The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-05
CUBAN INDUSTRIES REVIVED
FIRST CAR OF SUGAR MARKETED
AT SANTIAGO.
Scarcity of Oxen Retards Plantation
Work-Americans Buying Timber
Lands In Eastern Cuba.

Correspondence of the Associated Press)
Santiago de Cuba, Feb. 2O.-The first
car of sugar that has come into San
l;ago since long before the blockade
and the first that has been produced
since the spring of 1897, was marketed
last week. 1t came from the Santa
Ana plantation, near San Louis, the
first to begin grinding. There was quite
celebration among business men in
the warehouse district, and Senior Auza,
proprietor CT the plantation, was warm
ly comDilmented on his enterprise IN
starting the new era of prosperity.
Sugar is king in Cuba. ON the big
plantations and their dependent colon
ials he's practically depended the pros
-perity Of The island. Many mills have
been DESTROYED, and viii require time
and new CAPITAL to restore, but those
remaining are resuming the work CT
grinding as rapidly as possible.
One Of tie difficulties encountered by
planters whose mills have escaped ne
strIctiOn is lack of oxen TO haul lhs
cana. ct the hundreds oe thousands
of work cattle formerly employed On
tie big plantations, scarcely any nave
survived tie war. The cattle business
IS the most active OF any here at pres
y
lningo, Porto Rico and Carrnagena have
been rushed in, and even Texas had
taken adrantage of the excellent mar
ket although West India bred stock Is
preferred. Well-broken oxen sell read
lily ct from $175 to $500 per yoke, and
lha demand greatly exceeds the sunpiy.
One II the largest planters, Mir. Rig
Dey, has imported number OF Amerl-
can traction engines as an experiment,
ND &c. successfully
ing cane.
A number of representatives of Amer
jean syndicates are examining tracts Of
land in the interior, with a view OF
purchasing. Captain c. c. Vaughn and
Lieutenant T. c. Causey of General
Lees staff have purchased from the
Grinon Bros. of this city a tract COM
prising $1,000 acres of choice cedar and
mahogany land in the Nipe bay dis
trict. This is the first big real estate
transaction in this province since the
war. The tract contains some of the
best tobacco land east of the Havana
district, and is admirably ADAPTED to
sugar and coffee culture when the tim
Der has been removed.
The demand of northern investors IS
for timber lands. Most of the available
timber of value has been cut Off but
there is a practically unlimited Y sly
in the interior that can be purchased
at from so cents to 81 per acre. Much
of this land will be practically without
value, however until railroads are
built. but it is regarded as an excel
lent investment for syndicates able to
wait for the much-desired railroads, or
90 huild them for themselves.
Land prosDectors in the interior find
a serious difficulty in the lack of re-
liable mans. Native guides know the
roads. such as they are, but to locate
tract of land from such descriptions
as are found on deeds is sometimes al
most impossible. Frequently owners
and their agents have only a vague
idea of the location, and confess them
selves unable to indicate the exact
boundaries.
A complete and accurate survey is
greatly needed.