28 



THE CUBA REVIEW. 



Ground Nuts in the West Indies. 



Recognizing that ground nuts might 

 possibly become a valuable source of 

 profit to small holders and others in the 

 West Indies, the Imperial Department 

 of Agriculture has made several efforts 

 to encourage their cultivation on a more 

 extended scale in many of the islands. 

 These efforts have included the intro- 

 duction and trial of a number of new 

 varieties of nuts from the United States, 

 viz., "Spanish" and "Carolina Running." 

 The "Spanish" is a very small nut, but 

 one that in the United States is very 

 popular, both among the growers and 

 on the market. It grows well on poor 

 soil, and takes but a comparatively short 

 time to mature its produce. The plants 

 are of an erect habit. "Carolina Run- 

 ning" is reported to be a prolific bearer 

 in the States, and yields nuts of a fairly 

 large size. Experiments with these two 

 varieties resulted as follows: 



At St. Lucia "Carolina Running" was 

 the only variety which germinated well 

 and produced a crop which was harvest- 

 ed on February 11, 1909. The yield was 

 at the rate of 504 lbs. per acre. All the 

 nuts were sown in July and were reaped 

 toward the end of November. 



At Monserrat the nuts were planted on 

 June 26 and reaped in the last week of 

 October. "Carolina Running" gave the 

 highest return, which was at the rate 

 of 889 lbs. per acre. 



At Antigua "Carolina Running" yield- 

 ed at the rate of 640 lbs.; "Spanish," 440 

 lbs. 



At St. Kitt's in 1908 the "Carolina Run- 

 ning" nuts showed good germinating 

 powder, and the ground was soon well 

 covered by the vines. The nuts took 

 from five to six months to mature, and 

 gave a yield of nearly 1,500 lbs. per acre. 

 Other varieties, the "Dixie Giant" and 

 the "Tennessee Red" did not do well. — 

 Barbados News. 



.Cuban Pineapples. 



In a recent report Consul-General 

 James L. Rodgers says in part as fol- 

 lows: 



The market of the pineapple . is ex- 

 clusively in the United States, and the 

 industry is the direct result of an Amer- 

 ican demand for the product. He finds 

 that "it is not Cuban in the sense of 

 ownership nor of cultivation, the parti- 

 cipation of the natives being so small 

 in both relations as to be practically 

 inconsequential. The American market 

 demanding a large and steady source of 

 supply, American capital was invested 

 with that of the Spanish growers, with 

 the result that today nearly all the 

 principal plantations are owned by 



Interior of an AuRiicau home at Ht-rradura, 

 Cuba. 



Vista interior de una casa-vivienda americana 

 en Cuba. El techo y las paredes estan construidos 

 de listones, a veces de maderas naturales del 

 pais. _ Las lamparas, sillas, mesas, ruedos, etc., 

 dan a la habitacion una apariencia muy bonita. 



Americans and Spanish and worked by 

 them, using Cuban help at busy times." 

 The busy season usually runs from 

 February to July, although shipments 

 are made every month of the year. To- 

 tal shipments for the year ended June 

 30, '1909. was 1,263,466 crates, of 80 

 pounds each. 



Cultivating Lemons. 



Air. G. Harold Powell, Pomologist of 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry of the 

 United States, has published an inter- 

 esting article on this subject in the Year- 

 book of the Department of Agriculture, 

 under the title "The Status of the Amer- 

 ican Lemon Industry." A condensed 

 summary follows, conveying the salient 

 features of the article: 



"The industry supplies from one-third 

 to two-fifths of the total number of 

 lemons consumed in the United States. 

 The remainder are supplied mainly from 

 Sicily, with some from Cuba and the 

 West Indies. The demand for lemons 

 is steadily increasing all over America. 

 The greatest demand occurs from May 

 to September. 



"Growers prefer a deep, loamy, well- 

 drained, high piece of land, protected 

 from high winds, and with the soil free 

 from hard pan. The groves are irrigated 

 once a month from April to October, 

 sometimes less frequently. 



"Fertilizers are applied to the tree at 

 the rate of 1 pound per tree for each 

 year it has been planted. Two appli- 

 cations are generally made, one in the 

 autumn and one in the spring. Young 

 trees are supplied with considerable 

 quantities of nitrogen, but as they grow 

 older the potash and phosphorus are 



