IHC, (CU BA hee VL EW. 13 
Typical Landscape in Coffee District of Pinar del Rio Province. 
The Coffee Industry in Cuba 
By H. O. Neville 
We have no doubt that many interesting and some highly amusing occurrences would 
be brought to light could we know of the beginning of practices which, through con- 
tinued repetition, have become customs among the peoples of the world. Upon thinking 
of the use of coffee, considered as it is the national drink of Cuba, and of its widespread 
employment among practically all the people of the world, the writer could but express 
his wonder as to how the practice started and who was the first to drink it. The result 
was a rather amusing reply giving the story of a goat herder in a country where coffee was 
native, who noticed the difference in the disposition and activity of his goats in the after- 
noon upon returning to their corrals, where they were kept for the night, and the same 
characteristics in the morning after passing the night without nourishment. As this 
particular goat herder had been keeping goats for a long time in other localities and had 
not noticed any such remarkable change due to the day’s feeding, his curiosity was excited, 
and following them one day he observed them eating bountifully of the leaves of a certain 
plant upon which there were at the time a goodly crop of berries. His curiosity prompted 
him to take some of the leaves and eat them himself, and the mild stimulant contained 
in them prompted further investigation, with the result that he found the seeds of the 
berries to contain the exhilarating substance found in the leaves, though to a very much 
greater extent. As my informant put it, the fact that the goats, usually rather serious 
and sober animals, returned in the afternoon from their feeding “full of pep and vigor,” 
was the cause of the discovery of the qualities of coffee which have caused it to become an 
almost universal beverage. 
Be this as it may, in Cuba it is the national drink. The traveler throughout the 
country districts of the Island stopping at the lowliest and most humble shacks no matter 
where situated, will almost invariably be presented with a cup of freshly made, hot, black, 
