14 



THE CUBA REVIEW And Bulletin. 



THE "CHICAGO" COLONY AT ITABO. 



It was early in February that a repre- 

 sentative of the CuRA Review again vis- 

 ited the colony, a season of the year when 

 Cuba is most alluring to the northern 

 dweller. At home the snow and ice and 

 killing cold everywhere, here walsing up 

 the grassy mad from Itabo, a June morn- 

 ing, with the atmosphere cool and exhil- 

 araiing. and walking a delight. Every- 

 where palms of all kinds, rolling land, with 

 blue hills in tlic distance. The colony is 

 on land owned by the Culia Real Estate 

 Association, with offices at ico Prado, Ha- 

 vana. They have extensive holdings, and 

 many families from the United States have 

 already purchased many acres, buili their 

 homes, and settled down to plant early 

 vegetables, bananas, strawberries, pineap- 

 ples, oranges, and grape-fruit. Most of 

 them own from 20 to 40 acres, and some 

 considerably more. 



The visitor had not walked very far, 

 however, when he was hailed by Mr. R. II. 

 Leeder. the representative of the company, 

 who was coming down to meet him with 

 a wagon and a mule team. Under Mr. 

 Leeder's cour;eous guidance, much of the 

 colony was visited and interesting infor- 

 mation and photographs secured. 



Itabo was suffering, like the rest of Cuba, 

 from the effects of a phenomenal drought. 

 The orange trees had yellow leaves and 

 other fruits and vegetables showed the ef- 

 fect of the dry weather; tomatoes espe- 

 cially had become affected with a kind of 

 rot which greaily curtailed the yield. Yet 

 water is easily obtained if irrigation could 

 be practiced, at no great depth — at 18 feet 

 on Mr. Leeder's place and 30 feet on Mr. 

 Jones's land. The latter's well had plenty 

 of water in it. On the other hand, despite 

 the general dryness, strawberries on the 

 farm of J. A. Gutzen looked well, and, 

 what is of more importance, yielded 

 abundantly. They were of large size and 

 exquisite flavor. The New Oregon is the 

 variety planted, and 100 plants were set 

 out in T905. He now has 1,000 plants from 

 the original setting. The first quart of - 

 berries was picked on Christmas, and the 

 yield will last well into April. 



Potatoes are planted in November. Or- 

 dinary United States market potatoes were 

 planted. Because of the dry weather the 

 plantinfT was not a success. When seen 

 in February the plants were but six inches 

 high and had egg-size tubers. 



L. C. Rounds keeps a general store, has 

 3 acres to oranges, owns 40 acres, has plant- 

 ed Valencias and Navels. His trees looked 

 well and some of them, small as they were, 

 bore fruit. 



D. Rounds has been in Itabo 2 j'^ears, 

 owns 20 acres and has 3 or 4 acres in or- 

 anges, keeps chickens and sells eggs and 

 fowl to Itabo people and also in Cardenas. 

 C. E. Peck has been there 21/2 years and 

 owns 90 acres, has ]4 acre in pineapples. 



hold Hoc pines last season at 10 cents in 

 Cardenas. Has 5 acres planted to grape- 

 fruit. 



Clias. H. Jones had some grape-fruit, but 

 did not know the variety. 'The intense 

 drought had kept everything back. Has 

 about 3^4 acTes under cultivation, and J4 

 acre devoted to a nursery. He found wax 

 beans grew easily and were productive, and 

 he had fine tomatoes. He planted about 

 November i. 



Henry Taipales has 20 acres, and has 

 about 2 acres under cultivation. His toma- 

 toes and potatoes looked very well because 

 he diligently watered them. He complained 

 very much of import exac;ions. declaring 

 that articles brought from the United 

 States cost double price before they reached 

 him. Would buj- much more if costs were 

 not so high. 



Deer are fairly plentiful in Itabo. They 

 are handsome little creatures, and are a 

 welcome addition to the larder. Mr. Jones 

 had shot one in his garden near the house 

 but a few days before. 



R. H. Leeder has 2 acres under culti- 

 vation, has some 250 banana trees, and 

 gets IOC. a hand, or 75c. per bunch. 



John H. Green has 20 acres, manufac- 

 tures charcoal, keeps bees and chickens. 

 Has not much land in cultivation. 



A large portion of the company's newer 

 property purchase is dcvoied to sugar cane, 

 and the plants looked as well as any seen 

 in other parts of Cuba, indicating the fer- 

 tility of the soil. 



^lany of the settlers had small holdings 

 of sugar cane, and in every case the cane 

 was of good size. The Finn settlers had 

 experimented in this direction, and had 

 planted small Quantities which they readily 

 sold to' the Tinpnaro mill at Perico. 



Chickens bring $1, broilers 40c. to 50c. 

 Eggs 4CC. per dozen and upward. 

 Tomatoes 5c. per lb. 

 Strawberries 50c. per quart. 



Itabo has two mails a day, and is easy 

 of access to Cardenas. If the production 

 warranted, no doubt, cars could be des- 

 patched without change from Itabo to Ha- 

 vana nnd to the North. Itabo is not much 

 further away from the Havana shipping 

 point than Herradura. and the settlers at 

 the latter place are making money shipping 

 early vegetables in the United States. The 

 trouble, said Mr. Leeder, is that people have 

 not much reserve capital and cannot im- 

 prove their holdings as rapidly as they wish. 

 There are 20 families in all. There is a 

 school with an American teacher, and 15 or 

 more children attend for ten months, be- 

 tween September and July. The teacher. 

 Miss Ella Tallmadge, is paid by the land 

 company. The children showed the results 

 of good tuition and readily went through 

 their lessons for the benefit of the visitor. 

 Two flaxen-haired little Finn girls showed 

 wonderful progress in reading. 



