is limited to about one hundred and twenty working days, and small farmers, while they can generally find a market for their cane, cannot be depended on for a constant regular supply. Had Cuba the power to dictate her own prices, she could maintain sufficient margin to overcome local difficulties, but that power has long since passed and future profits must be dependent upon her economies. The price of cane to her planters is dependent upon the price at which her manufacturers can sell their sugar, and this price in turn is dependent upon the price at which other sugar-producing countries, especially Germany, the great factor in the world’s sugar trade, can place her goods, duty paid, in New York. If Cuba in the future should have to compete to any extent, in the United States, with free sugar from other countries, while a duty was exacted from Cuban sugar, her case would seem to be hopeless.”

So great is Cuba’s reliance upon her sugar industry that a rise or falling off in it means depression or elation in every part of the Island. In 1906, the United States paid to Cuba $72,650,000 for 1,092,180 tons of sugar, and the prices ranged from 3½ cents to 5¼ cents per pound. The result was general prosperity and contentment. Since then the prices have risen and fallen through frequent changes and a wide range, and they are once more high enough to make the planter and manufacturer happy. But the average price and profit for any series of recent years have not been such as to encourage investment in the industry, and those engaged in it are only too conscious of the fact that their prosperity rests upon a very unstable basis. There are those who look for relief of Cuba’s difficulties in the cessation of the European bounties, and a complete solution of them in annexation to the United States, but either contingency is a slender dependence.

CHAPTER X

CUBA’S TOBACCO INDUSTRY

One of the peculiarities of the tobacco plant is that a very slight change in the conditions under which it is grown will effect a considerable change in the character of the leaf produced. Plants raised in soils composed of precisely the same chemical ingredients will yield quite different tobacco when those ingredients happen to be present in varying proportions. In Cuba, as elsewhere, it is no uncommon thing to find tobacco of the highest grade upon a piece of land within a stone’s throw of another field where only the poorest quality of leaf can be produced. This is a fact that should be remembered by prospective purchasers of advertised Cuban lands. Promotion companies and agents frequently offer tobacco acreage at high prices, which they justify by statements of the production of adjacent vegas. Often the purchaser finds himself in possession of a worthless tract lying alongside of one which is yielding handsome profits to its owner. There is very little land in the tobacco districts of Pinar del Rio which has not been tried out and it is not safe to buy anything unless it is actually in cultivation. In Oriente there is plenty of good tobacco land available, but up to the present it has not been made to produce a grade of leaf equal to what is termed partidos.

Tobacco is raised in the most widely separated parts of the earth and in the most diversified climates. The world’s annual crop of the leaf approximates 2,000,000,000 pounds with a value in the raw state of about $225,000,000. Of this volume, Cuba produces no

more than 60,000,000 pounds in a good year, but receives for it about $20,000,000. These figures clearly indicate the comparatively high price which the Cuban leaf commands. Fully three-fourths of the total crop comes from Pinar del Rio, the remainder mainly from Habana and Santa Clara. Oriente is fast coming to the fore as a tobacco producing province.

A very small proportion of the product of Pinar del Rio, and probably none of the output of other parts of the Island, is true “Cuban tobacco.” After the Ten Years’ War, foreign seeds, chiefly that of Mexican tobacco, were used extensively to revive the ruined vegas. These exotic varieties throve and almost entirely usurped the place of the original plant. Greatly improved by the Cuban environment, the greater part of the Island’s output is, nevertheless, Mexican tobacco.

It is often claimed that the Cuban tobacco grower possesses some peculiar or mystical skill, but the truth doubtless is that his success is mainly due to the combination of soil, water, and air, that his plants enjoy. If it were otherwise the superiority in product which the Vuelta Abajo has maintained for three centuries would have been contested by other sections. The famous “Lower Valley” lies in the shadow of the Organ Mountains, to the southwest of Habana. The district is about one hundred miles in length by ten in width. The earliest plantations of the Spaniards were set out in the Vuelta Abajo at the close of the sixteenth century. It is the flavor only of the leaf from this district that creates the extraordinary demand for it. The partidos varieties, as the best leaf from other parts of the Island is called, is larger and has a better texture.

