64 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



Along the Trocha. 



Three Pictures. Two Dark with War and Persecution. The 



Last, of a Happy and Smiling People and a Great 



and Prosperous Future. 



WHO has not heard of CEBALLOS, Cuba— its fertile lands, waving caneficlds. 

 beautiful orange groves, palatial buildings, factories and industries? 

 The history of the great enterprise which brought about a condition of 

 development in a few short years that makes the CEBALLOS District of 

 Cuba renowned throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, reads more like 

 a work of iiction than reality. 



When Spain was resisting the last efforts of Cuba to gain freedom, she divided 

 the Island in two parts, drawing the line as near the center of the Island as possibl*. 

 The point selected was the narrowest portion of the Province of Porto Principe (now 

 Camagiiey), between Jucaro on the Carribean and San Fernando on the Atlantic. Here 

 the famous Trocha was stretched, which consisted of hundreds of tons of barbed wire 

 so placed as to entangle any one who might attempt to pass from one half of the Island 

 to the other. The Spanish government built and operated a Military Railroad along the 

 Trocha, and at the distance of one kilometer apart constructed Block House forts, seventy- 

 two in all, which were occupied by troops who would shoot down any daring insurgent 

 who might attempt to break through the barricade of steel points that the barbed wire 

 obstruction presented. 



After the Treaty of Paris when Spain relinquished to the United States her Cuban 

 possessions, this railroad was among the effects surrendered to our Government, and 

 during the United States' occupation of Cuba the operation of this road was conducted 

 by the military authorities. 



The portion of Cuba traversed by this Jucaro & San Fernando Railroad was so 

 far removed from commercial points or ports, and was so sparsely settled that no culti- 

 vation whatever had been undertaken, and the lands were in a perfectly virgin state. 

 Locations along the Trocha were and still are designated by the numbers on the Block 

 Houses which mark each kilometer of distance from Jucaro to San Fernando. Between 

 Block Houses 35 and 44 was a belt of land considered to be the richest in all Cuba, but 

 wholly inaccessible by any then existing transportation mediums. 



In the Spring of 1899, through the officer in charge of the Military Railroad, Mr. 

 George H. Gillett of New York, learned of this rich agricultural district, and the possi- 



ORANGES, PINEAPPLES AND BANANAS ON THE CEBALLOS PLANTATIONS. 



