THE CUBA RE\MEW 



23 



the buyers, tlie bid is made on a slip of 

 paper, which is handed to the owner. The 

 buyer whose paper shows the highest bid 

 gets the goods. The best sponges usually 

 command $1.15 per ])ound, while the infe- 

 rior grades bring about 20 cents per 

 pound. The total output from this port 

 is about one million pounds per year, and 

 the income in the immediate vicinity of 

 half a million dollars for the same. If 

 this industry was properly conducted it 

 could be very materially enlarged, as the 

 sponge is a form of animal life that can 

 easily be propagated." 



the project, and that the mill will have a 

 capacity of 100.000 sacks. 



The Cuban House on May 5th approved 

 the Pardo Suarez bill, e.xtending the time 

 for sponge fishing on the Cuban coast un- 

 til I\Iay 30th. This measure is the result 

 of a petition made by Batabano sponge 

 traders who claim that all their catches of 

 the last season were carried away by the 

 cyclone which visited the island last j^ear, 

 and they are prohibited by law to fish after 

 May 1st. 



The bill was amended so as to include 

 all of the island and sent to the Senate. 



AN IMPORTANT DEAL CLOSED 



The president of the Company of Cuban 

 Ports. Mr. T. L. Huston, recently received 

 the following cable : 



"Closed for a loan of six million dol- 

 lars with important banking houses of 

 this city, in favorable ccjnditions for the 

 company. Davis." 

 According to what was published by La 

 Lucha not long ago, Mr. Xorman H. Da- 

 vis, vice-president of the Trust Company 

 of Cuba, went to the United States and to 

 England to effect this loan. 



Part of it has been placed in A.merican 

 banks, and the other part, to which we re- 

 fer, in England. 



Another sugar mill to be ready for the 

 crop of 1913 is spoken of for Camaguey 

 Province in the neighborhood of Florida, 

 on the line of the Cuba Railroad. It is 

 said that an American svndicate is back of 



OVERPRODUCTION ANTICIPATED 



English dealers and brokers who have 

 recently returned from the western part 

 of the United States express grave fears 

 that there is imminent danger of an over- 

 production of American fruit, to be fol- 

 lowed inevitably by a glutted market, the 

 possible result to be not merely a lower- 

 ing of prices and a reduction of profits, 

 but a drop that will mean a distinct loss 

 to the American grower on this year's 

 crop. 



Breakfast hour on board of a Batabano schooner engaged in gathering sponges. Under the 

 wooden box in the foreground is the charcoal brazier on which the food is cooked. 



