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THE CUBA REVIEW And Bulletin. 



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I'rcparuig wild l:iiul tor jilowiug and cane lilaiitiiis:. This pliotcifri'apli illustrates the use of modern 

 methods and agricultural machinery. The operator is using a m<i(iern steel scraper for leveling off 

 ant-hills. This land was originall.y forest land and had been cleared and burnt over, and with the 

 passing of the forest trees, the ant-hills became deserted. See photograph of ant-hill on page 17; also 

 article giving Interview with Mr. Gray, describing his methods of exterminating this pest, the Blbl-Jagua. 



GREEKS FOR CANE PLANTATION WORK IN CUBA. 



An Interesting Experiment to be Tried 

 on the Santa Lucia Estate. 



The labor question in Cuba, always a 

 most important and urgent one, has be- 

 come more so as the acreage devoted to 

 sugar cane increases, and although the 

 Government several months ago devised 

 an immigration scheme of inviting col- 

 onists from various countries to come into 

 Cuba, allowing them certain financial aid 

 each year for current expenses and for 

 the securing of the necessary cattle,, ma- 

 chinery and agricultural implements gener- 

 ally, the individual planters of the Island 

 have found this process all too slow and 

 have been forced, in view of the coming 

 large sugar crop, to devise other means 

 to secure the necessary labor for harvest- 

 ing the crop, which promises to be as 

 large as any they had for several years. 

 Mr. Rafael Sanchez, the owner of the 

 Santa Lucia plantation at Vita, who was in 

 New York City a few weeks ago, has se- 

 cured some Greeks for his plantation, and 

 if the experiment succeeds will get more. 

 He gave a representative of the CUBA 

 REVIEW the following interesting de- 

 tails : 



The labor to be secured at Vita is in- 

 adequate and Mr. Sanchez was therefore 

 forced to look abroad for more material. 

 On coming to New York, he was ap- 



proached by a well-known Greek who em- 

 ploys his men for various work in the 

 United States and other countries and who 

 suggested to Mr. Sanchez the advisability 

 of importing a lot of his countrymen for 

 the purpose of sending them on to Santa 

 Lucia to work on the plantation. Mr. 

 Sanchez thought so well of this plan that 

 he immediately made arrangements for the 

 importation of as many able-bodied work- 

 men as could be secured. He can use at 

 least four hundred, and took down with 

 him as many as he could gather, probably 

 forty or fifty. These men will be paid 80 

 cents to $1.50 per day, American currency. 

 They will have steady work the year round. 

 There are boarding houses and hotels at 

 Vita which will be able to accommodate, 

 at a moderate cost, all who come. 



Mr. Sanchez does not maintain a country 

 store where the employees can purchase 

 such goods as they require, but permits 

 anyone who wishes to open a store. If 

 the Greeks, who may come down in suf- 

 ficient numbers, find it convenient to have 

 a store of their own, they are at perfect 

 liberty to do so and the plantation owners 

 will give them assistance, financial and 

 otherwise. If these men take their fam- 

 ilies with them, Mr. Sanchez will build 

 them a house and will give them sufficient 

 ground on which they can raise pineapples, 

 grape fruit, oranges, vegetables, etc., which 



