Saint-Raphael, ND , Haiti. It is fed by the Bouyaha River , which is part of the Artibonite Watershed , feeding one of the largest irrigated areas of Haiti, the Artibonite Plain , with about 30, irrigatable hectares.
Its population increased somewhat significantly, reaching 1, inhabitants in This region entered the historical record around , when Toussaint Louverture , returning to the French flag, brought back the lands of the Center domaine des hattes conquered from the English and the Spaniards. At the beginning of the Haitian period, around , food cultivation in Saint-Raphael was practiced mainly along the Bouyaha River. In the plains, there were a few artisanal installations producing cane syrup and rapadou.
But most of the land was occupied by xerophite species campeche and bayahonde, and construction woods mahogany and oak. The capitalist investments that accompanied the American Occupation quickly transformed the face of the area. The first major activity was the cutting of logwood for export Between and , Jamaicans and Italians introduced tobacco growing to Saint-Raphael.
To prepare their plots, they used the service of agricultural workers with their own plow pulled by mules. These ploughs, the first to appear in the region, came from a large modern plantation established by the Americans at Saint-Michel-de-l'Atalaye.
The promoters of tobacco cultivation established, in order to alter their plantation, the small irrigation systems of Merlaine and Buenabite. But very quickly , the entire dry plain was deforested for the cultivation of indigenous cotton, a perennial and hardy variety. The newly established spinning mills in Port-au-Prince had created a national cotton market. In , the Mexican weevil insect of the beetle family profoundly interrupted the flourishing cotton-based economic system.
