The system is, therefore, well named, for the Colono receives first consideration, while the enterprise carries the burden and accepts all risks; against which the advantage of a possible abnormal yield is certainly an inadequate compensation. Furthermore the mill owners generally assume the burden and risk of “financing” their Colonos; frequently advancing credits of from three to five times the amounts contributed by the Colono himself. However, with all its disadvantages, the Colono system is likely to prevail for some time to come, as it is doubtful if, under existing labor conditions, the large tonnage of cane now required could otherwise be obtained. The “guajiro,” or cane-cutter, is the autocrat of the situation; he knows he is scarce and, therefore, believes that he is indispensable. As a result, his efficiency has fallen from three and a quarter to two and a quarter tons a day; while his earnings, on a tonnage basis, have risen from 150% to 200%, when compared with pre-war conditions. The only solution for this unfavorable situation seems to depend upon the provision of continuousemployment for labor, and the effecting of a rearrangement of the Colono system so as to permit of the performance of all heavy work, such as plowing and preparing the lands for planting, and hauling the cane from the fields, by the owners of the sugar-producing properties. They can afford to equip their establishments for the doing of such work upon a large and comprehensive scale, that will accomplish an indirect reduction in the present cost of producing and delivering cane to the mills, which, while increasing the profits of the Mill Owners, will not reduce the net earnings of labor or of the Colono.
Natural conditions combine to favor the production of sugar in Cuba. Ample rains, so essential to the growth of cane, fall during the summer season while the cane is growing; and during the rest of the year the weather is sufficiently cool to bring about the complete ripening of the cane and the formation of its sucrose content, and to make possible the easy harvesting and handling of the cane in the fields, and its economical conveyance to the “centrales.” Careless and uneconomical methods have heretofore prevailed in the treatment of soils and in the cultivation of cane, which will undoubtedly be remedied in due course of time.
Under a more intensive system of cultivation, assisted by a better selection of seed, and the judicious and generous employment of fertilizers, including irrigation, wherever practicable, the position of Cuba as the largest and most economical producer of sugar in the world will be permanently assured.
No account of the sugar industry of Cuba would be complete which failed to make special mention of some of the most notable enterprises now existing in that Island; or of the men mainly responsible for their inception and development. Taking them in the order of their productive capacity, the following list covers the most important of such properties:
The Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation was organized in 1915, to acquire and operate eighteen sugar properties upon which options had been obtained by Don Manuel Rionda, head of the long established sugar brokerage firm called the Czarnikow-Rionda Company, of New York City; who, though for many years a resident of the United States, still clings to his Spanish citizenship. Shortly after the organization of the corporation another large sugar property, including a railroad leading to a port on the Caribbean Sea, was acquired; but soon thereafter one of the original properties purchased was sold and another was dismantled, so that seventeen is the actual number now owned and operated by the corporation. Mr. Rionda deserved and received great credit for having negotiated, organized and launched the Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation, as and when he did; and the great success which almost immediately attended its consummation brought him great prestige and made him at once a dominant factor in and authority upon matters relating to sugar. It is immaterial that the eminence achieved was due largely, if not entirely, to the successive rises in the price of sugar, which applied especially to the crops of 1916, 1917 and 1919; for nothing succeeds like success.
The Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation was organized and financed upon the strength of a letter written by Mr. Rionda to Messrs. J. & W. Seligman & Co., of New York, on December 16, 1915, in which he made an “estimatethat, with sugar at the lowest, say 2 cents per pound, the Corporation would earn at least 1½ times the dividends on its preferred stock.” The f. o. b. production cost for the crop of 1915 and 1916, immediately following, was reported as 2.748 cents per pound, notwithstanding the fact that the sellers of the properties acquired had paid the so-called dead season expenses. It is clear, therefore, that, “with sugar at its lowest, say 2 cents per pound,” the first year’s operations of the corporation would have shown an operating deficit of 0.748 cents per pound, instead of earning “at least 1½ times the dividends on its preferred stock,” as estimated by Mr. Rionda. The large gross operating profits reported for the first year’s operations were, therefore, due in part to the exclusion of the dead season expenses, but mainly to the rise in price of sugar, from 2 cents per pound in July, 1915, to an average of 4.112 cents per pound during the crop season of 1915 and 1916. Such profits might possibly be creditable to Mr. Rionda’s business acumen, but it cannot be justly claimed that they were due to the infallibility of his original estimates, or to his demonstrated administrative capacity for the successful handling of so large and complex an enterprise, the physical conditions of which make administrative co-ordination extremely difficult and expensive. Nevertheless, he has profited by the experience of succeeding years, and shows an increasing capacity for coping with the numerous and complicated problems involved in the administration of the largest sugar producing enterprise in the world; and it is generally conceded that the abnormally large profits now earned by the corporation, as the result of further rises in the price of sugar, will provide for the readjustments of and cover the improvements to the various properties comprised, that are necessary to put the property, taken as a whole, upon an absolutely satisfactory and permanently impregnable footing, physically and financially. This goal is known to accord with Mr. Rionda’s ardent desire, as constituting the consummationof his most commendable aspirations, and the crowning glory of his achievements. It is intimated that he will then, and not until then, retire from the field of his activities, in which he has played so conspicuous a role.
The Cuban-American Sugar Company was incorporated in 1906, as a holding company, to acquire the entire capital stock of five independent companies then engaged in the cultivation of sugar cane and the manufacture of raw and refined sugar in the Island of Cuba. Other properties were acquired in 1908, and again in 1910, including a refinery located at Gramercy, Louisiana. On September 30, 1918, the Company owned 504,391 acres of land, of which 157,000 acres or 31 per cent were planted with cane. It also leased 16,713 acres of land, of which 7,825 acres or 47 per cent were under cultivation. Thus there was a total of owned and leased lands of 521,104 acres, of which 164,825 acres or 32 per cent were producing cane. The Cuban-American Sugar Company was for years the largest sugar producing enterprise in the world, until the organization of the Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation, which alone out-ranks it. It has grown out of the Chaparra Sugar Company, now one of its subsidiary companies; which was organized shortly after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War by State Senator Robert B. Hawley, of Galveston, Texas, who at the very beginning employed as his confidential representative and manager of the Chaparra property General Mario G. Menocal, now President of the Cuban Republic but still regarded as the actual General Manager of the Cuban-American Company’s properties in Cuba. The capabilities, enterprise and industry of these two men, and the warm personal as well as cordial business relations established and maintained between them, made it not only possible but easy for each to supplement and co-operate with the other; and to those conditions the great success of the Cuban-American Sugar Company is attributed. While it is true thatthis Company, like all others, has profited greatly by the high prices resulting from the War, it is also true that the foundations of the success that has been attained by it were laid by the courageous enterprise and perfected by the untiring industry of Mr. Hawley, made effective in Cuba by the energetic and loyal co-operation of General Menocal and his large following of patriotic Cuban compadres, without whose assistance no sugar producing enterprise in Cuba has ever been or will ever be a complete success. Indeed it is largely because of the wise recognition of and sympathetic relations established with the Cuban people by Mr. Hawley that the securities of the Cuban-American Sugar Company are quoted in the markets of the world at higher figures than those of any other sugar producing enterprise.