An average year’s output of Vuelta Abajo leaf will be about 260,000 bales, or 28,600,000 pounds. Somewhat more than half of this is converted into first-class cigars and cigarettes by the manufacturers of Habana, and the remainder is exported to the United States and Europe. The Province of Habana produces about one-fourth as much as Pinar del Rio, say 65,000 bales. This is called partido leaf. About 15,000 bales of it are consumed in the Cuban factories and the rest shipped to Key West, New York, and Europe. Of the 125,000 bales of what is called Remedios leaf, which Santa Clara produces annually, one-fifth is used locally and the balance sent to the United States. Oriente has a production somewhat less than that of Santa Clara, and consumes about the same proportion locally. This tobacco is generally termed Mayari. It is a coarse leaf, too low-grade for the American market, but acceptable at a low price to the smokers of Spain, Italy, and Austria, whither it is shipped. The Provinces of Matanzas and Puerto Principe do not produce enough tobacco to make an effect upon the market.

Tobacco factories are operated in most of the cities and large towns of Cuba. They give employment to a large number of men and women. A considerable proportion of this labor is skilled and high-priced. Many workmen receive five dollars or more as the daily wage. The best paid employes are those called “selectors,” who have the faculty of correctly grading tobacco leaves by a quick touch and rapid glance. In other branches of the manufacture, such as wrapping and sorting, experts will earn as much by piece work. The finished product of the factories amounts to upwards of 200,000,000 cigars and nearly 15,000,000 packages of cigarettes yearly.

Some of the finest buildings in Habana are devoted to the manufacture of tobacco. The factories are numerous and include many in which no more than twenty hands are engaged, but the bulk of the business is centred in a few companies that each employ thousands of workmen. There has been considerable reorganization among the large manufacturing concerns in recent years, involving the introduction of a large amount of additional capital and the extension of American interests. More than 25,000 persons gain a livelihood in the tobacco business in Habana alone. Not less than ninety-five per cent. of the exports of manufactured tobacco are from Habana. A large proportion of the factory output of interior towns is accounted for by domestic consumption.

The Cuban veguero possesses a skill in tobacco growing which is the result of the accumulated experience and practice of generations. In his hands the cultivation of the narcotic plant is a highly developed art, but it has not been reduced to a science. The most successful Cuban planter can not tell you definitely how he produces his results, nor why certain processes insure desired consequences. He has no fixed formulas, and some of his most cherished practices are based on sheer superstition. As a rule, he is working ground that his father and grandfather worked before him. Through their experience and his own he has gained an intimate knowledge of its needs, capacity, and peculiarities. He can produce results from it that Europeans and Americans have never succeeded in equalling without his aid. Nevertheless, it is doubtful if the Cuban is securing from his tobacco land the utmost yield in quality or quantity of which it is capable. In the cultivation he clings to many crudities; his irrigation is haphazard and often misjudged; he does not avail himself of the mechanical appliances at his command. Where the best leaf is grown, traditional methods are most firmly entrenched. There have, however, been introduced great improvements in the treatment of lands controlled by large corporations. The chief and most effective of these is the cultivation of the leaf under cover. In order to encourage this development of the industry, the duty on cheese cloth, which ranged from fifteen to fifty cents per kilogram, was repealed in 1902. Since then the area under cover has steadily increased and the results achieved justify the belief that Cuba will soon rival Sumatra in the production of fine wrappers.

Tobacco seed is sown in carefully prepared beds during the month of September. About sixty days later the young plants are set out in the field with eighteen inches of space between each. Constant pruning and weeding are necessary in order to insure a healthy and vigorous growth. At the same time the tobacco worm and leaf slug must be picked off as fast as they appear on the plant.

In January the plants are cut and the leaves hung to dry. When thoroughly dried, the leaves are petuned, or sprinkled with a solution of tobacco water until fermentation has taken place. The leaves are then roughly sorted with regard to size and quality, assembled in bunches, or hands, and packed in bales, each weighing about 125 pounds.

It is estimated that over one hundred thousand persons in Cuba are engaged in the tobacco industry, and that eighty thousand of these are employed in the commercial cultivation of the leaf. One man is generally able to properly look after two acres, which will contain 15,000 plants.

The cost of cultivation varies considerably in different parts of the Island and under different conditions. In the Province of Pinar del Rio the cost of preparing the ground, fertilizing, planting, care, rent, and general services, will approximate $8,000 for one caballeria, or 33½ acres. The yield from such a tract will average 211 tercios, or bales, with a value of $50 each; 54 arrobas (1,350 pounds) of seed, worth $216; and about $20 worth of stems. So that the output would fetch approximately $10,800, leaving $2,800 profit to the grower.

