ABSTRACT
The Republic of Haiti, which occupies the westernmost third of the island of Hispaniola, shares that island with Santo Domingo. Haiti's approximately 28,750 square kilometres (<ca. 10,700 square miles) is occupied by a population estimated at 3,400,000 (1959). One recent work suggests that the rural population alone in 1960 numbered 3,500,000.2 Much of the country's land is not arable now, and never was; more than two-thirds of the natural territory is mountainous, much of it unusable for agriculture. Deforestation and erosion have ruined large areas as well. Population density is believed to stand at about 130 per square kilometre for all land, at more than 450 per square kilometre for arable land.3 This latter figure suggests that Haitian agriculture must be highly productive indeed, whatever its shortcomings. It would have to be so, since there is virtually no industry; nearly 88 per cent of the total population is rural; and almost three-quarters of the national income comes from agricultural enterprises. Net national income (1951-52) was estimated at us $200,000,000. The calculated per caput income per annum of us $60 came almost entirely from agriculture, and a poorly capitalized and 'unscientific' agriculture at that; in 1953-54, the corresponding figures were us $267,000,000 and us $80.4
The 1950 census indicates that more than 80 per cent of Haiti's 1 Field work was carried out in Haiti during 1958-59. The writer is grateful
rural citizens own agricultural land. Holdings are prevailingly small: it is believed that about 40 per cent of peasant families are exploiting less than one karo1 (1.29 hectares, or 3.33 acres us), and only 6 per cent employ more than five karo.
