THE CUBA REVIEW 27 
trade. In Havana also the by-products of the slaughter houses are utilized for fertilizing 
purposes, at one of the slaughter houses suitable machinery having been installed for 
the purpose of crushing bone and of mixing complete fertilizers utilizing their waste 
products with other materials furnishing nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash imported 
from abroad. 
The fertilizer activities of Armour & Co., in the United States, have dated back 
a great many years, but the former managers of the Cuban branch did not seem to con- 
sider this phase of their business as of possible profit in Cuba. When, however, Mr. 
Geo. Younie took charge of Armour’s business here, he came to the conclusion that 
a broad field lay ahead of the fertilizer business here, and as a result established a mixing 
plant on the shores of Havana Harbor, in Hacendados, this being about 1911, and later, 
about 1916, began the construction of what today is the only complete fertilizer manu- 
factory in Cuba on the north shore of Matanzas Harbor, about two miles east of the city 
of Matanzas. Here a fine wharf has been built, at which deep draft sea going vessels 
can unload, and railroad communication has been established through the lines of the 
Matanzas Terminal Railway Co. with the United Railway Co., and through it with all 
the other lines in Cuba. The plant is a complete unit, containing all the machinery 
and apparatus necessary for the handling of raw rock phosphate, its transformation 
into acid phosphate and the mixing of this material with other fertilizer ingredients 
imported from abroad. No other fertilizer company in Cuba is in a position to make 
acid phosphate, and we doubt if any other company here has the same broadness of 
facility for securing certain of the fertilizer ingredients so necessary, especially for our 
cane fertilizers. Every mechanical device has been installed at this plant that would 
conduce to rapidity and economy of operations, so that it seems as if Armour & Co., 
though one of the latest of our fertilizer units to branch out and occupy a prominent 
position in our industry, has surrounded itself with these conditions which will enable 
it to compete to advantage with all competitors. 
Since the establishment of the fertilizer industry in Cuba, one of the healthy in- 
fluences tending always towards the increase of knowledge of fertilizers and their use by 
our agriculturists has been the propaganda carried on by the German Kali Works, repre- 
sentatives in Cuba of the Potash Syndicate of Germany, who at first through commercial 
agents and later through a regularly established propaganda office in charge of H. C. 
Henricksen, published and distributed free pamphlets and other literature, and for 
many years (until the War) gave advice of an unprejudiced character to all those who 
requested it. In a similar manner in 1912, the Chilean Nitrate Committee, the pro- 
paganda agents for the dissemination of knowledge regarding the use of nitrate of soda, 
established an office in Havana under the charge of the writer, and from this office as 
headquarters information has been as broadly given as has been possible. The use of 
both potash and nitrogen in Cuba is subsidiary and dependent on that of phosphoric 
acid, and as a consequence both the propaganda of the German Kali Works and of the 
Chilean Nitrate Committee have had to recognize the essential character of phosphoric 
acid in our fertilization, and, consequently, has had to recommend the use of so called 
complete fertilizers. In this way the work of these two organizations has been of 
assistance to those units of our fertilizer industry which have been operating with honesty 
as their keynote, and there is no doubt that the influence of the two offices mentioned 
has been helpful and beneficial to our agricultural population. 
From the above it will be seen that from the original small failure of 1885, and the 
first active steps toward the introduction of chemical fertilizers about 1900, rapid and 
steady progress has been made, until now considerable capital is invested in the fertilizer 
industry in Cuba and a heavy demand has arisen. At this writing, of course, the fer- 
tilizer business here is affected, as it is in every other country, the low price of agricultural 
products compelling the farmer to go slow, thus restraining him from using as large 
quantities of fertilizer as he otherwise would, but this situation will doubtless last only 
for a short time, until normal conditions again prevail in the markets for our agricultural 
products. The total fertilizer consumption of the Island can only be guessed at, as 
