Small attempts have been made to cultivate other products to which the country is adapted. Growers of cotton and hemp are encouraged by results, but a rice plantation established in the swamp-lands near the head of Samana Bay proved a failure rather on account of errors of management than for other reasons.
In the forests which cover her mountains Santo Domingo has hardwoods, dyewoods and building timber of inestimable value. Only a generation ago mahogany trees grew all the way to the water's edge, but years of wasteful cutting have exhausted the nearer supplies and the more valuable woods must now be sought in the interior. In the mountains and on the high plateaus of the interior there are hundreds of square miles of Spanish cedar and longleaf pine. The principal woods exported are mahogany, guayacan, known to commerce as lignum vitae (one of the hardest woods and so heavy that when in loading the steamer a log drops into the sea it sinks to the bottom like iron), bera or bastard lignum vitae, espinillo or yellowwood, campeche or logwood (a famous dyeing material), sparwood and cedar. Other forest products exported are dividivi, a tanning bark, and resins. Most of these exports go to the United States and England. For the preparation of lumber for local needs there are sawmills in La Vega and Santiago de los Caballeros.
With regard to indigenous fauna Santo Domingo occupies a position midway between the diverse and abundant fauna of Cuba and the more limited species of the Leeward Islands. Insects abound and in all the coast towns it is necessary to sleep under a mosquito bar. Wild bees are found in many parts of the country and apiculture has met with much success. Of poisonous insects there are few. Those sometimes met with are the species of tarantula known as the hairy spider, the spider known as guava, and the blue spider, also the scorpion and the centipede. Their sting produces intense pain, inflammation and fever. They are found in crevices, under stones, in caves, and in rotten wood. The last two are often seen in old houses, but daily use of the broom and duster will make them appear but rarely. Some of these animals grow to a large size. On a ride on the Haitian border my horse shied at a tarantula in the trail, and in calling my Dominican companion's attention to it, I remarked that it was as large as a saucer. "That is nothing," he replied, "there are many around here as large as a soup plate."
There are few classes of reptiles. Santo Domingo is a paradise where serpents are at a discount, for they are few in number and although occasionally some are found of considerable size, they are all harmless. Lizards are plentiful in the forests, the largest class being known as iguana, which is eaten by some of the country people, as it was in former days by the Indians. The lizards are all inoffensive. A species of alligator is found in the lower waters of the Yaque del Norte and of the Yaque del Sur, and in the salt lakes on the Haitian border. Tortoises occur in such numbers that their shell forms an article of commerce.
Crustaceans and testaceans are abundant in number though few in species. A tiny oyster is found, not much larger than a thumb-nail, but very succulent. The marine fauna is the same as that of the neighboring Antilles, the sea and rivers teeming with edible fish, to which, however, but little attention is paid. Sharks infest the coasts and render bathing unsafe except behind protecting reefs. Occasionally, too, a manati, or sea-cow, is seen. This strange mammal has breasts which resemble those of a human being and emits cries that sound almost human. It was probably a party of manati gamboling about in the water which induced Columbus gravely to enter in his logbook that he had sighted mermaids near Monte Cristi.
Of birds there are over one hundred and fifty species, about ninety-five of which are residents and among these several peculiar to this island. The forests resound with the cries of parrots and other birds of beautiful plumage; from any point on the coast pelicans and other ichthyophagous birds can be observed darting into the waters after their prey; the lakes and rivers are the home of thousands of wild ducks; myriads of wild pigeons breed in the woods; and the number of insectivorous birds, including the sweet-singing nightingale, jilguero and turpial, the swallow and the small pitirre and colibri, is infinite. The caves are inhabited by swarms of bats, the guano of which, mingled with the calcareous detritus of the rocky walls, is found in great deposits and constitutes a good fertilizer.
At the time of the discovery the Spaniards found very few kinds of quadruped mammals. One was the agouti, looking like a large rat and inhabiting the forests; another the coati, similar to the squirrel and easily domesticated. Three other classes are mentioned, the quemi, mohui and perro mudo (dumb dog), but are not now to be found and as the description of two of them almost tallies with that of the others above mentioned, it is possible that different names were applied to the same animals. It is possible, too, that reference was made to the solenodon or almiqui, an animal long thought to be extinct but of which several specimens have recently been found in Santo Domingo. This animal is about two feet, long and resembles a rat, but having a long prehensile snout and the habits of an ant-eater, it is considered to be a remnant of the early zoölogical type from which diverged both the rodents and the insectivorous animals of the present.
The Spaniards introduced the European domestic animals, which immediately began to flourish. During the seventeenth and eighteenth century the principal and for a long time almost the only industry of the Spanish portion of the island was cattle-raising. Some of the cattle and pigs escaped to the woods and reverted to the wild state, and towards the middle and end of the seventeenth century great herds of wild cattle roamed over the island. Such herds no longer exist, but wild pigs have found their way to the most remote recesses of the mountains and are the plague of the fields. The equine species, sprung from the Andalusian horses brought by the Spaniards, has degenerated considerably and the best horses in the Republic today are of Porto Rican stock, but attention is at last being given to breeding. The largest herds of cattle roam about in the unfenced arid regions of the northwest. Hides are exported in large quantities, but there is little dairying. Of late years attention is being directed to improving the stock and several stock farms have been established near San Pedro de Macoris.
Sheep raising is followed to some extent in the arid regions of the southwest and northwest, but the wool is of coarse grade. An important industry in these regions, especially in the neighborhood of Azua, is goat-raising. My inquiry as to the population of Azua was answered by the purser of the Clyde line steamer: "About three thousand people and about three million goats." Though his estimate of the number of goats may have been somewhat exaggerated, the fact is that they are everywhere in evidence and charge through the streets in droves, and at the great Azua church I found a goat in the vestibule looking reverently in. Over nine-tenths of the goatskins exported from the Republic go to the United States.