The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-05-13
From the New York Sun.
CUBA.
What is She Good For7.

foSSftHOSO
NatWr0J Resources. 5arog30 if8h48 4
Since the island Of Cuba engrosses to7I
dave very considerable share of public
attention and interest in the community,
we have thought it well to lay before onr
readers a sbccinct statement ofwhat Cuba
really Is, physically, geographically, agri-
culturally and financially q 81 81 st9y2a
Including the circamjacent9 keys and
reefs, her superfcies is about 4,000,000I
acres, of which at least four-ffths aret
lands of almost unsurpassed II fertility. |
Her cultivated tracts, however, are COM
paratively very few, the entire extent
which produces crops being under two
million acres, herfvirgin woodsoand natu-
raj pasturages embraclnglsomeef fteen mill
lion acres The lands on which her crops
of sugar, coffee and tobacco are raised, /
are In most cases cleared land. With this
very insignificant proportion of the soil
UNDER cultivation, Cuba produces crops tot
theeztent of)not less thantone hundred
and thirty million aollars}per annumd In
this amount sugar, the great sta pile of theJE
island, figures to the sum of sixty or sew
eIty faillionI tobacc6 to sonnet fifteen ori
sixteen million, andDcoffee to some Live
and 81 half million dollars. u For the pro-
ductiony6f sugar, probably no otherlands'I
in the world are soI admirably adapted, 1
both from their character andageographie
cal position. While the Louisiana plants
eFissobliged to replant his fields every
year, there are many sugar estates in Gu
ba which yield enormous crops consecu-
lively from forty to fifty I9years without
replahting. b9sNgart is cultivated moreaor
less all over the tislandJ2 butphel most i'm
poFtant sugar districts are in the iurisdic-4
lions of Cardenas, Matanzas, Sagua, and
Remedies on the north side, and CienTue-.
COS, Trinidad, and Santiago on the south
The sugar estates are owned almost en-
tirely by native Cubans, with the excep-
tion of few large ones belonging to
some of theswealthy Spaniards of Hay-
ana Tead % sl9d5. sI3U y9d5Il begps s.li.
The eoffee.crop isobtainedd almost ex-
clusively from the extreme eastern end of
the island, in the billy districts lying
back from the ports of Santiago de Cuba
and Guantanamo. Formerly coffee was
extensively cultivated in themVuelte de
Abajo-that is, in the districts on the
south coast lying west of Havana; but
the price of the article falling some thirty
years ago to about four cents pound, the.
planters began to abandon their planta-
tions, and transfer their slaves to the dis
tricts of Matanzas and Cardinas, where
good uncieared sugar lands were ID cheap,
and devoted themselves to the cultivation
of sugar. Sugar, moreover, offers many
advantages over coffee planting, both
to large and small capitalists dn the first
place, sugar can be cut eight months after
it is planted, whereas the coffee plant
bears only in the third or fourth year of
its growth, thereby excluding persons of
small capital; and secondly, be the season
good or bad, tooowetior too dry, cane al
ways yields some proceeds, while the cof-
Zee planter is alwayssin danger of losing
the whole of his crophy an unseasonably
heavy rain while the bush is in flower.
The Cuban coffee planters of to-day
about Guantanamo and Santiago are in
no wise related to those who abandoned
their plantations in the western part of
the island. They are in fact, almost ads
tint race, both in origin and language.
They are mostly descendants of families
driven out of Santo Domingo during the
time of the revolution, who, finding land
eminently suited for coffee planting, trans
ferred their industrial pursuits and so
cial Iinstitutions to Cuba. Even now,
French is almost the universal, Language
on these estates, both among the. owners
and their slaves. arAsIan agricultural pur
suit, coffee planting is. infinitely prefer
able to sugar making. The estates are
generally on elevated and hilly land, free
from the intense heat of the low, settling
eug ar districts; the nights are always de
ficiously cool and the labor is less severe
70 the field hands aln9m12eo oli1 81
= The tobacco districts'are to the south
west of Havana. The estates are in Thu
hands 6f small pianters, who in some
cases pay enormous rent for very choic
lands, and obtain all equivolently enor
NOUS price for their crop. Tobacco, OF in
ferior eualityls raised in other districts
Puerto Principe. Yara and Santa Clara.
The central portion of Cuba, inclpdin:
the large jurisdiction of Puerto PRINCIPE
known locally as Ca1naguey, is the grea
pastoral district of the island. The cat
tie estates insthis section of the country
are of very great extent, consisting of VII
gin woods and savannas in about equa
proportion, afording abundant pasturag
for very large herds. Havana derives he
main supply OF cattle from this porto
Of the island. The average annual yalu
of cattle sold is estimated at over ofou
million dollars. The enormous amount {
large and valuable timber, of which th
untouched woods of this section are full
including mahogany, cedar and innumeri
bic other kinds, must some day draw cal