Book contents
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 The Myth of the Disappeared Legion of Proprietors
- 2 The Coffee Economy
- 3 The Sugar Industry
- 4 The Tobacco Industry
- 5 Economic Transformation and Demographic Change
- 6 Land Concentration/Fragmentation Using Land Tax Records
- 7 Rates of Landownership in Rural Puerto Rico
- 8 Land Tenure Patterns Using Census Data
- 9 Land Use
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
9 - Land Use
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2020
Book contents
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 The Myth of the Disappeared Legion of Proprietors
- 2 The Coffee Economy
- 3 The Sugar Industry
- 4 The Tobacco Industry
- 5 Economic Transformation and Demographic Change
- 6 Land Concentration/Fragmentation Using Land Tax Records
- 7 Rates of Landownership in Rural Puerto Rico
- 8 Land Tenure Patterns Using Census Data
- 9 Land Use
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Despite Puerto Rico being the most densely populated island in the Caribbean and with such a large portion of its rural population owning farms, land in Puerto Rico was fairly underutilized when the United States took over the island in 1898. There was intense cultivation in the western highlands and coastal districts, but even in regions where sugarcane farming was dominant, the percentage of land under cultivation was well under 25 percent of total acreage and in some areas less than 10 percent, according to maps created for the 1899 census. (See Maps 9.1–9.3.)
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Agrarian Puerto RicoReconsidering Rural Economy and Society, 1899–1940, pp. 214 - 271Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020