The times., 1899-07-16
FACTS CONCERNING CUBA
Answers TO Questions Propounded
by Prospective Immigrants.

Dairy Farming Probably the Best
Field of Industry Open for the
American AsricuIturist in the Is
! Innd-SpIendid Opportunities Are
Also offered the Vegetable Grower.
Trinidad de Cuba, June 29.-Though
American immigration has been Temporal
rily suspended by the yellow-fever scare,
the people seem to be as full of curiosity
as ever concerning the industrial and bust
ness possibilities of this modern Canaan
Letters containing all manner of queries,
on subjects ranging between natural his
tory, political economy, and the science of
agriculture, from the price of discarded
army mules to the cultivation OF Easter
lilies, continue to arrive as by wholesale
and nothing short of complete encyclo-
pedia of useful information could answer
quarter of them. Among the score
more or less-received by your correspond
ent during the last week-several of them
signed by Interested Reader" of The
| Times, Is one from a former New Eng
lander, who now resides in Arizona: and
l take it as the text for general reply,
| because II contains a number of the ques-
tions most frequently propounded He
asks: What Show do you think a man
with a family and only $4,000 or s.. 900
capital would have in Cuba?
Gould an industrious person do any
thing in the dairy business?
What about the price of land?
rental?
Would it be foolish venture to send
down working oxen to sell in Cuba?
is there an opening for chicken farms
on the incubator plan?
How about fruit culture?
Are the cabinet woods of the island
! worth considering for their marketable
/ value?"
Are there many dangerous reptiles and
| annoying insects such as ticks. flies. and
mosquitoes?"
One feels like rolling up his sleeves and
| drawing long breath before beginning on
such a catechism. In the first place the
family man should take into account the
cnances OF homesickness for his wife and
ehiidren, remembering that without con-
| tehtnent life Is not worth living. With the
working capital above mentioned. he ought
10 De toierably comfortable at home and
| should consider whether il is well to 1y
from Ills he has 10 those he knows not OF,
Il v.
Heaven forbid that any word of mine
should encourage the aimless spirit of un.
rest which affiicts so many of my country
! men. The chronic emigrant, who is for
ever moving on and taking root nowhere
| is the most unfortunate Individual on earth
next TO the homeless ones whom he
drags about with him. He who pulls up
stakes and transfers them elsewhere after
careful deliberation and with definite pur-
N " UipTr i- .,ttf-1
may be taken for granted that his family
have also counted the cost, realizing that
everything is different in a foreign coun-
| try and willing to forego much to which
\ they have been accustomed. AS rule, the
| climate of Cuba compares favorably with
that of the United States, and the natural
beauties are greater. The absence of cold
| and dreary winters and the continual pres
| ence of exuberant vegetation 90 far 10
compensate one for the loss of social pleas
ures. But it cannot be denied that Cuba
is still desolated country, in spite of all
| that has been done for her since American
occupation. People fresh from a land OF
comfort and plenty are made heart-sick by
the poverty seen OF every side
Thousands are still dying by inches of
"miseria" the strange disease born OF
the war-particularly in regions where ar
| my rations have not vet been distributed.
Sagua and Trinidad, hundreds are hiding
in the woods, subsisting on roots, nuts, and
| wild things growing, unable by reason of
absolute nakedness 10 return to their viii
lages where food and clothing might be
obtained. Taken as a whole there has
been vast Improvement among the recon-
centrado class within the last half
year. Unnumbered thousands of them
dropped into their graves during the
! plOOu1v ha oil
ade and most of the survivors are now do
| ing something toward their own support
True they are wretchedly poor and need all
the support that the United States is Civ
Ing them; but being again put into the
| way OF eking out a living from the soil
the army rations may in time be dispensed
with. These are the kind OF neighbors
the American farmer in Cuba will have. in
place of the thrifty, intelligent, well-to- do
! farming-class at home.
The Profits of Dairy Farming.
AS to dairy farming, there is no doubt
| that 1t is the safest and surest opening
which a man of average means and capa-
bilities can find today in Cuba. In this
province of Santa Clara, as well as in
Pinar del Rio and other parts of the ISL
| and, are immense stretches of grazing
lands, which may be bought for a few dol
lars the 'caballera' (thirty- three and a
third acres, equivalent to a few cents
per acre. On this point / cannot give ex-
act figures, because here, as elsewhere.
| land varies in value-not so much on &C.
count of the quality of the soil as for its
nearness to railways or markets, water
| privileges. etc. For pasture lands in IA
vorable localities. without buildings or cul-
tivation, rom 80 to 80 cents per acre would
be fair average. By the way, the new-
! conner is likely to meet American and
age him by every means in their power,
| telling him there is no money in the Gu
ban cattle trade, that 1t is "a losing
game" etc. They stick remarkably well
| themselves. however TO the trade which
has already grown to considerable pro-
portions out of free Importation The
natural inference is that. having invested
money in the business, they want a monop-
oily of the first chances, and therefore
issue unfavorabe reports to keep others
out of the field.
One of the greatest items of housekeep-
ing expense in Havana and other Cuban
cities is for milk, 80 cents a bottle (holding
about a quartz being the usual price Inn
ported condensed milk, in cans-very ex-
pensive and vile at the best, with its nasty
sweetish taste-is much more commonly
used. There are perhaps a dozen small
dairies in Havana. and their owners ought
to be miliionaires One of them is on the
Prado, with fine mansion on either side