The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1869-05-21
Chr SNarlrtta 9anrnal.
Marietta. Georgia,
Friday Morning May "a, go.
waAr cuRA rs aoop FOR.

day very considerable share of public
attention and interest in our community,
we have thought il well to lay before
OUR cadcrs a succinct statement of what |
Cuba really is, physically geographical
ly, agriculturally and financially.
Including the circumj aeent keys and
reefs, her supcrfcics is about 24,0O0,-
600 acres, of which at least fourtifths
are lands of almost unsurpassed fertility.
Her cultivated tracts, however, arc COM
parativcly very few, the entire extent
which produces crops being under two
million acres, her virgin woods and nat
ural pasturages embracing some fifteen
million acres. The lands ON which her
crops of sugar, coffee, and tobacco arc
raised arc in most cases cleared land.
With this very Insignificant proportion
of the soil under cultivation, Cuba pro-
duccs crops to tho extent of not less
than one hundred and thirty million dol
lars per annum. In this amount, sugar,
the great staple of the island, figures to
the sum of sixty or seventy millions, to-
bacco to some fifteen or sixteen millions,
and coffee to about five and half mil
lion dollars. For the production of SUI
gar probably no other lands in the
world are so admirably adapted, both
from their character and geographical
position. While the Louisiana planter
is obliged to rcplant his fields every
year, there are many sugar estates in
Cuba which yield enormous crops con-
sccutiyely from forty to fifty years with
out rcplanting. Sugar is cultivated
more or less all over the island, but the
most important sugar districts arc in the
jurisdiction of Cardcna, Matanzas,
Sagua, and Remedies on the north side,
and Cienfucgos Trinidad and Santiago
on the south. The sugar estates are
owned almost entirely by native Cnbaus,
with the exception of a few large ones
belonging to some Of the wealthy Span
iards of Havana.
The coffee crop is obtained almost OK
cIusiycIy from the extreme eastern end
of the island, in the hlIy districts ymg
back from the ports Of Santiago dc Gu
ba and Guantanamo. Formcrl y coffee
was extensively cultivated in the Vucl.
Ia dc Abajo-that is, in the districts on
the south coast lying west OF Havana;
but the price Of The article falling some
30 years ago to about 4 cents a pound,
the planters began to abandon their
plantations, and transfer their slaves to
The districts back Of Matanzas and Car
denas, where good uLcleared sugar
lands were cheap, and devoted them
selves to The cultivation Of sugar. Su-
gar making, moreover, offers many adj
vantages over coffee planting, both to
large and small capitalists. In the first
place, sugar cane can be cut eight
months after it is planted, whereas the
coffee plant bears only in the third or
fourth years of its growth, thereby cx:
Guiding persons Of small capital; and
secondly, be the season good or bad, too
wet or too dry, cane always yields some
proceeds, while tic coffee planter is al
ways exposed to the danger Of losing
the whole OF his crop by an nnseason-
ably heavy rain while :llc bush is in
flower.
The Cuban coffee planters Of o-day
about Guantanamo and Santiago arc in
nowise~rcatcd to those who abandoned
their coffee plantations in the western
part of the island. They are, in fact,
almost a distinct race, both in origin
and language. They are mostly de-
sccndauts OF families driven out OF San
to Domingo at the time Of the rcvolu-
ton, who, finding land cmincn.ly suited
for coffee planting, transferred their in
dustrial pursuits and social institutions
to Cuba. Even now French is the al
most universal language on these estates
both among the owners and their slaves.
As an agricultural pursuit, coffee plant
ing is infinitely preferable to sugar max
ing. The estates arc generally on elc-
waited and hiIly lands, free from the in
tense heat Of the low, secthing sugar
districts the nights are always deli
ciously cool, and the labor is infinitely
less severe to the field hands.
The tobacco districts arc to the south |
west of Havana. The estates are in the |
hands of small planters, who in some
cases pay enormous rent for very choice
lands, and obtain equivalentIy enormous
prices for their crol. Tobacco of infe-
rior quality is raised in other districts,
such as Puerto Principe, Yara, and
Santa Clara.
The central portion Of Cuba, including
the large jurisdiction Of Puerto Principe |
known locally as Camaguey, is the great
pastoral district OF the island. The cat
tie estates in this section Of tic country
are of very great extent, consisting oil
virgin woods and sayannas in about equal (
and affurding admirable pas
turagcs for very large herds. Havana
derives her principal supply ofcaltIe from
this portion ofthc island. The average
annual value Of cattle sold 10 estimated at