THE CUBA REVIEW 



CUBA RAILROAD DOING WELL 



The Cuba Railroad Company's pamphlet 

 report for the year ended June 30th and 

 the report of President William C. Van 

 Home was submitted to stockholders at 

 the annual meeting September ISth. Gross 

 earnings for the year were $3,819,253, an 

 increase of $759,603 over the previous year. 

 Working expenses increased from $1,685,- 

 578 to $2,000,393, making the proportion of 

 working expenses to gross earnings 52.37 

 per cent, as compared with 55.06 per cent 

 the year before. It is explained that the 

 working expenses include $96,000 for ex- 

 traordinary replacements not pertaining to 

 the business of the year. 



The report refers to the revolt in Cuba in 

 the late spring as "little more than a local 

 disturbance." The company's property was 

 not interfered with. President \'^an Home 

 says that save for a temporary "shrinkage 

 in June resulting from a curtailment of 

 credits, your business was not affected. 

 The colored population of Cuba, which 

 amounts to about one-third of the whole, 

 is quiet and law-abiding, and no serious 

 difficulty is to be apprehended from that 

 element or from any other. The entire 

 island is very prosperous and rapidly gain- 

 ing in wealth." 



MILEAGE AT JUNE 30, 1912 

 (Standard Gauge 4 feet 8^ inches) 



Main line, Santa Clara to San- 

 tiago 356.1 miles 



Antilla (Xipe Bay) Branch 30.S 



Sancti Spiritus Branch 7.3 



Ponupo Branch 11.2 



Jatibonico Branch 11.8 



Holguin Branch 11.1 



Alarti-Bayamo San Luis Line... 141. 3 

 Manzanillo Branch 32.5 



602.1 miles 



ROLLING STOCK AT JUNE 30, 1912 



Locomotives "3 



Passenger train cars 84 



Freight cars 1 ,S99 



Conductor's cars 24 



POPULATION OF CUBA 



According to the last census taken in 

 1911, the population of Cuba is as follows: 



Pinar del Rio 258,736 



Havana 588,013 



^Latanzas 263,497 



Santa Clara 528,738 



Camaguev 139,671 



Oriente 498,837 



Total 2,277.492 



AN OLD LOCOMOTIVE 



On a Cuban railroad at Santiago is an 

 interesting relic of early railway develop- 

 ment in this country, says the Chattanooga 

 Times'. It goes back to a period when hun- 

 dreds of curious and impracticable con- 

 trivances were being put forward in the 

 effort to solve the new problems in rail- 

 roading. 



The one now used on the Cuban railroad 

 has nothing of the freakish about it. That 

 is, it was not a freak when it was built, 

 though naturally it looks rather curious 

 now. But it is especially interesting be- 

 cause it is the oldest Baldwin locomotive 

 still in running order. Constructed in 1847 

 by ]\I. W. Baldwin and placed at once on 

 the rails for service, it is still being used. 

 Few if any of the original parts have been 

 replaced. 



It has no air brake and no trucks. The 

 slanting cylinders are 16 by 26 inches and 

 the left engine is the leading engine. There 

 are two scales for safety valves. The 

 smokestack is 7 feet 4 inches high and 4 

 feet 6 inches in diameter at the larger end. 



When the St. Louis exposition was held 

 in 1904 the Baldwin company, anxious to 

 include the old engine in its exhibit, offered 

 the Cuban road a locomotive of the type 

 then most modern, but the Cubans refused 

 the oft'er. 



PREMIUM FOR ALFALFA 



The Havana provincial council has of- 

 fered a premium of $300 to the growers 

 of alfalfa and other kinds of hay, says the 

 Post of that cit.v. 



Alfalfa, the growing of which has been 

 found extremely difficult in Cuba, is highest 

 in the consideration of the council and the 

 farmer who presents the best specimen of 

 it will receive a prize of $150. A prize of 

 $100 will be given for the best sample of 

 ordinary hay such as is used in the livery 

 stables here, while $50 will be given for 

 the best hay produced in the province but 

 improved by some special process. 



The exports of hay to Cuba by the 

 United States in the fiscal years ended 

 June 30th compare as follows : 



1907 2,919 tons $52,687 



1908 6.479 " 125,765 



1909 4,960 " 75,278 



1910 2,213 " 43.363 



1911 564 " 10,772 



1912 239 " 5,361 



Centrifugal sugar, valued at $3,591,844, 

 was invoiced through Matanzas to the 

 United States in the second quarter of 1912. 



The National Board of Sanitation is 

 likely to prohibit the custom in general 

 vogue in Havana stores of permitting the 

 clerks sleeping in commercial houses also 

 of cooking or the serving of food on the 

 premises, not so much for the benefit of 

 the clerks as for generallv sanitary reasons. 



