216 



CUBA. 



facilitate the export of cattle and wood from 

 Moron and Ciego de Avila. During 1886 ihe 

 Cerro, Jesus del Monte, Carmelo and Principe 

 lines of tramway in the city of Havana, with the 

 Vedado and Vibora branch lines, forwarded 

 altogether 5,529,604 passengers paying fares, 

 and 99,396 riding free; together, 5,629,000 pas- 

 sengers ; the total fare collected being $766,795. 

 Adding thereto $15,169 accruing from other 

 sources of income, the total gross earnings 

 reached $781,964 ; and deducting therefrom the 

 expenses, $572,647, there were net earnings to 

 the amount of $209,317 or 13 per cent, on the 

 capital. The Minister of the Colonies at 

 Madrid has decreed a general plan of high-road 

 building for Cuba. 



Telegraphs. The Spanish Minister of the 

 Colonies granted during the summer a conces- 

 sion to Don Jose Kafael, Vizarrondo to lay a 

 cable between Cuba and Hayti. A cable was 

 laid early in the year in the bay of Havana, con- 

 necting Forts el Morro, la Cabana, and the city 

 of Havana. 



Steamship Lines. The subsidy that the Span- 

 ish Government has agreed to pay the Spanish 

 Transatlantic Steamship Line insures the follow- 

 ing: Line between Spain, the Spanish West 

 Indies, and Mexico, 36 voyages per annum ; 

 Philippine Island line, 13 voyages; La Plata, 6 

 voyages ; Fernando-Po, 6 voyages ; Morocco, 24 

 voyages. The company engages to establish 

 branch lines for the traffic with the United 

 States, Central America, the Marianne and 

 Caroline Islands, China, and Japan. 



Meteorological Observatory. The Government 

 intends establishing a meteorological observa- 

 tory at Santiago, and has written to New York, 

 London, and Paris for the purpose of procuring 

 the latest and most approved instruments. 



Farming. The new sugar-making system 

 known under the name of central plantations 

 has given satisfactory results to all planters 

 who have been able to adopt it. The number 

 of plantations of this class increased notably 

 in 1887, absorbing at the same time all the sur- 

 rounding small ones. Land-owners of the de- 

 molished estates subdivide them among farmers 

 and small planters, who sell their cane to the 

 central factories at prices that are either paid in 

 money or in manufactured sugar, $2. 50 for 100 

 pounds centrifugal, as an average, being gener- 

 ally considered as the equivalent for 2,500 

 pounds of cane after grinding and marketing ex- 

 penses are deducted. It has been estimated that 

 from 35 to 40 per cent, of the 1887 crop has been 

 manufactured under this system, and that, de- 

 spite the disappearance of slavery and the finan- 

 cial difficulties under which a large number of 

 planters have been laboring, sugar-crops above 

 the average in size will be produced. In the 

 Zaza Central sugar-house a new sugar-bagging 

 machine, invented by Don Joaquin Barbara, 

 was introduced early in 1887, an apparatus 

 evidently destined to do good service as a labor- 

 saving machine. Sefiores Mendieta and Gor- 

 riti have introduced a new furnace for sugar- 



houses, in which "leagasse," or expressed cane, 

 is advantageously utilized as the only fuel. The 

 Cuban sugar-crop, ended Dec. 1, 1886, was 637,- 

 237 tons for export, besides 35,000 tons for 

 home consumption ; together, 672,237 tons, 

 against 625,311 tons in 1885. The exports to 

 Aug. 1, 1887, amounted to 391,506 tons, while 

 the stock in the six ports on that date was 116- 

 793 tons ; total, 508,299 tons, against exports 

 during the corresponding period in 1886 of 418,- 

 764 and stock 174,845 tons; total, 593,609. 

 These figures, showing a failing off of 85,310 

 tons in the crop up to August 1, indicated that 

 the crop of 1887 would not exceed in yield 

 600,000 tons, which has since been confirmed. 

 A fresh impulse is to be given to cocoa-plant- 

 ing, which had been allowed to go to decay, 

 there being only twenty-five plantations in the 

 island. Don Jose Antonio Barrera, Don Man- 

 uel Delgardo, and Don Manuel Carrera y Ster- 

 ling of Remedios purchased early in 1887 the 

 Itabo cocoa estate of Yaguajuay, in order to 

 extend and replant it and revive this branch 

 generally in the district. 



Botanic Garden. In the Campo de Marte the 

 necessary transformation was taken in hand in 

 May to lay out six lateral gardens, in which 

 Philippine plants imported by Dr. Viliarraza 

 are to begin the creation of a botanic garden. 



Iron-Mining. In 1883 an American company 

 bought a group of the iron-mines that had been 

 claimed, and built a railway 16| miles in length, 

 and a large wharf. In 1884 the company ex- 

 ported to the United States 22,000 tons of ore ; 

 in 1885, 80,000 tons; and in 1886, 110,000 tons. 

 But, so far, they have not begun to ship in pro- 

 portion to the capacity of the mines; that they 

 may do so they are building a line of steamers 

 of their own under the English flag, two of 

 which vessels are already running. When the 

 ships are completed they expect to ship 1,000 

 tons of ore a day. There is no underground 

 mining of this ore, but merely cutting down 

 the hill- side, throwing away the incasing dirt 

 and rock, and taking out the ore from the solid 

 vein. Although some contracts have been lately 

 made with people in the United States for mnn- 

 ganese-mines, none of them have been worked. 



Commerce. The trade of the Spanish West 

 Indies was distributed among leading commer- 

 cial nations as follows : 



The American trade with Cuba is shown in 

 the following table : 