The Rionda Properties are seven in number, comprising five estates which are in effect the personal property of Don Manuel Rionda, his relatives and family associates, and two others in which he is the controlling factor. All of these properties are operated as separate and independent units, or as individual or one-man enterprises, in the development and supervision of which few have equaled and none have been more successful than Mr. Rionda. Part of this success has been due to the fact that during the creative period these independent properties have been as a rule under the management of members of his own family, prominent among whom were two nephews, Don Leandro J. Rionda and Don José B. Rionda, both capable men, who grew up with the properties they came to administer, thus acquiring that close personal touch with employees and conditions which is so desirable an asset, but which is unfortunately lost to the larger enterprises, and who rendered to their uncle, Don Manuel, the loyalty he had inspired in them and so richly deserved at their hands. In such circumstances it is not to be wondered at that success of a high order has attended their co-operative efforts. Mr. Rionda has no children of his own and it is probably for this reasonthat so close an affection and so intimate business relations exist between him and his two nephews and the fine sugar producing properties they have developed under his auspices.
The United Fruit Company entered the sugar business through an accident; and yet it is the only company that combines all the essentials for producing, transporting and refining sugar. Shortly after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, the Company acquired the Banes property, and also a large tract of land on the Bahia de Nipé, now known as the Nipé Bay property, upon both of which bananas were planted on an extensive scale. But it was soon discovered that atmospheric conditions in that part of Cuba were unfavorable to the successful production of bananas. Therefore in order to utilize the lands which it had acquired the Company planted them with cane and began the production of sugar; it was of course already a transportation company; and now it has built a refinery in Boston, to which its raw sugar is shipped from Cuba on its own steamers, and there refined; thus completing the cycle of operations from planting the cane to marketing the product. No other sugar producing enterprise has ever gone into the business upon such comprehensive lines. Such however are the lines upon which everything undertaken by Andrew W. Preston and Minor C. Keith, the directing geniuses of that company, is planned and projected; which largely accounts for the enviable success that has always crowned their efforts.
The Atkins Properties comprise one property belonging to Mr. Edward F. Atkins, of Boston, who is reputed to be the first American to have acquired a sugar property in Cuba, and three others belonging to or controlled by the Punta Alegre Sugar Company, the most active personality connected with which is Mr. Robert W. Atkins. The Punta Alegre Sugar Company was incorporated, in 1915, as a holding and operating company, engaged in the business of owning and operatingsugar plantations and factories in the Island of Cuba. It owns and controls 40,831 acres and leases 25,717 acres of land; and is reported to be doubling the capacity of its central at Punta Alegre. Credit for the suggestion and initiative that resulted in the combination of these properties and the organization of this Company is generally given to Mr. Ezra J. Barker (Ray Barker) of New York, and Major Maude, a retired British Army officer who for many years has resided in Cuba. The prestige and financial standing of the officers and directors of and of the capitalists interested in the Punta Alegre Sugar Company and the Atkins Properties is sufficient to guarantee the successful operation of these properties.
The Poté Rodriguez Properties are the personal property of Don José Lopez Rodriguez, who is a Spanish subject residing in Havana, and known to every body as “Poté.” Some say that this nickname is an abbreviation of the word “poder,” or “power.” Certain it is that Don Poté Rodriguez is, in fact, a human dynamo, the very embodiment of power and push. Beginning as a book-seller, stationer and printer, on Obispo Street, Havana, where he still conducts that business and makes his headquarters, he has, in recent years, acquired a controlling interest in the Banco Nacional de Cuba, a corporation having a capital of $8,000,000; he has also invested several millions of dollars in an elaborate suburban annex to the city of Havana, including a large Portland cement plant; he has contracted to dig the Roque Canal, projected to drain the Jovellanos Flats and part of the Cienaga or swamp lands near Cardenas; and he is the sole owner of the Central España, the pride of his heart, upon which he has worked day and night for years, hoping to make it the largest producing sugar “central” in Cuba. But despite his efforts three other “centrales” surpass it in productive capacity.
The West Indies Sugar Finance Corporation is a protege if not actually a subsidiary of the B. H. Howell-Cuban-American-NationalSugar Refining Company group, which under the intelligent and experienced direction of Mr. H. Edson, of New York City, has come to be a factor of prime importance in the sugar business in Cuba. It is claimed that the tonnage of cane obtained from the lands of one of the properties owned by this Corporation in the season of 1918-19 averaged higher than that of any other sugar producing property in Cuba; and that the average yield of sugar was as good as the best. The splendidly economical milling plants at Tinguaro, Chaparra and Delicias were installed under Mr. Edson’s direction, and it is reasonable to assume that the mills of his own corporation are equally efficient. Few men interested in the sugar business in Cuba have had a broader, more varied or more useful experience; and there are none whose judgment as to the value of cane lands and sugar properties is more to be relied upon.
The Gomez-Mena Properties were united and built up by Don Antonio Gomez-Mena, a Spanish subject, who has resided for many years in Cuba, where he developed a large mercantile business in the city of Havana; out of the profits of which he began the building of the well known Manzaña de Gomez-Mena, or Gomez-Mena Block, which has recently been completed by his heirs; and also acquired and developed the two sugar properties with which his name is identified, and which are now owned by his son, Don Andres Gomez-Mena. These “centrales,” known as Amistad and Gomez-Mena, and located respectively near Guines and San Nicolas, in the southeastern part of the Province of Havana are of special interest since on them more clearly than elsewhere in Cuba are practically demonstrated the benefits to be derived from irrigation and the value of cienaga or swamp lands when drained and reclaimed. When Señor Gomez-Mena purchased the properties they were regarded as of little value, because a large part of the area consisted of swamp lands, carrying an excess of water,while the balance was composed of higher lands of a character so dry as to be practically valueless for purposes of agriculture. It was rightly reasoned that both of these difficulties could be overcome. So the wet lands were drained and the dry lands were irrigated; with the result that these two properties are now regarded as among the most profitably productive sugar estates in Cuba; relative areas, of course, being taken into consideration.
The Cuba Company Properties were developed by Sir William C. Van Home for the purpose primarily of providing traffic for the newly constructed Cuba Railroad; which fact accounts for their location along that line, remote from shipping ports, at a time when more desirable locations could have been acquired, looked at from the point of view of economical sugar production. Nevertheless both of these properties seem to have paid well upon the capital invested in them, while at the same time contributing handsomely to swell the revenues of the Cuba Railroad; all of which speaks well for the sagacity and enterprise of Sir William Van Home, and increases the credit to which he is justly entitled.
