CHAPTER IX 



THE RESOURCES OF THE ISLAND 



Agricultural supremacy. The cultivation of sugar. The superior ad- 

 vantages of Cuba for sugar-culture. The plantations described. 

 Tobacco-culture. The vegas of the Vuelta Abajo. Skill of Cuban 

 tobacco-planters. Coffee, fruits, and minor agricultural products. 

 Cattle and live stock. Minerals. 



THE principal products of Cuba are agricultural, and 

 consist of sugar-cane, tobacco, coffee, bananas, com, 

 oranges, and pines, in the order named. 



The raising of sugar-cane overwhelmingly preponderates, 

 and heretofore has been the mainstay of the island. The 

 Cuban sugar-lands are all upland soils, quite different from 

 the lowlands of Louisiana, and excel in fertility those of 

 all the other West Indies. The cane requires to be planted 

 only once in seven years, instead of every year, as in Anti- 

 gua. No fertilizers are used. The machinery of the estates 

 up to the outbreak of the present revolution was the finest 

 and most modern in the world. According to statistics 

 elsewhere presented, this industry has been almost de- 

 stroyed within the last three years. It originated in 1523, 

 when a loan of four thousand pesetas to each person wish- 

 ing to engage in it was made by King Philip I. The 

 whole of the vast central plain and much of the region from 

 the Cauto westward to Pinar del Rio, except where broken 

 by hills, is one continuous field of cane, which in 1892-93 

 yielded 1,054,214 tons, valued at $80,000,000, besides giv- 



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