Mr. Gustavo Bock, an owner and manufacturer of the greatest experience, puts the matter in a different form. His statement, as quoted in Industrial Cuba, follows:

“To produce 100 bales of tobacco, of 50 kilos each, a farmer would rent one caballeria of land, one half of which he would employ for tobacco cultivation and the remainder for vegetables.

“So that a planter would have to sell each 50 kilos of tobacco at $47.27 to cover the cost of production. The foregoing figures show clearly that the production of tobacco in the Island of Cuba is more expensive than that in any other part of the world, especial attention being necessary to its raising from the day it is planted to the cutting of the leaf, besides the subsequent treatment necessary in order to obtain good leaf; which goes on day and night if a good quality is desired.”

The use of cover, of course, entails additional expenses, but it also produces greater results and larger profits. The cloth awning, which is stretched over the field at a height of six or eight feet, has the effect of tempering the strength of the sun’s rays, moderating the force of the wind and diminishing its detrimental action on the leaves, keeping the soil moist, and excluding the insects that prey upon the plant. Thus, aside from the improvement in the product produced by the use of cover, there is a substantial saving in labor secured.

According to an official statement relating to cultivation under cover in Pinar del Rio, 212 hectares (a hectare is 2.47 acres), in which

6,776,000 seedlings were set, gave plants, according as they were budded or not, varying in height from 1.78 to 2.10 meters, with 14 to 18 leaves on each plant, with a yield of 14 per cent. for plants weighing 40 pounds and 60 per cent. of first-class wrapper leaves. The average cost per hectare in the Province was $736.44.

On the other hand, two well-known and experienced planters of that Province state that tobacco grown under cover will yield 330 bales to the caballeria, instead of 150 produced by the ordinary method, giving leaves from 28 to 32 inches long by 14 to 16 inches wide in the proportion of 7 per cent. This is an enormous increase in yield over that ordinarily obtained, but it may not be accepted as representative of the results generally secured.

The average annual exports of Cuban tobacco are valued at about $27,000,000. This sum is less than half the value of the average sugar output. The relative importance of the two industries must not be gauged by these figures. Although tobacco culture and manufacture are mainly carried on in a comparatively small section of the Island, their beneficial influence upon the community is widespread and greater than the Cubans in general suspect it to be. The prospects for the development of the tobacco industry and the possibilities of its economic improvement are much better than in the case of sugar. The former entails fewer hazards and larger profits than the latter. There is greatly less possibility of concentrated control in the production of tobacco than there is in the growing of sugar-cane. More than in all this, however, the beneficial character of the tobacco industry lies in its especial availability to the small capitalist and the individual planter; its demand for skilled and intelligent labor; and its extensive employment of artisans. The vegueros of Cuba and the employes of the Habana cigar factories are the most intelligent and best paid classes among the working people of the Island.

At the close of the last war of independence the Cuban tobacco industry was practically destroyed. In this insurrection fighting was carried on, for the first time, in the Province of Pinar del Rio. Most of the plantations were wiped out and the cattle, upon which they depended for draft animals, were either killed or carried off. Worse still, the population of the Province was reduced from thirty-six thousand to barely one-sixth of that number. The first crop after the restoration of peace yielded no more than one-tenth of the former average production. The outlook of the industry was extremely black when an American syndicate supplied the capital necessary to give it a fresh start. Since then the process of resuscitation has progressed steadily. There is, however, room for a much greater development. Increase in the labor supply will permit of extension of the area of cultivation, and improvement in methods will result in greater yield and better quality. It is certain that under the stimulus of foreign capital and foreign management tobacco cultivation in Cuba will soon far surpass the production of its palmiest days.

The prospect for the manufacturing branch of the industry, which has never been conducted to its best advantage, is equally good. The introduction of extensive American interests has put new life into the business, and the amalgamation of several large independent factories has been followed by excellent results to the corporations immediately concerned, as well as to the business at large.

The import tariff imposed on Cuban cigars by the McKinley Act was a great blow to the manufacturers of Cuba. Many of them moved their factories to the United States, where, being able to import the raw material on favorable terms, they found themselves in a position to make and sell cigars of Cuban tobacco at a profit. The effect of this movement was to greatly decrease the exportation of manufactured tobacco from Cuba and to increase proportionally the shipment of leaf. At the same time the production of cigars in the United States expanded greatly and reached the enormous quantity of 5,000,000,000 per annum.

