Meteoro)os 



I'opulatlon. 



258 POPULATION AND AGRICULTURE OP CUBA. 



CHAP. XXL from them. Snow never falls, and hail so rarely that 

 it is only ohscrvcd during thunder-storms, and with 

 blasts from the S.S.W. once in fifteen or twenty years. 

 The changes however are very rapid, and the inhabitants 

 complain of cold when the thermometer falls quickly to 

 70^. Hurricanes are of much less frequent occurrence 

 in Cuba than in the other West India Islands. 



According to the census of 1827 the population of the 

 whole island amounted to 704,487, or, adding the 

 military and seamen (26,075), to 730,562. Of these 

 311,051 were whites, 106,494 free coloured men, and 

 286,942 slaves. The original inhabitants have entirely 

 disappeared, as in all the other West India Islands. 

 Intellectual cultivation is almost entirely restricted to 

 the whites ; and although in Havannah the first society 

 is not perceptibly inferior to that of the richest commer- 

 cial cities in Europe, a rudeness of manners prevails in 

 tlie small towns and plantations. 



The common cereal grasses are cultivated in Cuba, 

 together with the tropical productions peculiar to these 

 countries ; but the principal exports consist of tobacco, 

 coffee, sugar, and wax. The sugar-cane is planted in 

 the rainy season, from July to October, and cut from 

 February to May. The rapid diminution of wood in 

 the island has caused the want of fuel to be felt in the 

 manufacture of sugar, and Humboldt, during his stay, 

 attempted several new constructions, with the view of 

 diminisliing the expenditure of it.* 



Tlie tobacco of Cuba is celebrated in every part of 

 Europe. The districts which produce the most aro- 

 matic kind are situated to the west of the Havannah, in 

 the Vuelta de Abajo ; but that grown to the east of the 



Tcibaocci 



• By the Custom-lionse returns, 1 5fi, 1 r)fi,924 lbs. of sug^r were 

 exported from Cuba in lii27; and if the cjiiantity smuggled be 

 estiiii;ited at one-fourth more, the total amount would be nearly 

 2U().()0U,0U0 lbs. In the .'iame year the exportation of coffee 

 amounted to upwards of 50,000,000 Ihs., but it has since fallen off 

 considerably — See MaccuUoclis Diet, of Commerce, art. Ha- 



VdOUuil. 



