THL 

 CUBA RLVILW— 



"ALL ABOUT CUBA" 



Copyright, 1910, by the Munson Steamship Line 



NEW YORK 



BOTANICAL 



OARDBN. 



Volume VIII 



SEPTEMBER, 1910 



Number 10 



CUBAN GOVERNMENT MATTERS 



IMPORTANT REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES — FARMERS SOUGHT AFTER IN 

 SPAIN — GREAT PUBLIC WORKS PROJECTED 



The committee on agricul- 

 Tax ture, industry and commerce 



Exemptions of the Cuban House of 

 for Mines Representatives has re- 

 ported favorably a bill ex- 

 empting mining claims and properties, un- 

 der exploitation or not, from all taxes for 

 ten years, and extending this exemption 

 for a full ten years to all mining claims 

 and properties put in operation at any time 

 within the original ten-year period. Dur- 

 ing a period of thirty years all vessels 

 entering Cuban ports in ballast, coming 

 from any foreign or Cuban port, and vi^hich 

 clear with cargo of minerals or other 

 products of national mines, are to be en- 

 titled to the remission of one-half of the 

 port and tonnage dues paid on entry, and 

 during a similar period minerals and min- 

 eral products are to be exempt from pay- 

 ment of export duties. During a period 

 of ten years, machinery, apparatus and 

 railroad material imported into Cuba for 

 use in mining and metallurgical industries 

 are to pay no more than the minimum 

 duty prescribed for similar articles when 

 imported for use in the most favored Cu- 

 ban industrv. 



The commission appointed 

 Tobacco some months ago by Pres- 



Comniission's ident Gomez to study means 

 Report to promote the tobacco in- 

 dustry and measures, cal- 

 culated to render more profitable and ex- 

 tensive tobacco cultivation in Cuba, has 

 submitted a report. One of the most impor- 

 tant measures promised is the installation 

 of a genera! system of irrigation works in 

 Vuelta Abajo. The commission regards 

 this as urgent, and as the outlay of these 

 works w^ill be considerable, recommends 



that a definite scheme of annual appropria- 

 tion be settled upon. The popularization 

 of agricultural conferences, with practical 

 demonstrations on the plantations of the 

 best methods of the preparation of seed 

 and appropriateness of such seed for the 

 particular soil and climate in which it is 

 to be grown, together with the methods 

 of fertilization, transplanting, crossing, and 

 curing in accord with the most scientific 

 processes is also urged. 



Other suggestions are, a law legalizing 

 the introduction, manufacture, and sale of 

 fertilizers, the encouragement of the im- 

 migration of agriculturists and their fatni- 

 lies, and the removal so far as possible 

 of the obstacles which limit or diminish 

 the consumption of Cuban tobacco in the 

 foreign markets by endeavoring to secure 

 reciprocity treaties with nations which are 

 large consumers of tobacco manufactured 

 in Cuba. 



Want to 

 Examine 

 Patents 



There is a century-old 

 royal decree, operative in 

 Cuba, under which inspec- 

 tion of the plans and spec- 

 ification of patents which 

 have been granted, is denied. Under this 

 law after the patent had been issued it was 

 sent to a "Board of Development". All 

 documents were sealed and placed in a 

 special receptacle, not to be opened except 

 in a case of legislation or decision or 

 order from a judge. 



These documents are now filed without 

 being sealed with the bureau of patents 

 and _ copyrights, and were accessible by 

 special permit, but recently Secretary of 

 the Treasury Machado, then secretary of 

 agriculture, gave an order to enforce the 

 old law against inspection of the papers, 