As a remedy to this condition of affairs, the Cuban Government removed the export duty on cigars and cigarettes, whilst maintaining that on leaf tobacco and increasing it on the higher grades. The justice and wisdom of this step are illustrated by the following statement by Mr. Bock:

“To manufacture in the United States 1,000 cigars, weighing 12 pounds, sold in Habana, unstemmed, 25 pounds of filler, and 5 pounds of wrapper, we should arrive at the following results:

making a difference of $46.65 against the Cuban product.”

The tobacco interests, like the sugar planters and manufacturers, are hoping for a turn of the political wheel that will bring about free trade or complete reciprocity between the United States and Cuba. The need of relief is not so great, however, with the former as with the latter. Cuba’s tobacco industry is in a fair way, with every likelihood of improvement in its favor.

CHAPTER XI

CUBA’S MINERAL RESOURCES

With the exception of asphalt, which is produced on a commercial scale in the provinces of Habana, Matanzas, Santa Clara, and Puerto Principe, the mineral development, and perhaps the mineral resources of Cuba are restricted to the mountainous region at the eastern end of the Island, occupied mainly by the Province of Oriente. There is no doubt but that this region is extremely rich in many valuable minerals. The present development is insignificant as compared with the future possibilities. Lack of labor is a bar to the extension of mining, and several deposits of ascertained value are not worked on account of the absence of transportation facilities. With improvement in these conditions it is certain that the mineral output of the Island will take an important place in its commerce.

To the east and west of Santiago de Cuba are many deposits of iron ore, most of them denounced, but none of them developed. Among these is a group of mines, chief of which is the Camaroncids, fifty-six miles from Santiago de Cuba, the ore of which is said to average sixty-eight per cent. iron.

In part, it is widely believed that iron ore of the finest quality abounds throughout the Sierra Maestra region. A mining engineer of experience is responsible for the statement that, in the vicinity of Mayari, near Nipe Bay, deposits of high grade ore have been discovered “of sufficient extent to supply the demands of the whole world for the next century.”

Iron is the chief mineral product of Cuba. The first “denouncement” of an iron mine in the Island was made in the year 1861, but it was not until 1883 that the investment of capital made the exploitation of the deposits of the Sierra Maestra possible. In the following year, the Juragua Iron Company, an American concern, made the first shipment of iron ore from the Island. At this time the Spanish authorities granted a number of concessions favorable to foreign corporations engaged in mining. Under this encouragement the pioneer company extended its operations and a few years later the Spanish-American Iron Company, organized in the United States, entered the field. The Sigua Iron Company and the Cuban Steel Ore Company followed. The operations of all these concerns were carried on in the vicinity of Santiago de Cuba until a few years ago, when the Spanish-American Iron Company established a large plant at Felton, in the Nipe Bay district.

The most important recent development in the industry is the acquisition by the Bethlehem Steel Company of an iron ore deposit occupying an area of about 900 acres, lying twelve miles to the east of Santiago. This is regarded by experts as one of the most important mineral discoveries ever made in Cuba. Measurements by mining engineers give the contents of the ore-beds as 75,000,000 tons.

The ore obtained from the Sierra Maestra is both hematite and magnetite, rich in iron and low in phosphorus and sulphur. It is especially adapted to the Bessemer process of manufacture. An average analysis shows more than sixty-two per cent. metallic iron.

These properties are not mines in the strict sense of the word. The ore is found in small irregular bodies, near the tops of the hills, and it is extracted by quarrying, so that the workings are entirely exposed to view. Explosives and steam shovels are used in taking out the ore, which is unusually hard. As it does not lie in seams, with definite walls, one of the chief difficulties of operation consists in sorting it from the ordinary rock.

The first shipment of iron ore from Cuba, made by the Juragua Iron Company in 1884, amounted to somewhat more than 25,000 tons. Since that time there has been an almost steady increase in the output of Oriente. The annual production is now in excess of a million tons, approximating $5,000,000 in value. It is probable that the American investments in iron mines in Cuba amount to at least $20,000,000. The large operating companies, with one exception, originated in Philadelphia, and have now affiliated interests.

The labor problem has been a constant difficulty with the mining companies. They find the native whites quite unequal to the arduous work of the mines, and the blacks are not satisfactory on account of their irregularity and difficulty of control. Despite the cost, the greater part of the labor employed is imported from the provinces of Spain. These men are strong, steady workers, and orderly. The companies take great pains to secure their comfort and health, with the result that there are practically no desertions and little difficulty in recruiting the force.

