THE CUBA REVIEW 



M 



ISLE OF PINES NOTES 



Mrs. H. J. Parent, a Worcester woman, 

 who has been a resident of the Isle of Pines 

 15 months, stated that the residents of the 

 island are anxious to have Congress take 

 action on the oresent plans of having the 

 island set off as a state bj- itself in order 

 that the United States may give it the kind 

 of assistance that the American people now- 

 living on the island desire it to have. 



Mrs. Parent lives on what is known as 

 the McKinley colony, and owns a farm of 

 10 acres. 



"Isle of Pines has very poor facilities 

 for the shipping of its fruit and this is one 

 of the reasons why the people of the island 

 want the United States to annex the island 

 so that it will become a state and then we 

 will get better shipping facilities than what 

 we have to-day. 



"Under the present arrangements for the 

 shipping of fruit, the raisers are obliged to 

 cart the fruit 23 miles to the boat and with 

 the handling over and over of the fruit it 

 takes but a short time for it to spoil and 

 we lose a lot of money. We are in hopes 

 of getting a boat to come in direct to where 

 the fruit is raised and then we can load 

 on the produce without being obliged to 

 cart it so far and then handle it over and 

 over again. 



"Land is selling as high as $7.5 an acre 

 to-day and has been advancing ever since 

 we came to the island to live. This is 

 caused on account of the demand for the 

 land by the .American people who have 

 come to the Isle of Pines to cultivate the 

 land and make a living. 



"Before the land becomes productive it 

 has to be sweetened with lime and fertiliz- 

 ers as it is known as sour land when it is 

 first tilled. Our own tract of land is sandy. 

 There are some parts of the land that the 

 sand is as white as snow and in this white 

 sand the grape fruit grows. 



"Provisions arc very high on the island 

 while help is cheap. All of the water is 

 filled with magnesia but it does not injure 

 it for drinking purposes. 



"Xone of the houses are built with cel- 

 lars. Our house contains six rooms and a 

 barn made of logs. Ponies and mules are 

 used a great deal for transportation pur- 

 poses. There are two large saw mills on 

 the island and they are kept busy all of the 

 time sawing the wood and getting it ready 

 for the carpenters to erect new homes. 



"This island is noted for a place for the 

 cure of rheumatism and hay fever." — 

 Worcester (Mass.) Telefjram. 



Ramon Rivero has Ijeen appointed col- 

 lector of customs of the port of Los Indies, 

 Isle of Pines. 



PINEAPPLE GROWERS NOT MAKING 

 MONEY 



The treasurer and general manager of 

 the Isle of Pines Fruit Company, whose 

 plantations are at Westport, Isle of Pines, 

 gave much information concerning the ad- 

 vantages and disadvantages Isle of Pines 

 growers encounter during the course of a 

 crop. 



He said that on account of difficulties, 

 principally in transportation, his company 

 will have to go into the canning business 

 at home in order to handle their immense 

 crop of pineapples. That is the only way 

 for the growers on that island to make any 

 reasonable profit on their plantations, he 

 holding that none of the pineapple growers 

 were making anything off their crops. They 

 might make money at some times of the 

 year, but he believed that in other times, 

 while the great bulk of the crop was ready 

 for shipment they lost more than they had 

 made during their prosperous times. The 

 writer showed how many hands the fruit 

 passed through before it could be placed 

 in the retailer's hands in Boston, which 

 footed up to no less than seventeen hand- 

 lings. Each one of these handlings costs 

 the grower a part of the final sale until 

 there is very little to pay for the crate and 

 leave anything for the grower. 



Another suggestion this writer makes is 

 that the privilege of through bills of lading 

 be granted from the Isle of Pines to Xew 

 York. Wholesale shippers of goods get the 

 through bill of lading from New York to 

 Xueva Gerona, and the Isle of Pines people 

 want the same privilege, to save brokerage 

 in Havana. — La Lucha, Havana. 



GRAPEFRUIT IN ENGLAND 



As a general thing tlie European fruit 

 dealer appears tu think that trial shipments 

 at the proper seasons might lie favorably 

 tried, but at most they are not very en- 

 thusiastic. Of grapefruit they are especially 

 charry. With the exception of London, 

 the capitals and larger cities, the fruit is 

 unknown and a campaign of education 

 must first be started. Small shipments to 

 reputable Iiouses ought to be tried first, 

 and there is no doubt but that the demand 

 would increase. — Isle of Pines Nezvs. 



We have always believed that lemons 

 would prove a paying crop in the Isle of 

 Pines, says the .Ippcal, and iiave advised 

 against the cuttintr down of lemon trees 

 and buflding to something else. They have 

 never been given a fair trial here. The 

 l)roper varieties were not jjlanted. 



