The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-10-25
PRICES OF LAND IN CUBA
Corporal RhOades Tells How the
ShreNyd Ones are Setting snares.

ShreYyd Ones are Setting Snares.
Guthrie O. T., Oct. A.-Though the
once predicted rush Of American immi-
grants to Cuba has never matertalized,
and it may not be necessary to utter
warnings to the unwary, still the follow
ing extract from a letter TO the Hennes-
sey Kicker from Corporal Rhoades. in
Cuba, tells a good story, and tells 1t well,
especially as it is written with the evil
dent intention of telling those who read
it what they want TO know, and not, like
most letters from foreign shores, things
that can as well be found out in the cy-
clopedias and aliases. The corporal says,
in part:
What is Cuban land worth?' That is
question being asked all over the Unit
ed States. That question I cannot an
swer, but I can tell the price Of land
They estimate here that one acre Of cane
will pay $50; that is. produce $50 worth
of cane each year. Land that would pro
duce that amount of money to the acre
would be worth anywhere in the United
States 500 to 81, 900 per acre. The price
of land here is from 50 to Sc per acre.
and IS now ready for the plow. Cultiva-
ton Of sugar cane is as simple as that Of
sorghum and doubtless as cheap, except
in planting. The cane is planted by lay
6ng whole stalks in the furrow, and is
quite expensive, costing for seed alone
about IS per acre. The cane fields were
utterly destroyed during the war, and it
is safe to say that not one-thousandth
of the island is in sugar cane. For one
cane mill left standing one can see a
hundred that have been destroyed. There
never was over one-tenth of the island
in cultivation. The Spanish landholders
are all DESTROYS Of selling out and going
TO Spain, while thousands of the Cuban
landholders are compelled, by present ne
cessity, to sell their lands. In fact, the
whole country is for sale and but few
buyers. and ali are eagerly looking for
ward to an influx Of Americans as pur-
chasers. A great many companies are
being organized to buy it cheap and d.
vide At into small farms, which will be
sold at a profit to the companies. Some
of these companies have secured tracts
of land as low as 81 per acre. know Of
one tract near Colon, containing 5000
acres, with good building and enclosed
with hedge fence and containing enough
Feed for planting the entire tract, to be
sold for $4,000. This tract is being cut
into 5o-acre farms, to be sold at $500 each,
being three and one-third times what the
company paid for it. Thirty sales will
repay the company. I cite this TO show
that the many investing in Cuban land
schemes at prices from $50 to 40 per acre
are simply being robbed. 1t IS a notori-
Gus fact that a certain tract Of land well
covered with scrubby timber and being
advertised extensively for sale in the
eastern end Of the province at from S25
10 $50 per acre was purchased for 66 %
cents per acre. The tract contains about
bo,OoO acres and is held by stock com
pany, and enough stock has already been
sold to more than cover the original cost
price Of the land. As this land has to be
rleared before being cultivated, some one
Is going to play sucker to that COM
panys drag net"