26 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



AGRICULTURAL MATTERS 



CENTURIES OF IRRIGATION 



Irrigation in Cuba is not a new thing in 

 some sections. It was practiced centuries ago 

 in the Guines Valley, in Havana Province, ac- 

 cording to Leon J. Canover who is thoroughly 

 acquainted with Cuban matters and who 

 gave the New York World, a few weeks ago, 

 an interesting story of the Cuban irrigation 

 schemes of long ago. He says: "When I 

 attended the eighteenth National Irrigation 

 Congress in Pueblo, Col., in September and 

 October, 1910, as a representative of the 

 Republic of Cuba, I took with me pictures 

 of some of the irrigation canals of that 

 country two centuries old. That Cuba 

 should have irrigation at all struck some as 

 surprising. Others who had read of the 

 torrential summer rains there were under 

 the impression that drainage, not irrigation, 

 was the necessity. But it is a fact that Cuba 

 has an irrigation system designed by a Span- 

 ish engineer in the long ago which for effi- 

 ciency can be little improved on today. All 

 that is needed to obtain the maximum benefit 

 from the Mayabeque River is the prolonga- 

 tion of the present canals and the cutting of 

 laterals to distribute the water into the 

 adjacent fields. 



"Guines Valley, the garden spot of Cuba, 

 is but thirty miles south of Havana. Here, 

 convenient to the best market on the island, 

 w^as a stretch of 'fincas' — as the farms are 

 called — of unsurpassed productiveness. It 

 was the old Spaniards who conceived the 

 project of irrigating the Guines Valley with 

 the waters of the Mayabeque. There was 

 slavery then and the planters were abundant- 

 ly supplied with help. The Madrid Govern- 

 ment furnished the engineer, and a horde of 

 negroes was impressed into service. The 

 water rights of the land owners were ap- 

 portioned according to the number of men 

 they furnished and the days represented 

 by their labor formed the basis for the 

 issuance of shares of the Guines Irrigation 

 Company — for such it really was 



"As a result the Guines Valley today is the 

 premium winner in Cuban agriculture. Most 

 of the land in that section is now occupied by 

 small lease-holders who pay an annual rental 

 equal to the fee-simple piu'chase price of 

 prime land in other sections of the island. 

 Fine tomatoes, crisp lettuce, tender beans, 

 sweet peppers, eggplants and summer squash 

 are shipped to New York as early as Christ- 

 mas through January and February, reaching 

 their zenith in March, then declining until 

 May 1, by which date the products of the 

 Southern States begin to flood the market. 



"This section is a noted producer of early 

 onions and potatoes. 



"In the early days the roads between the 

 Guines Valley and Havana were bad at all 

 times and practicably impassable in wet 

 weather, so the Government built a macadam 



road and probably there is no road in the 

 world superior to that old piece of Spanish 

 engineering. For some distance out of 

 Havana it is arched by large royal poincianas 

 or flamboyantes. In the spring these are 

 crowned with bloom. Further out from 

 Havana are tall laurels, with deep oUve 

 green foli ge. 



"The finally came the steam railroad 

 and a company was formed to build a line 

 from Havana to Guines. It paid from the 

 start and from it the largest railway system 

 in Cuba developed. Now one can make the 

 trip from Havana to Guines by the electrics 

 or automobiles in fifty minutes." 



GOVERNMENT AGRICULTURAL STATION 



The Agricultural Experiment Station at 

 Santiago de las Vegas, in Cuba, has been 

 put back for a long time by the neglect of 

 the past four years. During the second 

 American intervention, the Station at Sant- 

 iago de las Vegas was a busy place and a groat 

 work was being accomplished which if it 

 had been persevered in and encouraged by 

 government approval and support would 

 have been the most pi'onounced benefit to 

 the Cuban farmer and the country at large. 

 But the advent of the Gomes administration 

 changed all this. The American force was 

 discharged and political friends in the main 

 took their places, with the natural result 

 that all the ground gained during the regime 

 of the skilled American scientists was lost. 

 A visit to the station in February last dis- 

 closed all this. Things w^ere practically at a 

 standstill and while some work was being 

 done, the lack of an efficient staff was very 

 noticeable. Of those who have survived all 

 the changes which politics has forced on the 

 station and its work. Dr. Emilio L. Luaces, 

 veterinary surgeon and Chief of the Depart- 

 ment of Annual Industry is still at his post. 

 And, it is in his department, of which the 

 American Dr. Mayo, w^as the former chief 

 that some of the most important work of the 

 station was accomplished and better work 

 will still be done. Dr. Luaces has been con- 

 nected with the station for many years and 

 is well informed and most enthusiastic in his 

 work. 



"There is so much to be done," said Dr. 

 Luaces recently, "and better methods should 

 be adopted to spread the information we 

 secure here broadcast throughout the island. 

 We reach very thoroughly the farmers of our 

 section, but the gi'eat outlying army we 

 cannot reach unless we go to them. There 

 should be travelling scientists with moving 

 pictures and explanatory lecturers giving the 

 helpful information which the 'Guajiro' so 

 much needs." 



Many of the newspapers of Havana and 

 Cuba have dilated, from time to time, on 



