430 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



SPANISH WEST INDIES. 

 CUBA. 



REPORT BY CONSUL-GENERAL WILLIAMS, OF HAVANA. 



No regular system for the cultivation of oranges and lemons for ex- 

 port is followed in this island. The only plantings of these fruits here 

 are made in scattered spots of land about the buildings of small pro- 

 prietors. The trees seldom receive the care of good husbandry, and 

 whatever surplus arises in this way over local demand is sold to gath- 

 erers who ship it to the United States. Therefore regular and well 

 laid out orange groves, as seen in Florida, do not exist here. But the 

 capacity of this island for the production of these two fruits of superior 

 quality is almost unlimited. 



RAMON O. WILLIAMS, 



Consul- General. 



UNITED STATES CONSULATE-GENERAL, 



Havana, March 24, 1890. 



SANTIAGO DE CUBA. 



REPORT BY CONSUL REINER. 

 ORANGES. 



Varieties. The wild orange found all through the mountainous and 

 wooded districts of this island is no doubt native thereto, as it is found 

 in mountains and wildernesses where no human foot has ever trod before; 

 whereas the sweet orange was brought here last century and even earlier 

 by the French and Spaniards, and also the English, from Trinidad and 

 Martinique. Owing to the lack of transporting facilities the oranges 

 are not at all cultivated and trees here and there on coffee and sugar 

 estates enable the people living in this city to occasionally enjoy the 

 fruit. It is a curious fact that oranges planted in the immediate vicin- 

 ity of this city and also in the immediate vicinity of the coast, no mat 

 ter how sweet they originally were, produce crops of sour oranges. 

 This is no doubt owing to the nature of the soil, which is chiefly com- 

 posed of decomposed coral rock and contains considerable lime. In the 

 rich alluvial soil of the interior oranges suitable for commerce can easily 

 be grown, but, considering the cost of transporting them to the sea- 

 board, their cultivation on a basis sufficiently extensive to warrant a 

 large export is at the present out of the question. 



