The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-07-15


 smells. Happily for all concerned and especially for the cows, the course of American military sanitation led to an inspection of diseased milk, and the cat tie were ordered to the country At present the daries of Cuba do not begin to supply the demand, especially since nowadays Spaniards and Cubans alike haVecontracted, by force of example, the American habit (bad when it cannot be easily indulged) of lubricating their bread with butter-a thing almost un- heard of in Cuba before the war. Most of the butter now used is imported III small tins, from the land of the Danes; and judging by the order thereof, which Senator Proctor declared was poWeftul enough to lay low the spanish army without firing gun, it may have gwen rise to the historic remark anent 'some- thing rotten in Denmark. In Havana the retail price of fresh butter brought in the cold storage of steamers, is Sl.25 the pound. Even at that price it finds an eager market, and the supply it at present far short of the demand. The cows used to be driven from door to door, to be mlked before the consumers tyCo ulltll ei LEW SCctlo cSop' fAiNii NAAo captain-general issued an edict forbid ding the practice. To this day goats are hauled about town by a string and millxed for the convenience of customers.
 Another important industry, which is never likely to be overdone in Cuba, no matter how many Americans flock i'll, is true truck farming. It is strange that the natives of this wonderfully fertile
 island, like those of Mexico and most semi-tropical countries, seem to have no idea whatever of growing the common table vegetables. Asparagus, for exam pie, can be bought in Havana only in tins, though three or four crops year of it might be raised without an effort. Yet everybody is fond of it and in the swell la carte restaurants pays dol lar the plate for the canned stuff. To- matoes are sometimes grown in back patios, more for an ornament than any thing else, but are never raised to any extent, though everybody depends upon
 them to assist the salad which figures so largely twice every day in the Cuban menu None are found in the markets outside of tin cans, except the small, bit ter, wild variety Celefy, we do not eX- pect in regions where there is no frost;
 but I am told by an American who tried
 the experiment, that it grows to surprls-
 ing perfection in the sandy soil of Cuba. A great many Irish potatoes are grown, especially in the irrigater Guines valley,
 but not nearly enough to supply the whole island The bonjato, kind Of wild sweet potato, is much more com as without care and it's sugary taste is agreeable to the native palate. Cabbages, peas, beets, turnips and other ordinary vegetables are not grown at all in Cuba, though the people of the cities are literally Waltlng to consume all that can be produced So utterly ignorant are the natives of
 market gardening that when the starv- ing reconcentrados at Marianoa were given the use of land on which to raise
 something to sustain life, and seeds and implements were offered them, every one started in to plant tobacco, the only | staff of life" with which they were ac- quainted Lying close,to all the houses | and cities are large areas of unused | land. Some of it maly need drainage
 and other portions irrigation; but an in- | telligent. willing to-work northern far mer will know how to supply either ne cessity in some simple inexpensive fash | ion. The natives, having no idea of truck farms, are ignorant of the value
 of these lands, and will not find it out
 until American, German and Chinese
 market-gardeners have taught them an l object-lesson. Whether the soil is black l and deep chocolate color, or red as ! brick-dust, it's fertility is the wonder ot | the world You may search the grazing meadows of Santa Clara and the grass "porterros of Puerto Principe and i scarcely find stone. No sticky clay Is 1 found in the earth, but great depth o1 | loam, the result of centuries of organic | decay, fertilized by the dtsintegration of | coral reefs and older lime rock, and py | the remains of marine mammalia that | swarmed the MiOcene ocean. The Whole island is one big tropical conserNatory'
 and it's wealth of verdure is that of the northern hot-house.
 As to whether it would prove profit
 able venture to send down working oxen | for sale in Cuba, I can only say that | oxen are used for all the heavy work ot the island in place of mules or man-poW- CT, and even of machinery 1t has all ways been believed that only oxen can blow the land, which after the long, dry
 season, becomes in many places hard as
 macadamized road. An American gentleman of my acquaintance, who Is doing some experimental farming in the Guines valley. has demonstrated the un-
 truth of the proposition by blowing Witf
 mules. and doing good deal more of it in a day than the Cubans have ever
 done. His farm however, lies in the ont
 irrigated section of the island, or per
 baps he could not have accomplished it
 First he softened the hard-baked clay
 by turning on water for couple o1
 days; and then with a pair of army mules and an American steel blow
 turned up an acre of ground in one day twelve inches deep, to the unbounded as tonishment of the natives. Hitherto, fol four long centuries, only the surface oi ! Cuba has been slightly scratched Wltf
 wooden blows, leaving all below in Y1r
 gin richness If any of my readers de
 sire further particulars concerning Gu 1 ban farming, they can obtain them pS 1 writing to MT Edward Egleston l Guines, Province of Havana. He is th'
 experimental agriculturist above re ferred to--an obliging American gentle
 man of highest attainments, who vii doubtless cheerfully answer all ques tions-if stamps are enclosed for reply
 The possibilities of fruit-culture il Cuba are practically unlimited As eve