26 



THE CUBA REVIEW. 



The growing of fancy mangoes will al- 

 ways be more or less restricted on account 

 of the difficulties attending the process of 

 propagating the trees by buds or grafts, 

 making the cost of trees seem rather high 

 for general planting. 



The writer has paid from two to five dol- 

 lars each for budded and grafted trees 

 bought of Florida nurserymen, and the price 

 will always remain high until we find an 

 easier method of propagating trees of cer- 

 tain varieties. 



The mango is a gross feeder and needs 

 plenty of fertilizer. 



It is fairly free from pests or diseases, 

 except a kind of fungus or rust present dur- 

 ing damp or rainy weather, which causes 

 the flowers and young fruit to die. 



Mr. Roland R. Conklin at Santiago de las 

 Vegas is the first to attempt to grow fancy 

 mangoes on a commercial scale in Cuba. 



CULTIVATION OF COFFEE IN 

 CUBA. 



A Cuban Viewpoint of This Industry. 



(Translation from La Gaceta Economica, Havana.) 



There are some important cofifee plan- 

 tations at the eastern end of Cuba and 

 smaller ones in the central portion, but 

 they are not a factor of public wealth, 

 for what Cuba produces does not even 

 suffice for home consumption. 



Travelers through Cuba have seen on 

 stock-farms large driers, indicating the 

 cultivation of cofifee in past times. Cuban 

 cofifee is of excellent quality and it can 

 be cultivated on soils considered useless 

 for other crops; gravelly soils are very 

 suitable. Hillsides, especially those cov- 

 ered with forests, are the most suitable 

 places for the development of coffee 

 plantations, making regions utilizable 

 that cannot be used for other crops. There 

 is no necessity for destroying the woods, 

 because it is sufficient to clear them or 

 open them up in order to plant them 

 with cofifee. 



Cofifee plantations need only one 

 cleaning up a 3^ear, in shady places, and 

 the gatherinr^ of the berries can be done 

 by women and children. In one "cabal- 

 leria (33V< acres) there is room for 

 20.000 cofifee olants, with the proper 

 separation, which roduce from the third 

 year. From five years onward the yield 

 is about three pounds per shrub, which 

 is perennial. When production begins to 

 diminish it is only necessary to cut back 

 to a quarter of the height, losing the 

 crop for one year in order that they 

 may regain their full vigor. 



When the cofifee is gathered very ripe 

 and dried in the shell, by the old process, 



* See some interesting data in the February 

 Cuba Review. 



Cuban cofifee is as fine as that of Brazil. 

 Vv'ages for cleaning in July, and more for 

 harvesting in September and October, are 

 all that a coffee plantation requires. The 

 matter is of the greatest importance, and 

 we think that the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, to foster the cultivation of this 

 crop, should concede exemption from 

 taxes for five -"^ears to newly planted 

 cofifee plantations. — La Gaceta Econ- 

 omica, Havana. 



Improved Methods of Fruit-HandUng. 



Under the scientific investigation by 

 Mr. G. Harold Powell, of the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, and his staff 

 of assistants, it has been demonstrated 

 that decay in oranges is due almost en- 

 tirely to careless, ignorant and unskill- 

 ful handling.* Uninjured fruit, under 

 fairly favorable conditions, is practically 

 immune to decay. Once the tender skin 

 of the orange is punctured or abraided, 

 decay sets in. 



Pineapple Duties. 



The Chamber of Commerce, Industry 

 and Navigation at Havana officially took 

 up the question of the pineapplesitua- 

 tion on March 24, and its president, Nar- 

 ciso Gelats, in a letter to President 

 Gomez, explained the damage to the 

 growers in Cuba which would be done 

 by the proposed advance in the United 

 States tarifif. The letter stated that in 

 normal years the crop amounted to 

 about 1,000,000 crates, 50 per cent, of 

 which contain 30, 36 to 42 pineapples, on 

 which the duty is 14 cents per crate, less 

 20 per cent., under the terms of the reci- 

 procity treaty. The proposed increabe 

 in the duty to $8 per thousand pines 

 would preclude the possibility of ship- 

 ping any but the largest pineapples to 

 the United States, with disastrous re- 

 sults to pineap'^le growers in Cuba, and 

 the possible abandonment of the cultiva- 

 tion of pineapples in Cuba altogether, 

 since the present duty is almost pro- 

 hibitive towards the end of the season. 



At the Cuban cabinet meeting, on the 

 24th of ]\Iarchj it was determined to in- 

 struct General Garcia Velez, recently 

 Cuban Minister at Washington, to exert 

 his official influence in behalf of more 

 favorable tarifif lefislation. 



Among the changes made in the 

 Payne tarifif bill on April 12 by the 

 Senate Finance Committee was the 

 following on pineapples: 



In packages the duty on pineapples is 

 reduced from eight to seven cents per 

 cubic foot and in bulk from $8 to $7 a 

 thousand. 



