Another instance of neglected opportunity is found in the potato. The Cuban tuber, which has only recently been introduced to the United States, is of excellent quality and might be made a serious rival of the famous Bermuda potato. Two crops a year, with an enormous yield to the acre, are harvested, but the output is far from reaching the quantity that could be profitably marketed. At the present time the United States is sending yearly to Cuba potatoes to more than twice the value of all the vegetables received from the Island, and the quality of the imported article is far from as good as that of the domestic product. Cuba also buys beans annually to the value of more than two hundred thousand dollars, despite the fact that every variety of this vegetable grows abundantly in almost any part of the Island, and with little cultivation. The natives consume large quantities of beans, and should not only grow all that they eat, but also ship considerable amounts to the ready markets which are open for them. An excellent quality of sweet potato will grow almost anywhere in the Island, with a large yield to the acre. The yam, a large variety of sweet potato, abounds everywhere, and with a little cultivation the quality could be improved to the point of creating an export demand. There is very little cultivation of beets, but where they are raised the quality is so unusually good and the yield so great, that it is believed beet culture might with ordinary effort be made one of the leading agricultural industries of the Island. In fact, the question of beet-sugar production has been raised more than once, but naturally enough it has not met with encouragement in a country where the beet is anathema. It has been demonstrated that two crops a year of the highest grade of peanuts can be raised in Cuba. It is claimed that the largest recorded production to the acre of the nut has been secured by a Cuban planter. There are great possibilities in this industry, but it does not appear to be systematically carried on anywhere in the Island, and the peanut has no place in the statistics of exports. Mention has been made elsewhere of Cuba’s great need of comparatively small manufacturing enterprises and the benefits that might be expected to accrue from them. The peanut affords an opportunity in this direction. It is practically certain that several factories for the extraction of the oil and the manufacture of the butter could be run in the Island with profit, especially if the factories maintained their own plantations for the supply of the raw material.