The Mendoza Cunagua Property differs from all other sugar producing properties in Cuba in that it was projected, developed and built up as a complete whole, from start to finish, by a group of Cuban capitalists dominated by members of the well known and highly respected Mendoza family; the most active personalities in the enterprise being Don Antonio and Don Miguel Mendoza. Considered in every feature and detail, the Central Cunagua Property is probably the most complete and most perfectly appointed and equipped cane growing and sugar producing establishment that was ever created as the result of one continuous and comprehensive effort; Don Antonio Mendoza having the credit for its accomplishment. At Cunagua more than any where else in connection with the growing of cane and the production of sugar does the human equation receive prime consideration, as compared with the beasts of the field, or the machinery of the factory; all of which are, however, looked upon as assets and are well cared for. So well and thoroughly, indeed, was all of this planned and accomplished, and so promisingly did everything point towards a future rich with reward, honestly earned and well deserved by the creators of this splendid property, that it is in a sense regrettable to have to add that the Central Cunagua Property has recently been sold to the American Sugar Refining Company of New York City; which company has also acquired additional lands in its vicinity, upon which a duplicate of the Central Cunagua will be installed.
There are many other meritorious cane growing and sugar producing enterprises in Cuba, that are deserving of consideration; but which cannot be satisfactorily described within the space here available for the purpose. It must suffice to add that of the total sugar produced in Cuba during the season of 1918 and 1919, amounting to 27,747,704 bags, 13,587,733 bags or 49.04 per cent were produced by sixty-five properties owned or controlled by American interests, and 14,159,971 bags or 50.96 per cent were produced by one hundred and thirty-one properties owned or controlled by Cuban and European interests. It may not be amiss also to call attention to the fact that the sugar crop of Cuba, for the season of 1918-19 amounted to nearly one-fourth of the total sugar production of the world. If allowance is made for the normal average increase in consumption of sugar, as indicated by experience during the fifteen years just before the European War, the world’s production of sugar for the year 1919 should have been 21,813,551 tons, while in fact it amounted to only 16,354,580 tons. This shows that the actual net shortage in the world’s production of sugar amounted to 5,458,971 tons instead of the 2,342,751 tons commonly mentioned, the latter figures representing only the difference in production between the years 1914 and 1919. This indicates thatthere are no grounds for apprehension on the part of anyone contemplating investing in desirable property in Cuba, as to the world’s production overtaking the world’s consumption of sugar for a number of years to come. The economic position of Cuba as the premier sugar-producing country of the world may therefore be confidently regarded as secure.
THISstrangely hypnotic leaf of the night-shade family seems to have originated in the Western Hemisphere, and that variety familiar to commerce, known as the Nicotina Tabacum, was in popular use among the aborigines of the West Indies, Mexico and the greater part at least of the North American continent, probably for thousands of years before the written history of man began.
Christopher Columbus and his followers noted the fact that the Indians of Cuba wrapped the clippings from peculiar aromatic dark brown leaves in little squares of corn husks, which they rolled and smoked with apparent pleasure. It did not take long for the Spanish conquerors to fall into the habit of the kindly natives who received them and who almost immediately offered them cigars in token of welcome to the Island of Cuba.
Tobacco was grown at that time in nearly all parts of the Island. Rumor soon circulated, however, that the best weed was grown only in the extreme western end of Cuba, known today as the Vuelta Abajo, or down turn, and the report proved true, since only in Pinar del Rio is grown the superior quality of leaf that has made that section famous throughout the world. Neither has careful study or analysis of soils betrayed the secret of this superiority over tobacco grown in other parts of the Island.
The choice tobaccos of the Vuelta Abajo are grown in a restricted section of which the City of Pinar del Rio is the approximate center. The whole area of the Vuelta will not exceed thirty miles from east to west, nor is itmore than ten miles from north to south. And even in this favored district, the really choice tobacco is grown in little “vegas,” or fields, comprising usually a small oasis from three to fifteen acres in extent, in which a very high grade of tobacco may be grown, while adjoining lands, similar in appearance, but lacking in the one magic quality which produces the desired aroma and flavor, are largely wanting. The prices obtained for the tobacco grown on these favored “vegas” seem almost incredible. A bale of this tobacco, weighing between 80 and 90 pounds, will readily sell at from $100 to $500.
When one considers that with the use of cheese cloth as a protection from cut worms, from eight to twelve bales are taken from an acre, valued at $200 each, which means a return of approximately $2,000 per acre for each crop, the importance of the tobacco crop in Vuelta Abajo may be appreciated.
The value of an acre of any land that will return $2,000 annually to the grower, at 10% interest on invested capital, would be $20,000. It is needless to state that this price for tobacco lands, even in Vuelta Abajo, does not prevail. It is nevertheless true, that many first-class vegas of tobacco are held at prices that place them practically beyond the reach of purchase.
In spite of the undoubted profits of tobacco growing in Cuba, the condition of the “veguero,” as far as financial prosperity is concerned, is far from enviable. As a rule, while knowing how to grow tobacco, he does not know, nor does he care to learn, how to grow anything else. All of his energy and time are devoted to the seed bed, the transplanting, the cultivation, cutting, and curing of the leaf. He seldom owns the soil on which the crop is grown, and usually prefers to be a “Partidario” or grower of tobacco on shares with the owner.
The owner furnishes the land, the seed, the working animals and what is more important still, credit at the nearest grocery or general store, on which the family lives during the entire year, and for which the interestpaid in one form or another constitutes a burden from which the “veguero” seldom escapes. The latter furnishes the labor, time, care and knowledge necessary to bring the crop to a successful termination. When the tobacco is sold, the “veguero” receives his part of the returns, pays his bills, and usually invests the remainder in lottery tickets and fighting chickens.
The life of the tobacco plant, from transplanting to the time in which it is due and removed from the fields, is only about ninety days. The selected seed is sown in land on which brush or leaves have been previously burned, destroying injurious insect life, while furnishing the required potash to the soil. The seed beds are known as “semilleros” and are carefully tended until the plants are five or six inches in height, when they are removed and carried to the “vega,” previously prepared with an abundance of stable manure or other fertilizer, well rotted and plowed in. In three months’ time, with care and careful cultivation, a crop will be ready for cutting and curing.
The semilleros are prepared usually during the latter part of September, or early October, when the fall showers are still plentiful. By the first of January, if the plants have had sufficient growth and the weather is cool, clear and dry, the leaves are cut in pairs, either united to the stalk or connected by needle and heavy thread, and afterwards strung over a bamboo or light pole known as a “cuje.”
To each “cuje” are assigned two hundred and twenty pairs of leaves. These are carried to the tobacco barns, with sides built usually of rough board slabs, above which is a tall sharp roof, made from the leaves of the guana palm. Only one or two openings are placed in each tobacco barn to admit the required amount of air, while the tobacco, still supported on poles, goes through a process of curing, which the experienced “veguero” watches with care.
