The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1869-05-14
CUBA.
What is She Good Fora Full Ac
count OF Her Population aud Natural
ResOurcPS
From the New York Sun

From the New Y DIRK Sun
Since the Island OF Cuba cngrOsscs to
day very considerable share OF public at
tCutiOn and interest IN our community, we
have thought it we'll to lay before our read
ers a succinct statement OF. what Cuba
really Is, physically, geographically, agri-
culturally and financially.
Including the clrcumjacent keys and
reefs, her superles Is about 24O00, 600
acres, of which at least four ftths are
lands Of almost unsurpassed fertility. Her
cultivated tracts, however, comparatively
very few, the entire extent which produces
crops being under two million acres, her
virgin woods and natural pastures embrace
ing some fifteen million acres. The lands
on which her crops OF sugar, coffee, and
tobacco are raised are in most cases cleared
land With this-very insignificant proper
ton Of the sell under cultivation, Cuba
produces crops TO the extent Of not less
than one hundred aud thirty million dollars
per annum. In this amount, sugar the
great sApie of the island figures to the
sum OF sixty or seventy million, tobacco to
some fifteen or sixteen million, and coffee
to about five and half million dollars.
For the production Of sugar, probably 10
other lands in the world are so admirable
adapted, both from their character and
geographical position. While the Lcuisi-
ana planter is obliged to re~plant his fields
every year, their are many sugar estates
in Cuba which yield enormous crop con
secutively from forty tc fifty years with
out replanting Sugar is cultivated more
OF less all over the island, but the most
important SUGAR dis nets are in the juris-
dictious, of CardenaS, Natarzas, Sagua,
ami Remedies on the north side, and Glen
fuegos, Trinidad, and Santia 90 on the
south. The sugar estates are owned al
most entirely by native Cubaus, with the
exception Of few large ones belonging 10
some of the wealthy Spaniards Of t.avana.
The coffee crop Is obtained almost excu-
sively from the extreme eastern end Of the
island, in the hllly disttcts Wing back from
the ports Of Santiago dc Cuta and Guant~
anamo. Formerly coffee was extensively
cultivated IN the Fur'ta de a ajo-that
Is, ia The district on TIE South coast lying
west of Havana :; bur the price OF the ar
ticle falling some thirty years ago to about
four cents a pound, the planters began 10
abandon their plntatlOns, and transfer their
slaves to the districts back Of AlatanzaS and
Cardenas, where good nncieared sugar
lands were cheap, and devoted themselves
over, many advantages over coffee plant
lag, botn 10 large and small capitalists. Ia
the first place, sugar cane can be cut eight
months after il is planted hefeas the cot
fee plant bears only in the third or fourth
year of its growth, tbereb excluding per
sons of small capital; and secondly, be the
season good or bad, too wet or too dry, cane
always yields some proceeds, while the cot
fec planter is AWAY exposed to the danger
Of losing the whole OF his crop by I'M
seasonably heavy rain while the blush is 10
flower. go
The Cuban coffee planters OF to day
about Guantanamo and Santiago are in
nowise related to those who abandoned
their coffee planta tions in The western part
Of the isa,d. They are, in fact, almost
distinct race, both in origin and language
They are mostly descendants Of families
driven out Of Santa Domingo at The time of
the revolution, who finding land eminently
suited for coffee planting, transferred their