All the planting of small crops by the poorer countryman is done in what are called "conucos," cleared spaces fenced by sticks laid tightly against each other in order to keep out the wild pigs which infest the country. The construction of the fences is a laborious task, yet after one or two years they require extensive repairs, and when the repairs are such as to amount to a practical rebuilding, the "conuco" is commonly abandoned, and a new one located elsewhere. This method is wasteful of fence-material and land. The planting is done in the most primitive way, commonly by making a hole in the ground with a machete or by using a forked stick as a plow. There are few hoes, and among the natives no modern steel plows. A "conuco" is usually about one acre in extent, or to be precise twenty-five varas conuqueras square. Though the metric system is the official system of measurement and is gradually coming into use, many of the older standards still prevail. A common measure of length is the Castilian vara, about equivalent to an English yard; the vara conuquera, about two and a half yards; the tarea, used for measuring fences, twenty-five varas conuqueras in length, and the league, something over three miles. The common units of surface measurement are the tarea, of about one-sixth acre, and the caballeria of 1200 tareas or about 200 acres. Generally speaking, a line drawn from Cape Isabela on the north coast, through Santiago, to the mouth of the Nizao River in the south, divides the country into two regions of which the eastern one has abundant rainfall and luxuriant tropical vegetation, while in the western one there is little rain, and cactus plants and thorny bushes betoken the aridity of the soil. The two ends of the Cibao Valley seem like different countries, the eastern end covered with palm-trees, ferns and other flora of the torrid zone, and the western portion dry and dotted with giant cacti of fantastic shape. In the country near Azua and Monte Cristi I have imagined myself on the plains of New Mexico, with their scorching heat, their cactus, mesquite bushes and distant violet mountains fading into the azure sky. While arid, these western regions of Santo Domingo are as fertile as the rest of the country and when irrigated give remarkable crops. One of the Dominican government's projects is an extensive irrigation scheme for the Monte Cristi district. The most productive portion of the Republic is undoubtedly the Royal Plain in the Cibao Valley, which is of almost incredible fertility. It is covered with a rich black loam from three to fifteen feet deep, as can be seen wherever brooks have cut ravines into the earth, and is referred to as the Mississippi Valley of the Dominican Republic.