At the proper time the crop is removed from the polesand done up in “mantules” or bundles, which are afterwards delivered to the “escogidos,” where tobacco experts select and grade the leaves in accordance with their size and condition. After this they are baled and incased in “yagua,” a name given to the broad, tough base of the royal palm leaves, and sent to Havana or other central mart for sale. Tobacco buyers from all over the world come to Havana every fall to purchase their supplies of raw material for manufacture into cigars and cigarettes.
Excellent tobacco is grown also in the Valley of Vinales, and may be successfully cultivated in nearly all of the valleys, pockets and basins that lie in the mountains of Western and Northern Pinar del Rio. This tobacco as a rule is graded in quality and price a little below that of the choice Vuelta Abajo center.
Along the line of the Western Railroad, extending east from Consolacion del Sur to Artemisa, tobacco is also grown on the rolling lands and among the foothills that lie between the railroad and the southern edge of the Organ Mountains. This section, some fifty miles in length, with an average width of five or six miles, in which tobacco forms quite an important product, is known as the Semi-Vuelta or Partido district. Its leaf, however, brings in the open market only about half the sum received for the Vuelta Abajo. Nevertheless, at all points in this section where irrigation is possible, the culture of tobacco, especially when grown under cheese cloth, is profitable.
Again, along the banks of several rivers south and east of the City of Pinar del Rio, especially along the Rio Hondo, a very good quality of tobacco is grown in the sandy lands rendered fertile by frequent overflow of these streams in the rainy season as they pass through the level lands of the southern plains.
The chief enemies of the tobacco plant are some five or six varieties of worms that cut and eat the leaves. The larvae are hatched from the eggs of different kindsof moths that hover over the tobacco fields at night. Some are hatched from egg deposits on the plant itself, and at once begin eating the leaf, while others enter the ground during the day, coming out during the evening to feed, and no field unless protected by cheese cloth, or carefully watched by the patient veguero, can escape serious damage or complete destruction from these enemies of tobacco. It is a common thing at sundown to see the father, mother and all members of the family big enough to walk, down on hands and knees, hunting and killing tobacco worms. On bright moonlight nights, the worm hunt is carried on assiduously, and in the early hours of dawn the veguero and his family, if the crop is to be a success, must be up like the early bird and after the worm, otherwise there will be nothing to sell at the end of the season.
Even with the greatest care, the worms will take a pretty heavy toll out of almost any field, and to save this loss, the system of covering tobacco fields with cheese cloth was introduced into Cuba from the State of Florida, some twenty years ago. Posts, or comparatively slender poles, are planted through the field at regular intervals, usually sixteen feet apart. From the tops of these, galvanized wire is strung from pole to pole, in squares, while over this is spread a specially manufactured cheese cloth or tobacco cloth, usually woven in strips of a width convenient to fit the distance between the poles. The seams are caught together with sail needles and cord, making a complete canopy that not only covers the field but has side walls dropping from the white roof to the ground below. Screen doors or gates are built in the side walls, so that mules with cultivators may pass through and work under these great white canopies, which protect the growing plants from the cut worm and save the poor old veguero and his family from the bane of their lives. The cost of poles, wire and covering cloth, under normal conditions, is about $300 per acre, and when to this are added several carloads of manure orother fertilizer, the expense of covering, fertilizing, cultivating and caring for an acre of tobacco will easily reach $500, whence the deduction that tobacco crops must bring a good price in Cuba is evident.
As a result of these huge tent-like canopies, that frequently cover hundreds of acres, every leaf is perfect, and if of sufficient size and fineness, may be used as a wrapper. When one takes into consideration the fact that a “cuje,” or 220 pairs of leaves strung on a pole, is worth from $4 to $5, and that the same leaves when perforated by worms, can be used only as cigar fillers, worth from 75¢ to $1.35 per “cuje,” the advantage of cheese cloth covering to a tobacco field becomes evident. Owing to lack of capital, however, the small native farmer usually is compelled to do without cheese cloth, and to rely upon the laborious efforts of himself and his family, to keep the worm pest from absolutely ruining his crop.
The tobacco industry at the present time commercially ranks next to sugar. The total value of the crop in 1917 approximated $50,000,000, of which $30,000,000 was exported to foreign countries. Of the exportations of that year, the largest item consisted of the leaf itself, packed in bales numbering 291,618, valued at $19,169,455; cigars, 111,909,685 valued at $9,548,933; cigarettes, 12,047,530 packages, valued at $406,208; picadura or smoking tobacco, 261,461 kilos, valued at $251,874. There were 258,994,800 cigars during the same year consumed in Cuba, with an approximate value of $12,000,000; of cigarettes, 355,942,855 packages, valued at $7,830,742; and of picadura, 393,833 pounds valued at $196,719. During the four years inclusive from 1913 to 1917 the value of exported tobacco increased a little over $6,000,000, while domestic consumption increased about one-half or $3,000,000.
In the various factories of cigars and cigarettes of Havana, some 18,000 men and 7,000 women are employed. In other sections of the Island, outside of the capital, some 16,000 men and 13,000 women are engaged in themanufacture of cigars and cigarettes, making a total of 34,000 men and 20,000 women employed in the tobacco industry, aside from those who are engaged in tobacco cultivation in the fields of the various provinces.
NEXTto the “Manila hemp” of the Philippines, which is really a variety of the banana, the henequen of Yucatan is probably the most important cordage plant in the world. The name henequen is of Aztec origin, and the plant itself, a variety of the agave or century plant family, is indigenous to Yucatan, whence it has been introduced not only into other sections of Mexico but also into Cuba, Central America and the west coast of South America. No satisfactory substitute has been found for henequen in the manufacturing of binder twine, so essential to the harvesting of the big grain crops in the Western States of America.
Revolutions in Mexico following the overthrow of Porfirio Diaz succeeded for a time at least in paralyzing if not destroying the sisal industry that had made Yucatan celebrated throughout the world and had caused Merida to be known as a city of millionaires; and shortly before the beginning of the great European War, men who had devoted their lives to henequen culture and who feared that Mexico could no longer be relied on for this product, began to look over the Cuban field for opportunity for the more extensive cultivation of the plant.
A superficial survey convinced them that large areas of soft lime rock land, covered with a thin layer of rich red soil, furnishing all the elements essential to the successful growth of henequen, were to be had in Cuba. Similar soils are found in Yucatan, where the average annual rainfall and general climatic conditions are so nearly like those of Cuba that it is fairly to be assumed that a crop which will do well in the one land will also flourish in the other. In consequence, large areas, in which Cuban,Spanish and American capitalists are interested, have been planted with henequen in Cuba.
THE GOMEZ BUILDINGOne of the finest business buildings in Havana is the great Gomez Building, which occupies an entire block fronting upon the beautiful Central Park and reached by way of the Prado. Although only five stories in height, it vies in appearance and commodiousness with the best business buildings in any American city. Its site was well chosen for the display of its handsome architecture and commanding proportions, and it stands in proximity to the National Theatre and other noteworthy structures.
