As we have said, the vegetables are produced in a great variety and abundance.
The tobacco culture is also a new source of wealth opened to the economical movement of the country. Although this industry still goes rather slowly, there are already many establishments in the interior where it has been undertaken with very good results.
Agricultural Centres.
Many are the agricultural centres, generally known by the name of colonies, established all over the Republic, that, owing to the special conditions of the land which is fit for all cultures, have notably improved.
Among the principal colonies, or agricultural settlements, there are:
1st. The Valdense Colony, founded in 1858. It has an area of 19,432 square cuadras (14,338 hectares 5,035 metres).
Its population in 1884 was 306 families, forming a total of 1,681 inhabitants. To-day, there are more than 2,200 inhabitants. It possesses the best agricultural machinery, steam-mills, and steam and water mills, good carpenters, blacksmiths, and in a word all the establishments necessary to the unceasing progress of such agricultural centres. It has two Evangelical churches, a public library with over a thousand books, eight schools, a postoffice, a municipal commission and a police office.
2d. Swiss, Quevedo and Spanish Colonies. The Swiss Colony was founded in 1863. It has an area of 8,782 square cuadras, or 6,480 hectares, 709 metres. The Quevedo Colony has an area of 5,091 square cuadras, or 3,756 hectares and 5,521 metres, and the Spanish Colony 9,600 square cuadras, or 7,083 hectares, 6,576 metres.
These three agricultural centres form a total of 17,320 hectares, over which live more than 420 families. They possess steam-mills, schools, many commercial establishments. In the Swiss Colony there are two churches—a Catholic and Protestant. The public administration of these settlements consist of a municipal commission, a justice of peace and an attorney. They also have a postoffice.
3d. Sauce Colony. The first settlers who cultivated the soil in this agricultural centre were some Swiss people who, in the year 1879, hired the land where it now exists, In the years 1880 and 1881 other families came and settled themselves close to the first ones. In 1883, thirty families more came from the Valdense Colony; so that in 1884 the Sauce Colony counted 59 families.