The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-08-27
Planting in Cuba.

The twilight babblers still proclaim?
Planting in Cuba.
Some months since, accident called me to
Cuba, and interest led me to spend consid-
cradle time OH the ar-estates, where a
generous hospitality made my tarry very
pleasant. l said to my host one day, "Tell
me about your planting : and this is what
he said:
i'We plant our cane as much after the
Louisiana and Texas style as practicable,
though the soil of Cuba is SO rich and so
thoroughly adapted to the growth of cane
which is more like an exotic in the South
ern States-that the ground does not re-
quire the same amount of preparation
We pillow the land once or twice if it is
tough, the second furrough running at
right angles with the first, then lay it off
in burrows four feet apart with a tiuke, and
when it is quite moist, generally during OF
after a rain, we lay the cane its full length
in the burrows, and cover Immediately. In
ten days it begins to make its appearance
above ground, and a little hoeing until it
gets strong enough to keep the grass down,
and once or twice blowing, is all it requires,
and in ten months it can be made into sugar.
sThe first two years the yield is gener-
ally light, but as it grows older, the sugar
improves both in quality and quantity
Last year we averaged four thousand pounds
of sugar and two hundred gallons Of mo-
twenty-five years ago, and had not been
plowed twenty-five times; and this is no
unusual yield. A great deal of cane is
planted in Cuba in lands never touched by
a pillow much of the land is rocky, kind
of soft, porous, coral formation, and the
cane is planted between the rocks with the
aid of pick, one joint deposited in each
hole. Such land can only be cultivated
with grubbing- hoe, but it frequently yields
abundont crops.
"The Cubans are not an enterprising
people. Year after year, handsome for
tunes-in the shape of ripe cane-are left
city of hands, and the utter incapacity of a
Cuban to economize time, labor, or any
thing else, the native planters are often
caught by the rainy season with cane in the
fields, and thus lose considerable portion
of the crop. Until lately, little attention
has been paid to fertilizers, or close cul-
tivation of the soil but Cuban soil that
seemed inexhaustible to the grandfathers
of the present generation begins to show
the results of constant drain and no re-
newal. The large coffee estates as they
ceased to produce abundantly have been by
their wealthy owners converted into sugar
estates but after the first few years, they
find that something more than change of
crops is required, and a lively interest is
being manifested in fertilizers. The kind
almost universally used is mixture OF
cane-stalk ashes with the skimmings Of the
boiling syrup. 1t is all thrown together in
pond, and allowed to rot three or four
years. Upon the principle that like pro
duces like it ought to be the very thing,
but we find the addition of stable-manure
improves it. Our own place was one OF
the necessity of enriching the land, and
cultivating as far as practicable with the
pillow, by which means we have almost
doubled the previous crops.
with a force of one hundred and twenty
hands, we make yearly two million pounds
of sugar. and one hundred and forty thou
sand gallons of molasses. When the place
is in better order, we will be able to make
twenty-five per cent more with the same
force on eight hundred acres, which is all
that we can control in cane and this
amount of land in good cultivation ought
to produce two thousand hogsheads of
sugar. Cuba is no corn country, though
there is no month in the year when green
corn cannot be had, but the stalks are low
and spindling, the ear small and invariably
yellow. We have tried white corn and seed
from both the Northern and Southern
States, but have never succeeded in pro-
ducing an ear of corn from any other seed
than the native yellow corn of the island.
All the common garden vegetables of the
United States grow luxuriantly, and we
have many peculiar to the island that are
delicious.
'Horses and mules are not used for PLAN
tation purposes. Oxen are the sole beasts
of burden-a heavy band across the fore
head, secured by ropes about the horns, at
taches the animal to the cart, and the
draught comes upon the head.
"The native cattle of Cuba are very fine.
They feed entirely upon green food. Grass
is abundant in the spring and summer,
when the oxen are sent to pasture, and in
the fall and winter they are herded in the
rear of the cane-cutters, and are fed ell
tirely upon the cane-tops.
"The native hogs are also very fine
black, with long bodies, broad backs, and
short noses and are fed principally OH grass
and palm berries, with an occasional feed
of corn. They grow to good size the
flesh is esteemed great delicacy, and it is
really more savory than one would imagine
pork could be in the tropics, with the mer
curry at 9So in the shade.