THE GOMEZ BUILDING
One of the finest business buildings in Havana is the great Gomez Building, which occupies an entire block fronting upon the beautiful Central Park and reached by way of the Prado. Although only five stories in height, it vies in appearance and commodiousness with the best business buildings in any American city. Its site was well chosen for the display of its handsome architecture and commanding proportions, and it stands in proximity to the National Theatre and other noteworthy structures.
THE GOMEZ BUILDING One of the finest business buildings in Havana is the great Gomez Building, which occupies an entire block fronting upon the beautiful Central Park and reached by way of the Prado. Although only five stories in height, it vies in appearance and commodiousness with the best business buildings in any American city. Its site was well chosen for the display of its handsome architecture and commanding proportions, and it stands in proximity to the National Theatre and other noteworthy structures.
The first planting on a large scale was done by the Carranza Brothers, of Havana, just south of the city of Matanzas, about twenty years ago; Don Luis Carranza having married a daughter of Don Olegario Molino, of Yucatan, and thus having become interested in the characteristic industry of the latter country. A company of Germans afterward purchased the property and close by the railroad station erected a very complete plant for the decortication of the henequen and the manufacture of its fibre into rope and cordage of all sizes, from binder twine to twelve-inch cables. From this establishment for years the Cuban demand was chiefly supplied.
Shortly after Cuba, in 1917, followed the United States in declaring war against Germany, the Spanish Bank of Havana purchased this property from the owners, and at once increased its capital stock to six millions of dollars; two and a half million preferred and three and a half million common stock. At the present time the estate consists of three plantations on which henequen is grown, located at Matanzas, Ytabo and Nuevitas, with a total area of 120 caballerias or 4,000 acres of land. It is said that owing to the demands of the European War, and the rise of the price from 7¢ to 19½¢ per pound, the net returns of the Matanzas Cordage Company the first year after purchasing the estate amounted to $800,000.
The International Harvester Company of the United States has purchased a tract of 3,300 acres of excellent henequen land near the city of Cardenas, on the north coast of the province of Matanzas, for experiment and demonstration, and under the direction of Yucatecos familiar with the industry has planted it in henequen. This action was taken by this company largely because of the uncertain and unsatisfactory conditions of the henequen industry in Yucatan, caused by Mexican revolutions and the arbitrary conduct of Mexican officials.In the year 1916, 444,400,000 pounds of henequen were exported from the Gulf ports of Mexico and sold almost entirely in the United States, at 15¢ per pound, since which time the price has risen to 19½¢ per pound. This unprecedented figure was brought about by the practical seizure of the Yucatan crop by ex-Governor Alvarado, who allowed the actual growers only 7¢ per pound for the sisal, he appropriating the difference between that and the market price in New York.
Twenty more caballerias or 666 acres of henequen are owned by independent parties in the neighborhood of Nuevitas, on the north coast of the Province of Camaguey. The Director-General of Posts and Telegraph, Colonel Charles Hernandez, with a few associates, has purchased 175,000 acres along the southern shore of the Little Zapata, that forms the extreme western end of Pinar del Rio. It is proposed to establish here large plantations of henequen, that will give employment to many natives of the tobacco district who are now out of work during some seasons of the year.
The City of Cardenas, on the north coast, promises soon to become another great henequen center, and the traveler riding west over the main automobile drive leading out of Cardenas may view a panorama of growing henequen spread out on both sides of the road as far as the eye can reach. The peculiar bluish green of this plant growth, dotted with royal palms, adds an odd color effect to the landscape, not easily forgotten.
Putting the maximum annual production of henequen or sisal hemp in Yucatan at 1,200,000 bales, of 400 pounds to the bale, and assuming an average yield of three bales per acre, indicates that about 400,000 acres of land are actually producing hemp in that country; and allowing for a margin of twenty five per cent of such area, to cover and provide for depletion and propagation, it would seem that about 500,000 acres of land is the approximate area now actually planted with and growing henequen on that peninsula. These statements are madeto justify the calling of attention to the fact that large areas of more or less flat, rocky lands exist in various localities throughout the island of Cuba, notably in the western extremity of the Province of Pinar del Rio, along the north coast from the city of Matanzas to the Bahia de Cardenas, on the Cayos and, at intervals, along the north coast from Caibarien to the Bay of Nipe, and especially along the Caribbean Coast, in the vicinity of the Cienaga de Zapata; all of which lands are possessed of the same physical characteristics, and are subject to the same climatic conditions that apply to the lands in Yucatan now planted with henequen and at the present time successfully producing sisal hemp. The aggregate of these several areas of henequen lands is conservatively estimated at not less than 1,000,000 acres: or double the area now planted with henequen in Yucatan.
About 9,000 acres of these Cuban lands are now actually planted with and successfully growing henequen; and about 5,000 acres are now producing sisal hemp which in quantity and quality compares favorably with the product of the best henequen lands in Yucatan. The results obtained from these lands now actually planted and producing are conclusive as to the results that could be obtained if other and larger areas of such lands should be planted with henequen.
Furthermore a large part of these Cuban henequen lands are so level and have such uniform, unbroken surfaces that, at an expense less than that involved in preparing the henequen lands of Yucatan, they could be put in condition to be kept clean mainly by motor-driven mowing machinery, instead of the enormously expensive man-power machete system employed upon the rougher lands of Yucatan. In addition to such advantages these rocky areas either comprise, or are margined by, large areas of rich land capable of producing many important items required for human sustenance; while in Yucatan everything needed to sustain human life has to be imported.
Finally, when consideration is given to the fact that sugar cane must be cut during the dry season, while henequen can be cut and defibered more advantageously during the wet season, it will readily be seen that the co-ordination of these two operations, whenever possible, will tend to solve and favorably determine the problem and cost of labor involved in the production of both sugar and hemp. Administration expenses would also be reduced by such co-ordination. These several advantages should, therefore, contribute to make Cuba an active competitor with Yucatan for the sisal hemp business, within the near future. The plan projected by R. G. Ward for the drainage and development of the lands contained in the Cienaga de Zapata, already mentioned in a preceding chapter of this volume, contemplates the co-ordination of the sugar and hemp industries upon a scale so large and comprehensive as to merit great success. The consummation of such an enterprise should make a definitely favorable and permanent impression upon the future of the two industries involved. With a proper combination of capital and enterprise, the henequen-hemp business in Cuba could readily be developed to a point where it would rank second only to sugar in importance and profit yielding possibilities; and such development should have a direct bearing upon the certainty of supply and cost of the daily bread of the people of the whole earth. It is, therefore, worthy of the most serious consideration.
