When Columbus discovered Hispaniola in I492, he wrote a highly enthusiastic account of the island's lush vegetation. Today, as a result of human action, the country is virtually denuded. The small forest-clad areas that still remain display severe signs of degeneration and shrink rapidly. Most of the cultivated land is in mountainous terrain which per se is not suited for agriculture. With the farming techniques employed in Haiti, erosion has taken a heavy toll during more than two centuries.