In this connection it will be of interest to describe the measures by which the Spanish-American Mining Company has almost banished malaria from its settlement at Daiquiri, especially as their experience should be significant and suggestive to every corporation largely employing labor in Cuba.

An outbreak of yellow fever in 1908 led to the thorough sanitation of Daiquiri by the United States Army Medical Corps. The Company fully appreciated the condition in which the camps were left, and decided to maintain it. A sanitary department was organized and has been since kept up at a monthly expense of a thousand or more dollars. A corps of experienced men make frequent inspections of the dwellings, see that they are kept clean and that all water barrels are covered with netting. A determined and systematic campaign has been waged against the anopheles, or malaria mosquito. As a result, malaria, which Cubans look upon as a necessary evil, has been reduced to a negligible quantity, and the general efficiency of the force has been greatly increased.

The total number of malaria cases in the year 1909 were 234. For the last five months of the year the number was only 48, and on December 31, there was not a single case in the hospital. The improvement has been maintained. The following table shows how the present condition compares with that of former years:

In 1909, with 1,391 men on the pay roll, the average number of patients in the hospital daily was fourteen. In other words, there was only one per cent. of the force on the sick list.

The men themselves, who at first looked upon the sanitary campaign as a combination of joke and nuisance, now fully appreciate the effects of it, and lend their hearty aid to the sanitary corps in their efforts.

The work of the sanitary force consists of the daily collection and burning of all household rubbish, the care and cleaning of the barracks, a house to house inspection of sanitary conditions, care of water tanks and water barrels in the mine cuts, petrolization of standing water, general cleaning of the villages and camps, and constant war on the mosquitoes. The villages, camps, and settlements under the Company’s control are free from mosquitoes, and the diseases which they transmit have no chance of propagation. Care is taken to inspect all newcomers and any found to be malarial are sent away.

The cost of the sanitary work for a year is about $12,000, but the full value of it can not be estimated in figures. Its chief benefits are contingent, and appear in general cleanliness, health, cheerfulness, and efficiency. Whilst these results would warrant the expenditure, if there were no financial return for it whatever, the fact is that the outlay is fully justified if measured solely on the basis of dollars and cents. Under present conditions there are at least ten men fewer in hospital each day than there were formerly. Instead of being a charge on the work, these ten men produce during the year 8,000 to 9,000 tons of ore, which far more than repay the expense of sanitation.

Manganese, a material essential to the manufacture of Bessemer steel, is found in large quantities in the mountain range running between Santiago de Cuba and Manzanillo. Attention was first called to the deposits shortly before the Spanish-American War, and several companies were formed to exploit them. One of these, the Ponupo Mining and Transportation Company, is responsible for by far the greater part of the operations in this mineral. It has its headquarters in Santiago de Cuba, but is controlled by American capital. The equipment of this company includes a sixteen-mile railroad, enabling it to ship its product to Santiago. The output of the Ponupo Company’s mines averages forty-seven per cent. metallic manganese.

Several other companies are in possession of good yielding properties and are well equipped for operation, but the development of the business seems to have been checked. The reason for this is not apparent. Conditions appear to be favorable to profitable operation. The demand in the United States is constant at prices that should be satisfactory to the miners. To quote Mr. Robert P. Porter: “Whatever conditions of taxation, duties, and other expenses on the production of manganese existed previously have been changed by the war, and entirely new conditions are presented now for the continuance of the work. It is believed that the mines are practically inexhaustible, and that the metal, while varying considerably in quantity, is in the main high grade and can be mined and shipped at prices that will extend the industry until the United States steel

manufacturers will get their entire manganese supply from this nearest known manganese district.”

On the other hand, the report of the geological survey, referred to above, presents an entirely different view of the matter. From this report it is gathered that the manganese deposits of Cuba usually occur in limestone and sandstone, associated with a secondary silica, called jasper. The ore is not in large bodies, but in small pockets, irregularly scattered, deposits varying in size from a pebble to masses that weigh several hundred tons. Manganese is also found in the form of wash dirt, which is the result of decomposition of the original ore-bearing rock. Most of the Cuban ore is in this form.