Henequen offers many advantages to capital, especially to those investors who dislike to take chances on returns. First of all, the crop is absolutely sure, if planted on the right soil. Lack of rains or long droughts are matters of no importance, and the plant will continue to thrive and grow without deterioration in the quality of fiber. In Cuba this growth is said to average one inch on each leaf per month, and since it grows, as an old expert expressed it, “both day and night, rain or shine,even on Sundays and feast days, there is nothing to worry about.” Also it has practically no enemies. Cattle will not eat it unless driven by starvation, which could not occur in Cuba. The crop is never stolen, as the product could not be sold in small quantities. Since the plant is grown on rocky lands, the leaves may be cut and conveyed to the decortication plant at any season of the year.
The life of the henequen plant is fifteen to twenty years, and the average yield in Cuba is said to be about 70 pounds of fiber to every 1,000 leaves, and over 100 pounds are said to have been secured in favorable localities. This compares well with the average yield in Yucatan. In this connection it may be noted that at the World’s Exhibition in Buffalo, sisal hemp made from henequen in Cuba won the world medal in competition with Yucatan and other countries.
The following is an authentic estimate of the cost of growing henequen and producing sisal or fibre from the same in Cuba. One hundred acres are used as the unit of measure:
Practical work in the field has demonstrated the fact that the cost of producing henequen fibre or sisal, if carried on during a period of ten years with the presentprice of labor, will amount to three cents per pound, or $6,300 for the production of 210,000 pounds of fibre coming from 100 acres of land. To this may be added for interest on capital invested and possible depreciation of plant or property, $1,700, making a total of $8,000.
This sum, representing the average annual cost of producing, subtracted from $21,000, the normal value of the crop at 10¢ per pound, will leave a net return of $13,000 for the 100 acres, or $130 net profit per acre.
TOeither Arabia or Abyssinia belongs the honor of having been the birth place of those previous shrubs that were the forerunners of all the great coffee plantations of two hemispheres. And from the seeds of this valued plant is made probably the most universally popular beverage of the world. The people of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia all drink coffee. The same is true in most countries of South and Central America, while in the United States and the West Indies no breakfast is complete without it.
Of all known nations, however, the people of Cuba consume the greatest amount of the beverage per capita. Both in the city and in the country, the fire under the coffee urn always burns, and neither invited guest nor passing stranger crosses the threshold of a home without being offered a cup of coffee before leaving.
The introduction of coffee into Cuba, as before stated in this work, was due to the influx of refugees, flying from the revolution in Santo Domingo, in the first years of the nineteenth century. The majority of these immigrants, of French descent, and thoroughly familiar with the culture of coffee, settled first in the hills around Santiago de Cuba on the south coast, where they soon started coffee plantations that later became very profitable. Others located in the mountainous districts of Santa Clara around the charming little city of Trinidad, where fine estates were soon established and excellent coffee produced.
From these first settlements the culture of the plant rapidly spread to nearly all of the mountainous portions of the Island, where the soil was rich, and where foresttrees of hard wood furnished partial shade, so essential to the production of first-class coffee. In the mountains, parks and valleys that lie between Bahia Honda, San Cristobal and Candelaria, in the eastern part of Pinar del Rio, many excellent estates were established whose owners, residing in homes that were almost palatial in their appointments, spent their summers on their coffee plantations, returning to Havana for the winter.
Revolutions of the past century unfortunately destroyed all of these beautiful places, leaving only a pile of tumbled-down walls and cement floors to mark the spot where luxurious residences once stood. Cuba, during the first half of the 19th century, and even up to the abolition of slavery in 1878, was a coffee exporting country, but with the elimination of the cheap labor of slaves, and the larger profits that accrued from the cultivation of sugar cane, the coffee industry gradually dropped back to a minor position among the industries of the Island, and thousands of “cafetales” that once dotted the hills of Cuba were abandoned or left to the solitudes of the forests where they still yield their fragrant fruit “the gift of Heaven,” as the wise men of the East declared.
Of all the varied agricultural industries of Cuba there is none, perhaps, that will appeal more than coffee growing to the home-seeker of moderate means, the man who really loves life in the mountains, hills and valleys beside running streams, where the air is pure and the shade grateful, and the climate ideal. The culture of coffee is not difficult, and by conforming to a few well-known requirements which the industry demands it can easily be carried on by the wife and children, while the head of the family attends to the harder work of the field, or to the care of livestock in adjacent lands.
The plant itself is an evergreen shrub with soft gray bark, and dark green laurel-like leaves. The white-petaled star-shaped flowers, with their yellow centers, are beautiful, and the bright red berries, growing in clusters close to the stem are not unlike in appearance the marmadukecherries of the United States. The fragrance that fills the air from a grove of coffee trees can never be forgotten.
The shrub is seldom permitted to grow more than ten feet in height and begins to bear within three or four years from planting. The berries ripen in about six months from the time of flowering. Each contains two seeds or coffee beans, the surrounding pulp shriveling up as the time approaches for picking.
During the gathering of the crop women and children work usually in the shade of taller trees, such as the mango or aguacate, stripping the fruit from the branches into baskets or upon pieces of canvas laid on the ground, which may be gathered up at the corners and carried to the drying floors where the berries are spread out as evenly and thinly as possible and given all the air and sunlight available. Early in the morning these are raked over to insure rapid drying. When sufficiently dry the berries are run through hulling machines which remove the outer pulp, leaving the finished green bean of commerce.
Approximately 500 trees are planted to the acre in starting a coffee plantation, and these will yield under favorable conditions at the expiration of the fourth year about one half of a pound to a tree, or 250 pounds to the acre, the value of which would be $50. The sixth year these trees should produce one pound each, making the return from one acre $100. Two years later these same trees will yield $200 per acre, and the tenth year $300. Each succeeding year, if well cared for, the yield should increase until the trees reach maturity at twenty-five years.
On the western slopes of the great Cordilleras that sweep throughout the length of Mexico, several varieties of excellent coffee are found. Among these is one, that through some freak of nature, afterwards encouraged and developed by the natives of that district, has been induced to produce two crops a year. It is stated on reliable authority also that trees ten years old, in this restrictedarea of western Mexico, will yield five pounds of berries to the tree, or in the two periods of annual bearing a total of ten pounds to each plant. The Department of Agriculture is endeavoring to secure both seed and nursery stock from this district, which will be transplanted to the Experimental Station at Santiago de las Vegas, and definite data secured in regard to the success of this variety of coffee in Cuba.
Where several small coffee farms are located in the same vicinity, hulling machines may be purchased jointly, and serve the needs of other growers in the district. The crop when dried, cleaned and placed in hundred-pound sacks, is usually strapped to the backs of mountain ponies and thus conveyed to the nearest town or seaport for shipment to Havana.
A coffee planter can always store his crop in the bonded warehouses of Havana or other cities, and secure from the banks, if desired, advances equivalent to almost its entire value. The price of green coffee on the market at wholesale ranges from 20¢ to 25¢ per hundred weight.
