THE FORESTER. 



VOL. VI. 



AUGUST, 1900. 



No. 8. 



SILVICULTURAL PROSPECTS OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 



BY JOHN GIFFORD. 



It is my intention in this paper to empha- 

 size the great advantages of southern coun- 

 tries in the production of wood and other 

 forest products, and the great need of a 

 botanic garden and experimental station 

 in either Cuba or Porto Rico. 



It seems to me that the two most impor- 

 tant factors which determine the financial 

 profits of forestry are location in reference 

 to markets, and the ability to produce 

 quickly materials for which there is de- 

 mand. There are other profits of course 

 which cannot be measured in dollars and 

 cents, but these are more or less local and, 

 although important, must be considered 

 in a special way for each locality. The 

 most important points are to produce 

 quickly what you sell, and to sell quickly 

 what you produce. It is of course self- 

 evident that the nearer one operates to a 

 great market the more intensive may be 

 the system of management and the larger 

 will be the profits. This statement, how- 

 ever, was far more applicable in times 

 past than at present. The abundance of 

 other materials such as coal, iron and 

 stone modify this condition. By modern 

 transportation with special long-distance 

 freight rates, distances have been short- 

 ened, time saved, and regions which were 

 formerly inaccessible brought compara- 

 tively near. In consequence the pinch of 

 want is not seriously felt until the forest 

 resources of the remotest corners of our 

 land are exhausted. Even then unless 

 hindered by tariff barriers the deficiency 

 maybe supplied by neighboring countries. 

 Shingles from Oregon* Yellow Pine from 

 Georgia, and White Pine from Minnesota 



may all be bought at reasonable prices in 

 almost every country lumber yard. Yel- 

 low Pine floors are common in Europe ; 

 wood from California is common in the 

 Orient ; and even the ties of the railroads 

 in the diamond mines of Kimberley are 

 Pacific Redwood. This is of course all 

 due to modern transportation, so that after 

 all location is not the most important 

 factor. In Cuba the great difficulty is the 

 lack of communication. It is as easy to 

 go from Santiago to Havana by way of 

 New York, as it is by land or even by 

 water in Cuba. Later when railroads are 

 built the conditions throughout the island 

 will be much more uniform. 



It seems to me that silviculture in its 

 intensive form is not only the concomitant 

 but the consequence of agriculture. It 

 belongs, therefore, more to the populated 

 and cultivated regions of the earth than to 

 the wild remoter regions. In its more 

 extensive form it is of course more or less 

 applicable to remoter regions, in fact to 

 all regions where wood will grow and 

 where wood has value. But the law of 

 diminishing return applies as much to 

 forestry as to other industries and in a 

 country so vast and undeveloped as the 

 United States it is not difficult at present 

 to find regions where the profits are not 

 equal to the cost of protection and intelli- 

 gent supervision, the primary essentials of 

 forestry. 



I refer only to private holdings and it is 

 my intention to discuss only the possibili- 

 ties of the practice of intensive silviculture 

 by private persons in Cuba. Both this 

 island and Porto Rico are practically de- 



