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THE CUBA REVIEW 



AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL 



IMPROVED AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS 

 SUGGESTED 



It will not be long until sugar-cane growers 

 in the Santiago district will be forced on ac- 

 count of the lack of new lands for planting, to 

 adopt better cultural methods. When this 

 occurs the demand for improved agricultural 

 implements wiU be greater, and it would be 

 well worth while for American manufacturers 

 to keep in close touch with the situation here 

 in this respect, says United States Consul 

 Ross E. Holaday. 



There undoubtedly would be a much great- 

 er demand now for modern agricultural imple- 

 ments and agricultural machinery, which 

 would in turn contribute to the development 

 of the resources of the country and give im- 

 petus to other lines of industry, if such ma- 

 chinery imported exclusively for agricultural 

 purposes were free of duty. Under the present 

 customs tariff, plows, hoes and cane knives 

 used exclusively for agricultural purposes, are 

 free of duty, but machinery and apparatus 

 employed by farmers for prepai'ing the ground 

 and gathering the crops and those employed 

 to clean the crops and improve them without 

 essentially changing their nature, ai"e dutiable. 



Since this report was made another has 

 come from Senor Pedro Jimenez, of the Cuban 

 Department of Agriculture who was recently 

 sent by the secretary to visit the principal 



centrals and agricultural districts of the 

 island. 



He says that the small farmer must be in- 

 duced to abandon his old one-handled wooden 

 plough and get an up-to-date one in its place. 



STARCH FACTORY IN CUBA 



A starch factory at Palma Soriano is on' 

 a farm of one hundred caballerias (3,333 1-3 

 acres), of which forty-five caballerias are 

 planted to yuca or cassova from which starch 

 is made. There are large mills where the 

 plant goes through the various processes, 

 necessary and warehouses where the finished 

 product is stored. 



It is said that President Menocal and his. 

 brother own the plant. 



RICE GROWING EXPERIMENTS 



At the Government agricultural experi 

 ment station at Santiago de las Vegas, during 

 the present season, the author has had experi- 

 ments on a small scale with Cuban rice and 

 eight or ten varieties imported additionally, 

 chiefly Egyptian and mountain rice, also one 

 variety from Japan. Some of these have 

 given good results and show that they are 

 prolific and can be grown in Cuba with profit,. 



Yucca (Cassava) showing habit of growth. See item on this page regarding Starch Factory. 



