In 1914 he started a business with immigrants employed as woodcutters, felling trees.  With their experience he began to make contact with Americans with the intention of purchasing some land, initially just 200 acres. The farm purchased at Biran was small at first, so in the dead of night he would move the boundary posts nearer the road and railway lines.  He farmed sheep and poultry, which he sheltered under a house he built on stilts like those in Galicia.  It had a wide veranda and large rooms.  The land was suitable for sugar cane, but he also planted maize, kept poultry, and later cattle.  He soon came to preside over a finca called Manacas which had its own stores, slaughterhouse and bakery. There were a total of 27 buildings, among them: the school, the teacher's house, cockpit, movie theatre, store, bar, billiard, telegraph post office, workshop, Haitians’ house, and drugstore.  Neighbors who failed to pay their debts might find themselves boxing for their lives in the Cockpit.