 1500 and 3000 feet. About 75,000 acres are devoted to its production; 150,000 tons are raised, some being exported. It is the real bread plant of the country especially in the interior.
Beans in large variety are produced, black beans being greatly in demand and some exported.
Indigo was once cultivated and in 1802 was exported to the value of $2,500,000, but its production was abandoned owing to higher returns from coffee.
Vanilla grows well in the rich lands of Falcón, Lara, Bolívar, Zamora, and Anzoátegui. Its cultivation might be developed.
Forestry
The forest resources are inexhaustible but hardly touched, the zone comprising about half of Venezuela of which 98 per cent is virgin territory. Nearly three-quarters of this area is public land, over 100,000 square miles. With more capital and labor, better means of transport, and modern implements and machinery a great development will result. The chief forest products are rubber, balatá, tonka beans, divi-divi, and various medicinal plants. There are many dyeing and tanning plants, and gums and resins abound. In the forests a great amount of timber exists including the finest varieties; but as usual these are scattered, and with present facilities, difficult to get out with a profit. Of the 600 species of wood 5-10 per cent are marketable. 145 varieties used for ornamental purposes and 20 kinds of woods and barks suitable for dyeing and tanning were exhibited at the Chicago Exposition in 1893. The great mora tree, three feet in diameter, is excellent for ship building; mahogany, rosewood, and other trees of hard wood abound.
Rubber, chiefly of the hevea variety, is found and exported both from the Casiquiare-Amazon section and more from Yuruary in East Bolívar. It is cultivated near Ocumare del Tuy, each tree there giving 460 grams of juice, 95 per cent pure rubber. Several million people are needed to exploit the industry, in which $1,200,000 has been invested.
Balatá, procured from forest trees in a manner similar to rubber, is allied to gutta percha, and is employed with this for many purposes.
Divi-divi, one of the best and cheapest plants for tannin, grows wild throughout the country, chiefly along the coast and on the edge of the llanos at the foot of the south slope of the Coast Mountains. Hot lowlands with a minimum average of rain suit it best. It grows to a height of 20-30 feet. The brown pods three inches long contain 30-40 per cent of tannin, sometimes even 50. The seeds have little. In wet weather the tannin is liable to sudden fermentation especially in electrical storms, when the tanning is impeded, and the leather may be stained. Some trees 90 years old still produce a full crop. Near Cumaná, a tree may yield 275 pounds a year, but in the west, 25-50 pounds only. It is an extremely cheap source of tannin though not largely used. Venezuela probably has more frequent stands of this tree than any other country. 5000 men are said to leave Ciudad Bolívar yearly for its collection in the interior. As cultivated in Curaçao plantations, the pods have 20 per cent more tannin and bring 25 per cent higher price.
The Mangrove bark is another important source of tannin; the tree growing in swampy ground is useful in reclaiming land at the ocean’s edge. The bark has 22-33 per cent tannin, the leaves nearly 20, the wood some. The stands are unlimited in number.