“The concensus of opinion of various experts who have looked into the matter seems to be that the Cuban deposits of manganese ore are not likely to be very valuable, as they are too scattered, too irregular, too small, and too inaccessible to be profitably worked. The fact that there is undoubtedly a considerable quantity of manganese in the Province of Santiago de Cuba seems to be more than offset by the peculiarities of its occurrence. If, however, the world’s supply of manganese should run short, these deposits would undoubtedly be thought considerable and important. With the new facilities for concentration that have recently been installed in the plants already in operation, some of the deposits may, indeed, be very profitably worked.”

The first mines worked in the Island of Cuba were at the place now called El Cobre, situated about twelve miles west of the City of Santiago de Cuba, and celebrated for its shrine and miracle-working image of the Virgin. These mines were opened in the year 1530, and were worked as Crown property for more than two centuries, and then abandoned. Following a century of disuse, the mines were re-opened by a British corporation, exactly five hundred years after work was first started in them. The venture proved highly successful. The official records show that between fifty and sixty million dollars’ worth of ore was taken from El Cobre between the years 1830 and 1868. About the close of this period the mine-owners encountered various difficulties. They became involved in a long and costly lawsuit, which they lost, with the railroad upon which they were dependent for the transportation of their product. This was followed by a fall in the price of copper, and unsettled political conditions. As a result, the mines were shut down, and in the succeeding wars the plant was destroyed and the workings flooded to such an extent that it was not even possible to inspect them.

After the last war, an American company, styled the San José Copper Mining Company, took over the property and revived it. This concern and a few others are now actively at work in the El Cobre district, with good prospects of success.

Previous to the year 1830, the only copper properties in Cuba that were developed were those at El Cobre. But about that time, deposits were discovered in numerous parts of the Provinces of Puerto Principe, Santa Clara, and Matanzas. The most notable of these that were worked in days past are near the town of Las Minas, which is about twenty-seven miles east of the City of Puerto Principe, on the Puerto Principe and Nuevitas Railroad. Some of the many old shafts at this place show signs of considerable productiveness at one time. About ten years ago these properties were taken in hand by an American corporation, called the Cuban Copper Company, which in 1909 exported 59,430 tons of copper.

It seems to be the general opinion of experts, who have investigated the conditions, that Cuba will never produce gold in large quantities, although her silver mines may be profitably developed to a considerable extent. Nevertheless, gold mining enterprises are started every few years in the Island. The sole basis for these appears to be the traditions and questionable records of the past production of the old mine at Holguin, in the Province of Oriente. The group of workings at this point are said to have been known since the discovery of the Island. They were operated by a native in 1856, and it is claimed that one shaft produced ore bearing sixty-seven ounces of gold and twenty-three ounces of silver per ton of 2,000 pounds, making a value of $1,407 a ton at the time. In the same district, a native is said to have discovered a pocket that yielded $15,000 in fifteen days, the ore being worth one thousand dollars for every hundred pounds of mineral. Samples taken from the same place, and expertly assayed, showed a maximum of thirty-two ounces of gold to the ton of 2,240 pounds, and four ounces of silver.

Frequent rumors of rich finds in Cuba reach New York and London, but at present there is not a gold or silver mine in profitable operation in the Island.

Bituminous deposits are found in every province of Cuba. They vary from a clear translucent oil resembling petroleum to hard grahamite and substances that closely resemble lignite coal. The report of the Geological Survey’s reconnaissance says: “Every sugar planter claims to have an asphalt property on his estate, and every other man knows where there is one in which is a fortune for his friend. Many of these deposits have been worked, more or less extensively, in past years. Oil has been found in Cuba which has been successfully refined in the island and used as a luminant, also as a fuel; asphalt is mined there which is being employed as an enricher in the manufacture of gas, and is also doing duty as a material for roofing and street paving; grahamite and pitch are found there, which sell in this country and abroad to manufacturers of varnish and paint; and on at least one plantation a substance is being mined which performs the functions of coal in the kitchen brasero, although experts have frequently declared that there is no coal in Cuba. Whatever the exact and proper titles for these various forms of bitumen, their uses would seem to be sufficiently varied and the deposits extensive enough to be of some commercial interest. There is, however, only a limited demand for the kind of bitumens most frequently found in Cuba, the class which is most suitable for varnishes; and, on the other hand, no convincing evidence has been offered that great supplies exist of the asphalt suitable for roofing and paving, the uses to which the largest quantities of asphalt are applied. By large supplies we mean supplies similar to those of the asphalt lake in Trinidad. It should be remembered, however, that the asphalt deposits of Cuba have not yet been scientifically exploited, and it is impossible for anyone to say definitely that the supply is not sufficient to be commercially important.”

