"On landing at San José the North Carolina man looked with awe and admiration as every tourist is bound to do on the dominating volcano peaks Fuego and Agua, Fire and Water. But while he never ceased to wonder at the richness of the scenery his practical instincts asserted themselves and he punctuated the information given him about climate, soil and products with keen observations. He confessed that on the vessel he thought they were 'stringing' him when they told him that the posts for the barbed wire fences just grew, but when he saw countless miles of trees in straight rows with the wire stretched along the trunks he paid his tribute also to climate and soil. He knew that naturally trees don't grow in straight rows and he found the explanation. The posts are poles cut from the trees' branches and when stuck in the ground they shoot up so rapidly that they soon are trees. "The North Carolina observer never got over his wonder at the soil. The railroad cuts gave him a chance to see that it was not surface richness and he easily grasped the explanation. The vegetation grows to a certain height, then dies away, rots and forms fresh layers of richness. This process going on for centuries has made the fertility of the land inexhaustible. "The utility of volcanic eruptions was new to him and was explained on the trip to Champerico. This is the great coffee region. It comes within the sphere of influence of the volcano Santa Maria. When Santa Maria was sprinkling both the sea and land with pumice stone and ashes, on many of the fincas (plantations) there was just enough of this lava soil after the rains had come and washed away the surface of the deposit to renew the productiveness." In another way an idea of the varied products of agricultural industry can be had from an account given in the British Consular reports of a model plantation. This plantation consisted of 3,000 acres. In a given year it produced 1,200,000 pounds of coffee, 300,000 pounds of sugar, 300,000 bottles of the by-product of sugar known as aguardiente or cane rum, 22,000 gallons of milk. Two thousand head of cattle were raised. On this plantation from 900 to 1,300 laborers were employed. COFFEE OF WORLD-WIDE FAME. As is well known, Guatemala's most valuable agricultural product is coffee. The fame of Guatemala coffee is worldwide and it commands the highest prices. The production in average years is about 70,500,000 pounds, though in a recent year it exceeded 80,000,000 pounds. The most productive regions are in the departments of Guatemala, Amatitlan, Sacatepequez, Solola, Retalhuleu, Quezaltenango, San Marcos, Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Chimaltenango, Santa Rosa and Escuintla. [Illustration: VISTA OF AGUNA PLANTATION.]