Quicksilver is known to exist, though in small quantities, and as yet not enough has been found to pay for the working. Nickel is also said to exist. Petroleum is found in several parts of the Island, and in and near Manzanillo it comes out of the ground and rocks in a remarkably pure state. Natural gas may yet be found, for a gasoline mine near Santa Clara clearly indicates its presence. Marble of fine quality is reported in the Isle of Pines and in a number of localities in Cuba, but its superiority may be slightly doubted, as its grain is somewhat coarse and it lacks the proper density. The same may be said of such building stone as has been thus far produced. However, so very little has been done in developing any of these products and giving them fair tests, that definite conclusions as to quantity and quality cannot be justly reached at present. CHAPTER XXIII AGRICULTURE AND STOCK Data of any kind on the farming interests of Cuba are difficult to collect, and those obtained are, as a rule, meagre, indefinite, and unsatisfactory. Statements vary as to the acreage under cultivation, estimates vary from 2,000,000 to 9,000,000 of acres. One writer says there are 100,000 farms, plantations, and cattle ranches in the Island, valued at $20,000,000; and Cabrera, in 1862, gives these figures: 18 cocoa plantations, 35 cotton plantations, 782 coffee plantations, 1523 sugar plantations, 1731 bee farms, 2712 stock farms, 6175 cattle ranches, 11,541 tobacco plantations, 11,738 truck farms, and 22,748 produce farms, a total of 59,001. Spanish official figures show a total of 37,702 farms, cattle ranches, sugar, tobacco, and coffee plantations. What these properties may be worth or valued at now cannot be stated; but before the war their value might be fairly estimated at from $275,000,000 to $300,000,000. The Cuban farmer, despite what nature had done for him in climate and soil, was never equal to his opportunities. True, the mother country, by taxation, had kept him over-burdened with debt, and by not giving him the benefit of progressive ideas had forced him to use only the most primitive implements and farm machinery. When he used these at all, they were of Spanish manufacture, the worst in the world; but even under such adverse circumstances he might have done much better than he did. That he did not is due largely to himself, for indeed there are thrifty Cuban farmers, who have good farms and do as well as farmers anywhere, all things considered. But they are not in a majority. As one evidence of the general lack of thrift, the Cubans imported from the United States in 1893, a good year, animal products (largely hogs), worth $5,718,101; bread stuffs, $3,164,541; provisions other than the foregoing, $1,315,097; a total value of over $10,000,000, all of which except, possibly, wheat flour, might have been raised at home, with a fair amount of care and industry, under a decent government.