It is a common sight either in Bahia Honda or Candelaria to see long trains of ponies bringing coffee in from the outlying foot hills, or mountain districts. It is usually sold direct to local merchants, who pay for the unselected unpolished beans, just as they come from the hands of the growers, $20 per hundred weight. This high price is paid owing to the fact that the Cuban product is considered, at least within the limits of the Republic, the best coffee in the world, and it will bring in the local markets a higher price than coffee imported from the foreign countries. The retailers after roasting coffee, get from 40¢ to 50¢ per pound for it.
In spite of its superiority and the demand for native coffee, less than 40% of the amount consumed is grown in Cuba. Most of it is imported from Porto Rico and other parts of the world, and this, regardless of the fact that nearly all of the mountain sides, valleys and foothills belonging to the range that extends through Pinardel Rio from Manatua in the west to Cubanas in the east, are admirably adapted to the cultivation of coffee, as also are the mountains of Trinidad and of Sancti Spiritus in the Province of Santa Clara, the Sierra de Cubitas and la Najassa in Camaguey, and the Sierra Maestra range that skirts the full length of the southern shore of Oriente.
The available lands for profitable coffee culture in Cuba are almost unlimited and are cheap, considering the fertility of the soil, the abundance of timber still standing, the groves of native fruit trees, the good grass found wherever the sun’s rays can penetrate, the splendid drinking water gushing from countless springs, and the many industries to which these lands lend themselves, waiting only the influx of capital, or the coming of the homeseeker.
The Government of Cuba is anxious to foster the coffee industry, which was once a very important factor in the prosperity of the Island. The first protective duty was imposed in 1900; $12.15 being collected for each 100 kilos (225 lbs.) of crude coffee, if not imported from Porto Rico, that country paying only $3.40. During the first years of the Cuban Republic this duty was increased to $18 per hundred kilos, and later, 30% was added, making a total duty paid of $23.40 on every 225 pounds of coffee imported. Porto Rico, however, is favored with a reduction of 20% on the above amount by a reciprocity treaty, which compels that country at present to pay only $18.20 per hundred kilos.
Coffee in Brazil has been sold at from four to five cents per pound and yet, we are told, with profit. On the supposition that it would cost 8¢ per pound to grow it in Cuba, with the average market for the green berries at 22¢, the profit derived from a coffee plantation properly located and cared for is well worth considering, and since the grade produced is one of the finest in the world, there is no reason why this Island should not in time, supply if not the entire amount, at least a large part of the high-grade coffee consumed in the United States.
With the resumption of industries that must follow the termination of the European War, the Government will do all in its power to persuade families from the mountainous district of Europe to settle and make their homes in Cuba. Some of them undoubtedly will be attracted to the forest covered hills that offer so much in the way of health, charming scenery and opportunities for the homeseeker with his family. It would be a most delightful example of agricultural renaissance, if the hundreds of “cafateles,” abandoned for half a century, should again be brought to life, with the resurrection of the old-time coffee plantations, as an important Cuban industry.
OFall Oriental fruits brought to the Occident, the golden mango of India is undoubtedly king. For thousands of years, horticulturists of the Far East, under the direction of native princes, have worked towards its perfection. Just when the seeds were introduced into Cuba, no one knows, but certain it is that so favorable were both soil and climate that the mango today, in the opinion of the natives at least, furnishes the Island its finest fruit. It has so multiplied and spread throughout all sections that it plays an important part in the decoration of the landscape.
Next to the royal palm, the mango is more frequently seen in traveling along railroads or automobile drives than any other tree. Its beautiful dark green foliage, tinged during spring with varying shades, from cocoanut yellow to magenta red, is not only attractive to the eye but gives promise of loads of luscious fruit during the months of June, July and August.
There are two distinct races or types of this family in Cuba, one known as the mango, and the other as the manga. The terminations would suggest male and female, although no such difference exists in sex. Both in form and fruit, however, the types are quite different.
The mango is a tall, erect tree, reaching frequently a height of 60 or 70 feet, with open crown and strong, vigorous limbs. The fruit is compressed laterally, has a curved or beak-like apex, yellow or yellowish green in color, often blushed with crimson. It is rich in flavor but filled unfortunately with a peculiar fibre that impedes somewhat the removal of the juicy pulp.
Nearly all varieties of mangoes are prolific bearers. Their handsome golden yellow tinted fruit not infrequently bends limbs to the breaking point, so great is its weight. The fruit is from three to five inches in length, and will weigh from five to twelve ounces. The skin is smooth and often speckled with carmine or dark brown spots, and in most of the seedlings there is a slightly resinous odor, objectionable to strangers.
The manga, quite distinct from the mango both in form of tree and in appearance of fruit, is easily distinguished at a distance. It grows from 30 to 40 feet in height, is beautifully rounded or dome shaped, and has a closed crown or top. The panicles in early spring are from 12 to 24 inches in length, pale green in color, usually tinged with red, and in contrast with the deep green of its foliage produce rather a startling effect.
There are two types of the manga, one known as the Amarilla and the other as the Blanca. More of the latter are found in the neighborhood of Havana than in any other section of the island. Three of the most perfect samples of the manga blanca, both in tree and fruit, are found within a few rods of each other on the northern side of the automobile drive from Havana to Guanajay, between kilometers 35 and 36.
The mangas also are prolific bearers, whose fruit ripens in July and August, a month or so later than the mango. The fruit is roundish, very plump, and with the beak or point of the mango entirely missing. Its color is lemon yellow with a delicate reddish blush, the length about three inches and the weight from five to eight ounces. The skin, rather tough, peels readily, and in eating should be torn down from the stem towards the apex. The same fibre is present as in the mango, while the pulp is very juicy, sweet, slightly aromatic and pleasant in flavor.
The manga amarilla, closely allied to the blanca, is a very common form and quite a favorite in the markets of Havana, where it is found towards the end of July.The fruit is a deeper yellow than the blanca, very juicy, and also very fibrous, with a weight varying from four to eight ounces. These, with the mangoes above described, are seedling trees that have gradually spread throughout the Island, the seed being scattered along public highways and forest trails by men and animals. Horses, cattle, goats and hogs are very fond of the mango.
Since all mangoes give such delightful shade, and yield such an abundance of luscious fruit throughout spring and early summer, the seed has been planted around every home where space offered in city, hamlet or country bohio. The center or “batey” of every sugar and coffee estate in Cuba is made comfortable by their grateful shade, while single trees coming from seeds dropped in the depths of the forest have gradually widened out into groves. During the years of the Cuban War for Independence, the fruit from these groves, from May until August, furnished the chief source of food for insurgent bands that varied anywhere from 200 to 2000 men.
During the middle of the last century, when large coffee estates nestled in the hills of Pinar del Rio, the mango, with its grateful shade and luscious fruit, indicated the home or summer residence of the owner. Today, of the house only broken stones and vine-covered fallen walls remain, but the mangoes, old and gnarled, still stand, while around them have spread extensive groves of younger trees, bearing each year tons of fruit, with none to eat it save the occasional prospector, or the wild hog of the forest.
