THE CUBA REVIEW 



AND BULLETIN 



"ALL ABOUT CUBA" 



Copyright, 1907, by the JNIunson Steamship Line. 



Volume V. FEBRUARY, 1907. Number 3. 



THE FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SITUATION IN PINAR DEL RIO. 



Irrigation Urgently Advised — Moisture Requirements About the Same for Tobacco, 



Eggplants, Tomatoes and Peppers — Orange Trees Well 



Cultivated Withstand Drouth. 



BY F. S. EARLE. 



The season is turning out to be such an unusual one that an account of its effects 

 on the fruit and vegetable industry of this province may interest your readers. During 

 the last of September and the first half of October it was excessively wet. One heavy 

 rainstorm followed another so that the ground was continuously soaked and flooded, 

 giving very little chance to plow and prepare land for the winter crop. Vegetable seed 

 beds were mostly destroyed, and on most farms the season's work had practically to be 

 begun over again. Showers continued in October, but now, except in a few scattered 

 localities, there has not been rain enough to wet the surface soil for more than 

 twelve weeks. So long a period of drouth immediately followmg excessive rams 

 and with the soil hard and compact puts the water-holding capacity of these soils to 

 the severest possible test. 



On the heavy sugar lands, either red or black, the growing of vegetables m 

 winter without irrigation is seldom attempted, since it is only m occasional years 

 that the rainfall is abundant enough to bring them to maturity. In such a year as 

 this it would be utterly impossible. Tobacco, too, on the red lands of the Fartidos 

 district is always irrigated or, rather, I should say, hand-watered. Even deep-rooted 

 trees on these soils often suffer from drouth. This year the leaves have been curling 

 for many weeks during the middle of the day, and on thm shoots and feeble trees 

 many are now falling. V^^hether this will result m much permanent injury to the 

 trees it is yet too early to determine. j r tj <- 



In the great sandy land area of Pinar del Rio, extending westward from Punta 

 Brava on the Western Railway, including the districts known to tobacco men as 

 Vuelta Abajo and the semi-Vuelta, soil conditions are so variable that it is necessary 

 to make some distinctions in describing the present condition of the crops, i hrougn- 

 out this district it is the custom to plant both tobacco and vegetables without irriga- 

 tion, relying on the splendid water-holding capacity of the soil for bringing througti 

 the crop There are, however, many farms that are provided with means of irrigation 

 from wells. In a year like this such a precaution is likely to repay many times its 

 cost. As has just been stated, the soils of this region are very variable. The surface 

 soil is, however, always more or less sandy, and it is underlaid at a greater or less 

 depth by heavy beds of clay. These are the moisture-holdmg reservoirs, and when 

 ■ the surface soil is tilled to stop evaporation they keep feeding up moisture so that it 

 is available for plant growth. The heavier of these soils have^ become baked and 

 hard, and crops on such land are beginning to suffer severely. Such crops as toma- 

 toes, however, that were planted early, either before or immediately after the rams, 

 have matured nearly a full crop, only the later pickings showing lack of size. Later 

 planted crops however, on these lands will hardly mature unless ram comes very 



