THE CUBA REVI E W . 



25 



agricultural stations are now undertak- 

 ing and which undoubtedly will bear 

 golden fruit and help to improve the 

 quality of Vuelta Abajo leaf. 



The cheese-cloth invention of raising 

 tobacco under cover, principally for 

 wrapper purposes, is also bound to stay, 

 but owing to its excessive cost cannot be 

 undertaken by the small farmers. To 

 help the latter some experiments have 

 been made by substituting for the cheese- 

 cloth palm leaves, which are placed upon 

 posts, wires or slats. This procedure 

 is considerably cheaper and has the ad- 

 vantage that the palm leaves can be 

 taken ofif or put on at the pleasure of the 

 vaquero, when he wants the growing 

 plants to have more sunlight or more 

 shade. 



Thinking men have come to the con- 

 clusion that the old routinary ways of 

 raising tobacco have to be abandoned and 

 that progressive methods are in order, 

 so as to get the most out of the soil 

 by sufficient moisture, good fertilizers 

 only which the soil needs most, the best 

 kind of seeds to produce only healthy, 

 uniform seedlings (no hybrids) and final- 

 ly the careful watching of the plants dur- 

 ing the process of its growth. The cut- 

 ting of the single leaves when ripe is 

 also a great improvement over the old 

 system of cutting off the whole plant, 

 as the latter always had some unripe 

 leaves mixed with the ripe ones. The 

 sweating process in the piles and later 

 on in the bales might also be improved 

 upon more generally by the farmers. 



A society of large planters, packers 

 and leaf dealers has been formed for 

 mutual protection and for the advance- 

 ment of trade. Don Louis Marx is the 

 president; Don Angel del Valle, of Jorge 

 & P. Castaneda, is secretary; and the 

 directors are: General Emilio Nuiiez, of 

 Loeb Nunez Havana Co.; General Albert 

 Nodarse, a successful planter; Senator 

 Manuel Lazo; Pablo Perez, of Perez & 

 Obeso; Severo Jorge, of Jorge & P. Cas- 

 taneda. Antero Prieto, of Sob. de A. Gon- 

 zales; CasimiroHeres; AntonioM. Suarez; 

 Manual Garcia Pulido; Jacinto Argudin, 

 of the Tobacco Trust; Tomas Mederos; 

 Nicolas de Cardenas, of Cardenas & Co.; 

 Avelino Pazos, of A. Pazos & Co., and 

 Jesus R. Bautista, of Rodriguez, Bau- 

 tista & Co. This society forms part of 

 the Agricultural League of the whole 

 island and has the active support of the 

 President. With peace, government sup- 

 port and the active help of such intelli- 

 gent people as the above list contains, 

 a failure of the Vuelta Abajo crop, or 

 for that matter of any tobacco-growing 

 section, ovight to be almost a thing of 

 the past, and the quality of our tobacco 



ought to oe greatly enhanced in the 

 future. — From Tobacco. 



The Mango in Cuba. 



(Condensed from an article by Adolph von 



Hermann.) 

 The history of the mangoes in Cuba is 

 rather obscure, and it is uncertain whether 

 the seed was brought from some of the 

 other islands close by, from Europe or di- 

 rect from India. Such names as Manga, 

 Indio, Filippino, Manila Ingles, France, still 

 applied by the native Cubans, might indicate 

 the place from which the seed was intro- 

 duced, or the name by which the type was 

 originally known. 



Many thousands of seedling mangoes are 

 found in the cultivated districts of the isl- 

 and marking the place of former habitations, 

 water courses, etc. 



Taken as a whole, these seedlings are as 

 good as similar fruits found anywhere on- 

 the American continent, but when com- 

 pared with the mulgoba and other of the 

 aristocratic mangoes of the East Indies, we 

 must call most of them poor. 



There are many varieties and endless va- 

 riations. Each tree of a known variety may 

 differ from its neighbors in the color, size, 

 shape, flavor, fiber and general consistency 

 of the fruit. There are, however, some 

 good varieties of mangoes in Cuba worthy 

 of our attention. A little observation dur- 

 ing the fruiting season will be necessary 

 to locate the trees from which the desirable 

 fruits find their way to the local markets 

 and fruit stands. 



Cuba, with favorable soil and climate, 

 will not be found wanting in such an im- 

 portant industry as the growing of the 

 choicest mangoes the world can furnish. 

 Already we have at least twelve varieties, 

 all of which have been imported within the 

 last three years. 



Among them are the Mulgoba, Soonder- 

 sha, Alfonse of Goa, Alfonse of Douglas 

 Bennett, Fernandez of Goa, Perrine, Gor- 

 don, Totafari, Sharhati, Fagri long. Lath- 

 rope and Fiberless No. 11 from Jamaica. 



The Best Crop for Poor Farmers. 



Mr. James F. Johnson, of La Moya,. 

 writes as follows: 



"Tobacco is the best paying crop for 

 the poor farmer with a large family, 

 for all the women and children over six 

 years of age can help to advantage with 

 the crop; for outside the actual planting 

 and cultivating, the work is light, con- 

 sisting of keeping the worms and birds 

 off the plants while they are growing, 

 and one man with the help of two boys 

 between 11 and 14 years will harvest 

 double the tobacco that he could if work- 

 ing alone." 



