THE CUBA R E V I E W '■» 



•wonderful climate, the" marvelous fertility of her soil, and the ease with which products 

 native to the country could be grown, among these, of course, being citrus fruits, :> i»<1 

 of the profits to be < !• • ii \ < ■< i from the planting and cultivation especially of these. The 

 native trees widen without care ond attention had for years produced bountiful crops, 

 were taken as an Indication of what could be accomplished bj modern cultivation and 

 attention, and the profits to be derived from ventures of ihis nature were taken to be 

 similar i<> those which are shown occasionally by the growers of these fruits In Florida 

 and California. The fad that communication in many of the places where colonies were 

 founded practically did nol exist, thai the distance from points of production to ship- 

 ping point was in many cases great, thai oeean transportation from the shipping porl to 

 the point of consumption, the United States, was in many cases also either verj inter- 

 mittent and uncertain or lacking entirely, the difficulty and expenses connected with 

 waiting five or six years after planting the groves till these came into profitable 

 bearing — these were points which, of course, were no1 broughl oul and emphasized 

 in the literature of the original promoters of these colonies and did nol appeal to 



the colonists when they firsl ca so they went to work and set oul large 



acreages of citrus fruits. The individual American farmers near Havana did like- 

 wise, and the sight of this going on before the Cuban land owner and holder served 

 to make them also come into line and set oul considerable areas. 



In the beginning of the establishment of citrus groves, the thought of nearly 

 every incipient grower was that this fruil would be sold in the United States, and 

 therefore he sought those varieties which he believed would have the greatesl accepta- 

 tion there. In those days the grapefruil business had had a boom in Florida, and then 

 received the almost death blow of the freezes of IS95 and 1896. The American public 

 was learning what this fruit was. and was constantly calling for greater supplies. It 

 was, therefore, only natural thai the promoters of the land companies should direct 

 the attention of their colonists to the probably large profits to be derived from the 

 production of this fruit. So we find that a large percentage of these early plantings 

 of the American colonists consisted of grapefruit trees. They, however, paid some 

 attention to oranges, though this was largely with the idea of having a supply for 

 home consumption. Lemons in moderate acreage were also tried out in several places, 

 but they were found to require greal care and much attention after picking in order 

 to prepare them suitably for market. 



Every new industry in any region must necessarily pass through its formative 

 and experimental stage. During the first days of the planting of citrus fruits it was 

 nothing uncommon to find in a ten-acre -rove four or five varieties of grapefruit and 

 six or eighl of oranges. Experience and time have proved the foolishness of this lack 

 of method, as it has been pretty thoroughly demonstrated that in order to have ship- 

 ments of grapefruil of sufficient size to make the required volume for economy, both 

 by rail and water, one or two varieties at most should be planted, while with oranges 

 experience has shown that the home demand in Cuba is so great as to require prac- 

 tically the entire production, present and possible, of the Island, so that consideration 

 should be given only to those varieties surest in their productive capacity, most con- 

 stant in their iptalit;.. and ripening at a period when they do not come into competi- 

 tion with the large mass of Cuba's native seedling fruits which arrive on the market 

 most abundantly from December to the end of March. 



The production of grapefruil has proved to be a gamble of the first order. To plant 

 a grapefruit tree and be certain of production therefrom is one and the same thing. 

 This class of fruit hears abundantly in Cuba, and the proper varieties yield a most 

 excellent and satisfactory product. The home demand, however, is very small. Only 

 a very few Cubans or Spaniards have learned to eat this fruit with relish, and usually 

 the first taste is the last. The result is that all of this fruit must he shipped to a 

 foreign market, and the only one available is that of the United States. Here we 

 come into contact and competition with fruit from Florida ami California, sections 

 where each dav sees the introduction of improvements in methods of cultivation, fertili- 



