There is here an excellent opportunity for foreign capital. One or two such companies as have successfully developed new tracts in our Western States would find a profitable enterprise in the business of supplying Cuba’s food demands from the product of Cuban soil. This statement is made on the assumption that such concerns would avoid the errors into which several colonization companies, which otherwise had good prospects, have fallen. No such project should be started, except with well defined plans, plenty of capital to carry them through, and, above all, a management familiar with Cuban soils and conditions. To begin with, the acquisition of one thousand acres of the best arable land, well situated for the transportation of produce, will require the investment of one hundred thousand dollars, which would, however, cover the cost of buildings, water supply, and other necessary permanent accessories. Each acre would then call for the further investment of one hundred dollars, which would include all expenses until the first crop should be secured. The expense of cultivation would average about fifty dollars an acre, and an average return of one hundred dollars could be looked for. This estimate of fifty dollars gross profit per acre will appear excessive, and doubtless most Cuban farmers would call it ridiculous. Nevertheless, there are directors of experimental stations in Cuba, who are prepared to demonstrate the feasibility of accomplishing it with ordinary staple crops, and several experts, familiar with local conditions, who endorse it. If it is possible to produce thirty, or even fifteen per cent. net profit from the cultivation of Cuban farm lands, then the fact is the most striking evidence of the shortcomings of the present methods of agriculture. Of course, a large proportion of the estimated results would accrue from the economies in production which a well-capitalized corporation could effect by the employment of labor-saving mechanical devices, and the economies which would naturally arise from shipping in great bulk. In Hawaii, Mexico, and other tropical countries, the agricultural development has been [Illustration: ORANGE TREE.] effected mainly by large corporations, and in the majority of cases the enterprises have enjoyed financial success. All things considered, the prospect for such a project would be unusually good in Cuba. One such undertaking would be a revelation to the Cubans, and to the world at large. It would attract additional capital to the same field and otherwise work such benefit to the country that the Government and the railroad which would be immediately affected by it might reasonably be expected to lend substantial aid in its establishment and operation.