One of the greatest needs of Cuba’s industrial development is a domestic fuel supply. The discovery of a coal mine might be more profitable than that of a gold mine. This fact has led to extensive prospecting and to frequent declarations of the presence of coal, which turned out to be lignite or grahamite.

The British Consul at Santiago de Cuba, in 1895, reported the discovery of a coal deposit within fifty miles of that City. The analyses claimed for samples seemed to indicate commercial possibilities, but no operation of the deposit has followed.

The extent and richness of the deposits of iron ore in Cuba are beyond question, and, although their operation has become an important industry, development in that direction has hardly more than commenced. As to other mineral resources, there is a decided probability of their proving great in the future. At present little is definitely known about the matter. With the exception of the geological reconnaissance to which reference has been made, and which was necessarily somewhat cursory, no scientific investigation of the Island’s mineral wealth has ever been made. The Government might profitably devote some of the money which it is wasting on needless consulates abroad to such a useful purpose.

CHAPTER XII

LATENT AGRICULTURAL WEALTH

Cuba is, first and last, an agricultural country. The climate, soil, and proximity to favorable markets, create unusually favorable conditions. The recent extensions of the railroad system, and the additions to the calsadas, or government highways, of which one thousand miles were built in the last year, have greatly improved the facilities for interior transportation. The Government has established experiment stations, and in other ways encouraged farming and stock raising; railroad and development companies have extended generous aid in the same direction. Millions have been sunk, during late years, in organized efforts to promote agricultural industries in different parts of the Island, aside from the investments in sugar and tobacco. But, notwithstanding, agriculture has not advanced in Cuba at anything like the rate that should have been experienced.

Before the last war there were upwards of one hundred thousand plantations, ranches, and farms in the country, of which the value was not less than $200,000,000. Very few of these properties were made to yield adequately. Among the sugar and tobacco estates, good management was the exception, rather than the rule. Despite the natural advantages that he enjoyed, or perhaps because of them, the Cuban farmer hardly ever made the most of his opportunities, nor displayed a respectable degree of enterprise. It is true that he labored under heavy handicaps in the political and economic conditions, but since these drawbacks have been removed he has not shown any marked improvement. Nor has any great advance in agricultural development followed the introduction of American capital and American settlers, save in the sugar and tobacco industries. The former has often been misapplied, and the latter do not appear to have gained a grasp of the situation.

That something is radically wrong in the state of Cuban agriculture is made glaringly apparent by the fact that the country imports annually $25,000,000 worth of foodstuffs that it might produce. Not only that, but several of the items that make up this aggregate represent products that might be raised in Cuba to an extent sufficient to supply the domestic demand and leave a considerable surplus for exportation. It is not to be supposed, however, that under present conditions any such results are possible. The Cubans might do much more than they are doing to make their country productive, but until the population is greatly increased no approximation to the utmost agricultural possibilities can be attained. Estimates differ widely as to the extent of the area under cultivation, but it is certainly a very small proportion of that adapted to agriculture.

Although the soil is distinctly suitable to such treatment, intensive cultivation and scientific methods are practised only in a few places, and by foreigners, the usual proceeding is to plant over an extended tract, burning the fields in the dry season and leaving the ashes on the ground. When the rains have sufficiently moistened the earth, holes are made in it with a pointed stick, called a jan, and into the holes are dropped the seed or root from which the crop is to be derived. This method continuously robs the soil of the elements in which its fertility consists and at length it becomes “tired,” as the natives say. It is then necessary to fertilize the ground, or to abandon its cultivation. The farmer usually adopts the latter alternative and, moving into the forest, clears another tract and starts a fresh finca, to be treated by the same process. This is what the scientific agriculturalist Liebeg termed “a system of cultivation by expoliation.”

The great difficulty in Cuba is that, in proportion to the land available, there is little labor, and less capital. The most complete and effective remedy will, of course, be found in an increase of the population, but in the meanwhile conditions would be greatly improved if the Cubans could be taught to handle their lands more intelligently and with greater energy. There is no man on earth more susceptible to an object lesson than the Cuban. Abstruse theories are slow to penetrate his mind, but he readily grasps the significance of a visible exposition. For this reason it is believed that the experiment stations, of which there are now half a dozen or more in the Island, will not be without effect in promoting better farming.