The Filipino mango, although not very common in Cuba, is occasionally found in the western part of the Island, especially in the province of Havana, where it was introduced many years ago, probably from Mexico, although coming originally from the Philippine Islands, where it is about the only mango known. The tree is rather erect, with a closed or dome-shaped top, something similar to the manga. Its fruit is unique in form—long, slender, sharply pointed at the apex, flattened on the sides, and of a greenish yellow to lemon color when ripe. The pulp is somewhat spicy and devoid of the objectionable fibre common to seedling mangoes. It is usually preferred by strangers, although not as sweet and delicious in flavor as other varieties of this family. The tree is comparatively small, seldom reaching more than 30 feet in height. The fruit is from four to six inches in length and will weigh from six to twelve ounces. The Filipino has suffered but very little change in its peregrinations throughout two hemispheres. It is not a prolific bearer, but its fruit commands a very good price in the market. The Biscochuelo mango is of the East Indian type, although the time and manner of its introduction into Cuba is somewhat obscure. French refugees from Santo Domingo may have brought it with them in 1800. It is found mostly in the hills near Santiago de Cuba, especially around El Caney, and is quite plentiful in the Santiago markets during the month of July. The fruit is broadly oval with a clear, orange colored skin and firm flesh, and is rather more fibrous than the Filipino. Its flavor is sweet and rich, while its weight varies from eight to fourteen ounces. This variety of the mango is not closely allied to any of the above mentioned types, but keeps well, and would seem to be worthy of propagation in other sections of the Island.
Something over a half century ago, a wealthy old sea captain of Cienfuegos, returning from the East Indies, brought twelve mango seeds that were planted in his garden near Cienfuegos. One of the best of the fruits thus introduced is called the Chino or Chinese mango, and is probably the largest seedling fruit in the Island. On account of size it sells in Havana at from 20¢ to 40¢, although it is quite fibrous and rather lacking in flavor. This mango, through care and selection, has undergone considerable improvement, so that the Chino today is a very much better fruit than when brought to Cienfuegos sixty years ago.
During the early Napoleonic wars, a shipload of choice mangoes and other tropical fruit from India was sent by the French Government to be planted in the Island of Martinique. The vessel was captured, however, by an English man-of-war and carried into Jamaica. From this island and from Santo Domingo, the French refugees introduced a number of mangoes, including nearly all those that are now growing in Oriente, while the manga, so common in Havana Province and Pinar del Rio, is thought to have been brought from Mexico, although its original home, of course, was in India and the Malaysian Islands.
The fancy mangoes of Cuba today have all been imported within recent years at considerable expense from the Orient, and their superiority over the Cuba seedlings is due to the patient toil and care spent in developing and perpetuating choice varieties of the fruit in India. Of these fancy East Indian mangoes, the Mulgoba probably heads the list in size, quality and general excellence. The fruit is almost round, resembling in shape a small or medium sized grape fruit. Its average weight is about sixteen ounces, although it sometimes reaches twenty-four or more. When entirely ripe the Mulgoba is cut around the seed horizontally. The two halves are then twisted in opposite directions, separating them from the seed, after which they may be eaten in the inclosing skin, with a spoon.
The pulp is rich, sweet, of delightful flavor, and absolutely free from fibre of any kind, which is true of nearly all East Indian mangoes. Budded trees begin to bear the third or fourth year, yielding perhaps 25 mangoes. The sixth or seventh year, dependent on soil and care bestowed, they should bear from three to five hundred. In the tenth year, mangoes of this variety should average at least a thousand fruit to the tree and will bring from $1 to $3 a dozen in the fancy fruit stores of the United States.
The Bombay is another excellent mango, devoid offibre. Its weight is somewhat less than the Mulgoba, ten ounces being a fair average. Another East Indian variety known as the Alfonse has the size and weight of the Bombay, although differing in flavor and in its form, which is heart shaped. Its weight will average ten ounces.
A close companion of the Alfonse is known as the “Favorite,” whose fruit will average about sixteen ounces. The Amani is another choice East Indian mango of much smaller size, since it weighs only about six ounces. The “Senora of Oriente” is one of the varieties of the Filipino introduced into that Province many years ago, and has proved very prolific. It is fibreless, of good commercial value, the weight of the fruit varying from ten to twelve ounces. It is long and carries a very thin seed; its color is greenish yellow.
The “Langra” is another importation from India, a large long mango weighing about two pounds, lemon yellow in color, of good qualities, with a sub-acid flavor.
The “Ameere” is similar to the Langra in color and quality, the fruit weighing only about one pound.
The “Maller” is very closely allied to both the above mentioned types, and bears a very excellent fruit with slightly different flavor and odor.
The “Sundershaw” is probably the largest of all mangoes, the fruit varying from two to four pounds in weight, fibreless, with small seed, but with a flavor not very agreeable.
All of the above mentioned varieties of mangoes have been introduced into Cuba at considerable expense and grafted on to seedling trees, producing the finest mangoes in the world. Owing to their scarcity at the present time in the western hemisphere, very remunerative prices are secured even in the markets of Havana. Shipments consigned to the large hotels and fancy fruit houses in the United States have brought of course much higher prices.
In the hands of a culinary artist the mango has many possibilities, both in the green and the ripe state. Fromit are made delicious jams, jellies, pickles, marmalade, mango butter, etc. It is used also, as is the peach, in making pies, fillings for short cake, salads, chutneys, etc.
FRUIT VENDER, HAVANAFRUIT VENDER, HAVANA
This handsome tree, especially the variety known as the manga, with its round symmetrical dome-like form, its rich glossy foliage of leaves that are never shed and that remain green throughout the entire year, adds not only to the beauty of the landscape, but furnishes most grateful shade to all who may seek a rest along the roadside.
It is more than probable that the Government of Cuba will select the manga as the natural shade tree for its public highways and automobile drives. The experiment has been made in some places with excellent success, and the delicious fruit yielded in such abundance would furnish refreshing nourishment for the wayfarer during spring and early summer.
Choice varieties of the mango are comparatively unknownin northern countries. Unfortunately the first samples that reached northern markets came from Florida seedlings, and owing to their slightly resinous or turpentine flavor, did not meet with a very ready acceptance. The rich, delicious, fibreless pulp of the East Indian mangoes, if once known in the larger cities of the North, would soon create a furore, that could only be satisfied by large shipments, and that would command prices higher than any other fruit grown.
The mango, too, as a shade tree, or producer of fruit, has one great advantage over the orange and many other trees. It will thrive in the soil of rocky hills and in the dry lands whose impervious sub-soil would bar many other trees. The day is not far distant when the mango will be not the most popular but also the most profitable fruit produced of any tree in the West Indies.