Evening star., 1899-02-11
A COUNTRY TRIP
Evidences Of Agricultural Recupera-
ton Quite Manifest.
MUCH HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
Land Being Cultivated in the
Country Provinces.
IT ToN
EXPRESSIONS FROM SOLDIERS
Copyright. 1899, by Charles NJ. Pepper.)

From a STAFF Correspondent.
GUANAJAY, Pinar del Rio, Feb. 1, 1899.
They had been having a spell of discour-
agement in Havana. Some officials mad
been fretting at the hindrances in the way
of getting the insurgents troops disbanded
and back in the country engaged in peace
full pursuits. Some ambitious military men
of minor grade. whose records are yet to
be made, had been hoping that Maximo
Gomez would. take to the brush. Army
politics was again creeping into the mill
tary occupation. Cubans were getting dis
trustful of American good faith and were
grumbling about carpet-bag appointments.
Spaniards We're Sullen and were showing
increased animosty to American authority.
So everybody was blue.
This cloudy and noisome atmosphere
comes up like miasmatic fog over night.
Than a beautiful haze from the north
sweeps it away. Its recurrence at inter-
walls is certain. For this reason 1 do not
think it necessary for the foghorn to be
blown continuously. Plenty of persons are
ready to do that A better way is to go
out into the country. where the fog never
becomes dense enough to hide the clear
skies. On this occasion an excursion away
from Havana was the more desirable be-
cause some observers declared that in the
rural regions not only was no progress in
industrial recuperation being made, but the
country districts were going backward. One
of the tobacco kings of the island had said
as much 1t is perfectly true that in some
sections no apparent progress is making
and in these not much can be done until
hext season. This is well understood. That
parts of the country are actually retro
grading was diScouragin news. Having
been over the same ground in October, 1
have travelled it again in order to see
the real conditions. To make sure that my
faculties We're not misleading me, 1 Travelled
first over the railway line and then over
the calzoda or paved highway west from
Havana.
Agricultural Recuperation begun.
Whichever route is taken, it is a matter
of a few hours to reach Guanajay. The
''tren de carga,' or local freight starts
from the city in the morning. Some pas
senger coaches are hitched on, and the
traveller pays the English capitalists who
own the road cents mile for the privi-
lege of going over the line in 1-cent cars at
an oxDace. The advantage lies in the
chance to see the country. 1t is possible to
get out and walk ahead or to linger behind
and catch up with the train at leisure. The
morning l came out friend accompanied
me. We improved our opportunity. and
were able to get good idea of the extent
to which the land is under cultivation and
of what the inhabitants are doing.
Our train stopped at two three small
stations and sidings to unload some lumber
and poles. The fields around all these vii
lagos had growing tobacco. The lumber
and poles were for new drying sheds. In
and only the roofing was lacking. At San
Antonio de los Banos two or three carloads
of lumber were on the Sidings, and our
train switched two or three more cars. For
mile on all sides the fields had either to-
bacco, sweet potatoes or corn growing. In
some of the fields the tobacco was ready
for drying, though most of it still
young. San Antonio was in its day n
notable town, made so by its mineral wat
ers and baths The prosperity which came
from that source will return, but it must
follow the agricultural recuperation. The
latter has already begun. That is the hope
full sign. San Antonio is not bnbbiing with
prosperity. Hungry women and children
may still be seen in its streets, and there
are probably more who are sick in the
houses. Yet for the most of the population
that has strength to work the fields offer
it, and they seem to be working.
Hope for the Future.
Beyond San Antonio and toward GUIANA
jay there is a considerable area of tobacco
lands which are bearing fair crop. Some
oxen seem to have been found and the
ploughing for the other crops is also going
forward. The rich red soil in this region
produces equally well tobacco, corn, sugar
cane and sweet potatoes. 1t would pro-
duce other vegetables IL the people knew
| how to raise them. Many of the bohios
|. .huts which are now inhabited by families
| are in the midst of groves Of plantans,
| the bananas which are good only when
| cooked called. Wild orange trees are
\ bearing pleHIllully. JEo Eul1lS OIL stone
| buildings half overgrown by the vines
yet oppressive, but against this vision is
! the sight of drying houses, palm bohios and
| farm dwellings of a better class going up.
Some entirely new, others are res
| torations' of palm leaf thatching and
Notwithstanding on bamboo poles, which
| Weyler left standing when he cleared the
country.
| 1 do not mean to say that these little
| farm houses and these drying sheds are
numerous enought to change the face of
| the landscape from what 1t has been for
| three years past. They are not. But they
| do break the monotony of desolation and
they give hope for the future This prog
| ress has been made possible by the nature
| of the tobacco trade. In the fall the buy
ers and manufacturers advanced money
| for oxen and supplied the young plants.
| Some of this was to tenants and some was
| to vegeras, farmers, who owned their
| lands. The result has been that the tobac-
| co fields now stretch for a considerable dis
| tance in all directions around Guanajay.
| The corn fields are also fairly numerous.
One Great Ruin.
| More courage is required to come out
| the highway to Guanajay than to follow
| the railway line. After leaving Marianoa
one wishes again for the sea, which is seen
| from the hills for a few miles. The
"potreros." or country farm residences,
| along the way have not been rebuilt, and
moA of the fine estates are yet without
| occupants, But here and there one is being
| prepared for a family and the humber
| dwellings are finding tenants. Around all
| these are little patches of tobacco or corn.
| There is much land that has been freshly
| turned over by the plow, and this land will
| soon be planted. A splendid pineapple plan
| tation along this road is in full cultivation.
| The approach to the villages is marked by
| the increase in the tobacco and corn fields.
| The one which retains its pre-eminence as
| a ruin IS Rio Colorado. This Is an Ameri-
can camera village. More cameras have
| "a lENrnt tl6 tortr, vail fhnr, IN,
| any other place in Cuba. 1t still gives the
| best picture of the havoc which the insur-
| rection caused. A few snap shots and the
| story is told. But I noticed yesterday that
two or three of those walls had been pulled
| down. In one spot they had been replaced
| by manposteria, or masonry, for
structure. In two three years all the
old ruined walls will be gone.
| The deserted sugar mill lies a few miles
beyond Rio Colorado. How 1t came to be
| spared in the midst of the universal de-