CLASSICU Authority Stateletter Inha 8: ML, R5 Cata 2418 a very slim margin of profit, and it is believed that only the present high price of gold keeps them in operation. Moreover, exploitation of the valuable stands of timber of the coastal regions of Guanacaste has reached such a point that it is now necessary to seek hardwoods from the interior of the province, and the transportation problems of such a procedure are so great that lumbering has been declining in recent years. It is apparent, then, that Guanacaste is dependent mainly on cattle and agriculture, and the pattern of these occupations is set by the geography of the province, with the low plains of the north western section being given over to large holdings of cattle land, while the more mountainous Peninsula of Nicoya is split up into smaller holdings, on which are grown rice, corn, and beans. While differences undoubtedly occur in individual cases, in general it may be stated that the large cattle estates are characterized by a kind of semi feudal organization in which the farm workers are considered as almost a part of the property, as well as by a lack of a modern and scientific approach to technical problems. The small farmer is not much better off economically than 18 the ranch peón. for in many cases he does not own the land which he works, and his production, based on traditional methods which are both inefficient and harmful, even in good years barely suf fices to maintain an impoverished standard of living.
Although a detailed analysis of the Guanacaste cattle and agricultural situation is outside of the scope of this memorandum, certain fac?
tors vitally affecting the province economic life can be pointed out.
Certainly one of the most important reasons for the lack of material progress in the area is the state of the transportation system. The principal towns of the province are served by airplanes of the TACA system five days a week, but aside from this limited service travelers are forced to rely on horses, and merchandise must be transported by ox cart. This means that to transport freight from, say, San José to a point in Guanacaste it is necessary to ship it by rail to Puntarenas, by launch to the Nicoya nearest its destination, and from there by oxcart, Roads connecting interior points are either non existent or of the most elementary sort and useless during the rainy season of the year, TO this statement the exception must be made that an all weather road is nearing completion between Nicoya and Puerto Jesús, and it is hoped eventual ly to extend this road from Nicoya to Santa Cruz. This is, however, but a modest beginning, and it is not felt that the financial state of the present Administration will permit any large scale construction activity. The Pan American Highway, when it is completed from Barranca to the Nicaraguan border will be of immeasurable benefit to the life of the province, and one hopes that at that time the inhabitants of Liberia will not find it necessary, as they now do, to have their vegetables sent them from San José by plane.
Another factor which undoubtedly retards the economic life of the region is the consistently bad health conditions which obtain, both from a standpoint of nutrition as well as sanitation. To begin with, the climat is distinctly tropical, and malaria and intestinal diseases are widespread.
This condition is aggravated by the diet of the people, which consists, almost