Nearly all the crops of northern latitudes may be raised satisfactorily upon the uplands of Cuba. It is questionable, however, whether wheat, barley, and oats, would be as profitable crops as some others to which the ground might be devoted. Corn of an indifferent quality is widely grown and fed to stock. There seems to be no reason why the very best varieties of this grain should not be produced on Cuban soil, and efforts are being made to induce farmers to use selected seed and better methods in the cultivation. Two crops a year are secured and, unfortunately, the ground is often sown continuously in corn for long periods. Rotation is something that the Cuban farmer has yet to appreciate. On the lands about the coast, a great deal of rice is raised, but the domestic consumption of this cereal is very large and there is no surplus for export. This is, however, one of the crops which might be increased without any extraordinary effort, and the United States market would be open to the importation of all the excess product.

Another instance of neglected opportunity is found in the potato. The Cuban tuber, which has only recently been introduced to the United States, is of excellent quality and might be made a serious rival of the famous Bermuda potato. Two crops a year, with an enormous yield to the acre, are harvested, but the output is far from reaching the quantity that could be profitably marketed. At the present time the United States is sending yearly to Cuba potatoes to more than twice the value of all the vegetables received from the Island, and the quality of the imported article is far from as good as that of the domestic product. Cuba also buys beans annually to the value of more than two hundred thousand dollars, despite the fact that every variety of this vegetable grows abundantly in almost any part of the Island, and with little cultivation. The natives consume large quantities of beans, and should not only grow all that they eat, but also ship considerable amounts to the ready markets which are open for them. An excellent quality of sweet potato will grow almost anywhere in the Island, with a large yield to the acre. The yam, a large variety of sweet potato, abounds everywhere, and with a little cultivation the quality could be improved to the point of creating an export demand.

There is very little cultivation of beets, but where they are raised the quality is so unusually good and the yield so great, that it is believed beet culture might with ordinary effort be made one of the leading agricultural industries of the Island. In fact, the question of beet-sugar production has been raised more than once, but naturally enough it has not met with encouragement in a country where the beet is anathema.

It has been demonstrated that two crops a year of the highest grade of peanuts can be raised in Cuba. It is claimed that the largest recorded production to the acre of the nut has been secured by a Cuban planter. There are great possibilities in this industry, but it does not appear to be systematically carried on anywhere in the Island, and the peanut has no place in the statistics of exports. Mention has been made elsewhere of Cuba’s great need of comparatively small manufacturing enterprises and the benefits that might be expected to accrue from them. The peanut affords an opportunity in this direction. It is practically certain that several factories for the extraction of the oil and the manufacture of the butter could be run in the Island with profit, especially if the factories maintained their own plantations for the supply of the raw material.

None of the vegetables are cultivated to the extent which they might be with profit. Cuba should export fresh vegetables in large quantities to the New York market, where the winter and spring demands are insatiable. Cucumbers, radishes, onions, lettuce, and other table delicacies grow all the year round in the Island. And instead of producing and shipping them, as she should, Cuba is even importing cabbage. The Chinese truck-gardeners are the only people in the Island who appear to have any understanding of intensive and careful cultivation, if we except a few foreigners who have not yet had sufficient experience to produce the results which they are aiming at, and which they will doubtless achieve in time.

All classes of Cubans eat quantities of plantain. The vegetable is rarely absent from the table, where it appears in all manner of forms,—dried and fried, baked and boiled. The banana is also consumed in large quantities and in various forms. There are a great number of varieties of the fruit, the best known being the “Manzano” and the “Johnson.” The latter is the variety that is cultivated most extensively for export. The banana industry is an important factor in Cuba’s commerce, but its development is due entirely to the fact of the cultivation having been taken in hand by foreign capital and conducted under foreign direction. The demand for bananas might have continued until Doomsday without the Cubans having taken advantage of the obvious opportunity afforded by it. The United States takes one million dollars’ worth or more of bananas from Cuba every year.

Commercial fruit culture in Cuba was only commenced in late years and, if the banana business be left out of consideration, is still in a backward state of development. The several colony enterprises of American and Canadian land companies have had for their principal objects the sale and cultivation of fruit lands. On the whole these projects have been unsuccessful viewed from the standpoint of the settler. This has been due to a variety of causes which will be considered in the following chapter. Although various marketable fruits have grown wild in Cuba for centuries the natives made little or no effort to turn them to commercial account.

In the past few years pineapples have been systematically raised with profit. The Cuban product is particularly hardy and of an excellent