MATANZAS. 
Matanzas is on the north coast 
63 miles from Havana. The route 
is by the United Railways. A con¬ 
venient way to visit the place, if 
only one day may be allowed, is 
afforded by personally conducted 
excursions provided by the rail¬ 
road. See page 16. On the way 
to Matanzas, some of the most 
considerable sugar plantations on 
the island are passed, thus afford¬ 
ing during the zafra, cr harvest, 
which extends from December to 
May, the interesting sight of cane 
being cut and carted to the in- 
genios or mills. In some regions 
the whole country appears to be 
one immense canefield stretching 
away beyond the sight, looking not 
unlike the cornfields of the West¬ 
ern States. The cut cane is con¬ 
veyed in carts drawn by bull teams, 
or on freight trains which are seen on the narrow-gauge plantation rail¬ 
roads. There are nearly 900 miles of these private sugar plantation 
railroads on the island. In the long trains carrying cane, the extensive 
ranges of the mill buildings, with their smoking chimneys, the sugar-laden 
atmosphere, and the general air of activity, some hint is given of the 
magnitude of the sugar industry. The Cuban sugar crop of 1914 was 
valued at over $10,000,000. 
The short railway journey is replete with scenery that is novel and 
fascinating to the tourists from the North. The peculiar richness of the 
native red soil—the most productive in the world—may be appreciated 
from the car window, and one ceases to doubt how it is possible to gather 
two and three crops of corn a year and a practically perpetual crop of 
cane without replanting, and without the use of an ounce of fertilizer. 
Countless thousands of royal palms are seen on either side—now in 
stately avenues, indicating existing or ancient boundaries or entrances to 
the country homes of rich planters and others; again, scattered about pro¬ 
miscuously on hill-top and in hollow. It is everywhere a conspicuous and 
characteristic object of the landscape, presenting itself in new groupings 
101 
