THE CUBA REVIEW 15 
A Plantation Fertilizer Factory, Santa Clara Province 
The Fertilizer Industry in Cuba 
By H. O. Neville 
There is no doubt that the almost universal impression among those not familiar 
with the details of Cuba’s agriculture is that her soils are rich beyond imagination, and 
that, as a consequence, the use of fertilizers would be superfluous. There is no doubt 
also that broadly speaking there was a period in Cuba’s history when by far the largest 
part of her area was covered with immense virgin tropical forest, and that at that time 
the use of fertilizer or even that of cultivation in order to further the growth of crops was 
non-essential. Even yet there are to be found in various parts of the Island, especially 
in the three eastern provinces, Santa Clara, Camagiiey and Oriente, areas of land covered 
with the virgin forest which met the view of Columbus as he sailed along the Island’s 
northern shore, and here, when these lands are cleared of the timber and small growth 
covering them and are planted to cane or other of our crops, the use of fertilizer is unneces- 
sary and years pass by without their becoming impoverished. But in the three western 
provinces, Matanzas, Havana and Pinar del Rio, and also i in many parts of the Province 
vation of the same’ crop, sugar cane, has been carried on continuously for so a many 
years without the return to the al of the plant food removed therefrom by the crops 
grown thereon, that the use of fertilizer and of the more modern and careful agricultural 
practices connected therewith are imperative, if reasonably abundant returns are desired 
from the labor put forth. 
It is also a fact that scattered throughout the Island practically in all provinces, 
but especially occurring in the central portion of Camagiiey Province, the east-central 
of Santa Clara Province, the west-central of Matanzas Province, and in a very large 
area in the central and western portions of Pinar del Rio Province, there are found large 
bodies of land which apparently have never been covered by forest and whose fertility 
has always been very much lower than that of the wooded areas surrounding and adjacent 
to them. In the periods of ordinary agricultural activity in Cuba, these areas of soil have 
been avoided by the native agriculturist, but in periods of great profit from certain crops, 
