12 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



CITRUS AND OTHER FRUITS 



Many varieties of citrus fruits are indigenous to Cuba. The great, beautiful, glossy leafed 

 trees of the sour and of the bitter orange, are found growing wild in almost every forest of the 

 Island. The lime, also, is found in more or less abundance, scattered over rocky hillsides, its 

 beautiful, smooth lemon-like fruit going to waste for lack of transportation to markets. Al- 

 most ever>-^vhere in Cuba are found a few orange trees, whose fruit is gathered for home con- 

 sumption, but only with the coming of Americans has the growing of citrus fruit been under- 

 taken as a commercial industry. 



Tangerines, Three Years Old. 



Homeseekers from Florida found the native oranges of the Island, all of which are called 

 "Chinas" or Chinese oranges to distinguish them from the wild oranges of the woods, to be of 

 peculiar sweetness, and superior quality to those grown either in Florida or California. The rich 

 soils, requiring comparatively little fertilizer, were very promising, and with the beginning of 

 the First Intervention, large tracts were planted by American colonies in every province of 

 Cuba. Some of these, as in the Bahia Honda district, fifty miles west of Havana, cover hundreds 

 of acres within one single enclosure. 



It has been found that the earliest possible varieties of oranges, together with the latest 

 grown, command always good prices in the American markets; more than all, that these, es- 

 pecially the Valencias and Washington Navels, will stand shipment to Eurojic and other dis- 

 tant markets. 



Within a radius of fifty miles of the city of Havana, many beautiful groves are today in 

 bearing, whose crops are sold advantageously in the markets of the capital, to which they are 

 transported in large vans and automobile trucks. This fruit brings in the local market from 

 $6 to $15 per thousand, and yields a very satisfactory return to those who planted groves a 

 few years ago. 



