THE CUBA REVIEW 



19 



placed through necessit.y by those manufactured in the United States will satisfy the tastes and 

 demand of the Cuban merchant and consumer to such an extent that new business connections 

 established may permanently endure. 



The proximity of Cuba to the United States, the good transportation and banking facilities 

 and the generally recognized superiority of many American manufactured articles are natural 

 trade advantages that cannot be overcome except throu;?}i serious bus'ness blunders or in- 

 judicious disregard of the tastes, customs, character, or requirements of the people. 



Xot only the extension but the retention of Cuba's trade, some of which has perhaps been 

 recently acquired only through careful study, diligent work, and perhaps the expenditure of 

 considerable money, are undoubtedly subjects at present worthy of the thoughtful considera- 

 tion of the .American manufacturer, exporter, or prospective investor. 



PLANT BREEDING IN CUBA. 



Earle F. S. and Popenoe Wilson, in "The. Jnurnil of 

 Heredity," Vol. VI,N.V2, pp. 558-538, % figs., Wash- 

 ington, December, 1915. 



Plant breeding in Cuba was begun in 1901, 

 the year in which one of the writers was called 

 to the island to organize the Government 

 Agricultural Experiment Station at Santiago 

 de las Vegas. 



Naturally enough, the moot important 

 cultures were the first to receive attention. 

 The testing of seedling sugar canes has been 

 carried on for the past ten or twelve years 

 at the Harvard Experiment Station, at Sole- 

 dad, near Cienfuegos. A.s the soils of the 

 Soledad district do not give satisfactory re- 

 sults with chemical fertilizers, and stable 

 manure i.; out of the question, the problem 

 to be solved was the production of a sugar- 

 cane giving a good yield even in exhausted 

 soil. A satisfactory solution has been at- 

 tained. In addition to the production of 

 seedling canej which will maintain a profitable 

 yield on poor soils, an effort has been made 

 to obtain b}' means of selection, strains wliich 

 will be resistant to root rot, a disease sup- 

 posed to be caused by Marasmius sacchari. 

 On virgin timber lands in Cuba, canes will 

 often continue to give profitable results for 

 twenty or twenty-five years without re- 

 planting; after this the plants die out, and 

 must be replanted every third or fourth year. 

 The cane usually begins to die at certain 

 spots in the field where the growth is weakest 

 and the disease spreads in concentric circles. 

 Always, however, occasional stools survive 

 in these diseased areas. An attempt has been 

 made to obtain from these, by selection, some 

 immune strains of the "Cristalina" cane, 

 which is so satisfactory in Cuba from most 

 other points of view. Unfortunately, the 



work was dropped before any results were 

 obtained, but the question is one that prom- 

 ises to \'ield most valuable results. 



Cuba offers a large field of work for the 

 selection of tropical fruits. At present, there 

 is no vine suited to hot climates, though some 

 south European varieties are occasionally 

 grown in Cuba with some degree of success 

 and there is a native species, Vitis caribaea 

 wliich, even in a wild state, produces juicy 

 fine grapes about % in. in diameter, dark 

 puiple in color, and might through hybridi- 

 sation T\dth some of the cultivated grapes give 

 rise to a race which would be of the greatest 

 value to tropical regions. Further, from its 

 productiveness and vigor (this vine some- 

 times covers trees 18 or 20 ft. high) it would 

 form an excellent stock for grafting. 



In the mountains of Cuba, there is a wal- 

 nut tree, Juglans insularis, producing nuts 

 which compare favorably in size with the 

 northern black walnut. The kernels are, 

 however, difficult to remove from the shell 

 and the partitions are thick. Through selec- 

 tion, this tree might be considerably im- 

 proved and might be also of great value as a 

 stock on which to graft cultivated walnuts 

 (for there are very few nuts that succeed in 

 the tropics). The Queensland nut, Macad- 

 amia ternifolia, which has been introduced 

 at Santiago de las Vegas, has succeeded very 

 well. 



In all parts of Cuba, the mango is one 

 of the most abundant of fruits. There are 

 two distinct races, mango and manga. The 

 former is a tall, erect tree sometimes 60 ft. 

 high; its fruit is beaked at the apex and the 

 fibre surrounding the seed is long and coarse. 

 The manga is a low spreading tree, 35 or 

 40 ft. high, with more abundant but finer 



