THE rural population of Porto Rico may be roughly divided into the landowners, or planters, and the wage-earning countrymen. The planters are usually people who in many ways closely resemble the country gentleman or squire of England. They are people of considerable importance in their communities, frequently well educated and widely traveled, men who do not hesitate to spend their money freely for their comfort and that of their families when the crops are plentiful and the prices good. They exercise a sort of patronage over the country people who work for them, many of whom live in houses on land provided by the landlord. The laborers look to the landlord for guidance and for advice in practically all matters pertaining to their economic life, and the planter usually reciprocates by caring for the welfare of the countryman to the best of his ability. Many of the planters, especially such as are located in the coffee districts, have been badly handicapped by the partial destruction of their coffee plantations through cyclones, and by the low price for their product, since they have had to compete with South American coffee in the European and American markets. In addition to this economic disadvantage, the planters are also handicapped by the infirmity of their laborers, most of whom are sufferers from anemia, and few of whom are able to work without the immediate direction of a foreman. The economic and social condition of the planters is not a matter of particular interest to us in this connection, inasmuch as they are so situated that they enjoy all of the advantages of an advanced stage of civilization. The problem that confronts the progress of Porto Rico is to be found in the day laborer of the country districts. The following is taken from the book on _Uncinariasis in Porto Rico_, by Doctors Ashford and Gutierrez: "Our patient has been in times past the _jíbaro_ and will be in time to come. As we have seen already, while all country districts furnish an incredible number of sick, the great breeding places of _necator americanus_ are the coffee plantations, and this is the home of _el palido_ (the pale man) of Porto Rico. "The _jíbaro_ is a type to be well studied before we essay to interest him in bettering his own condition. Many have written of his virtues, many of his defects, but few, even in Porto Rico, have seen through the mist of a pandemic the real man beyond. "Coll y Toste says that the origin of the word _jíbaro_ proceeds from a port in Cuba (Jibara), and that it is composed of two words of Indian origin, _jiba_, meaning mountain, and _ero_, man. We cannot see the necessity of invoking this port of Cuba with the excellently applicable philology he gives us. "Brau says that the term is applied to-day to a laborer, but that its true significance is 'a mountain dweller.'