HAITI

183

But  few  attempts  have  been  made  to  modernize ­
  it  and  it  is  to-day  one  of  the  most  hopeless
nations  of  this  hemisphere.  About  75  miles
of  railways  are  in  operation.  No  navigable
streams  exist.  There  are  no  roads,  travel  in
the  interior  being  over  trails.  The  natives
are  ignorant,  uneducated  and  in  some  portions
of  the  land  are  supposed  to  practice  cannibalism. ­
  There  are  two  seasons—a  rainy  and  a
dry—the  rainy  lasting  from  April  to  November. ­

Haiti’s  chief  products  are  coffee,  40,000
tons  of  which  were  exported  last  year,  cocoa,
dye  woods  and  cabinet  woods,  medicinal
gums,  rubber,  castor  oil  bean  and  bark  for
tanning.  Her  exports  of  $17,300,000  for  1913
were  divided  as  follows:

France  $8,500,000
Germany  6,400,000
United  Kingdom  1,300,000
United  States  1,100,000

while  her  imports  for  the  same  period
amounted  to  $8,700,000,  credited  to  the  following ­
  nations: