St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-05-09

island will henceforth be sure of a
market for many Of her products in
this country. We have always been the
hest customers of the island, and al
most tbree-fourths of the value of its
exnorts was derived from the United
States. This volume of trade, large as
it has been, will probably be largely in
creased in the future.
But. leaving the question of the ma
ture of the political tie that shall bind
Cuba to the United States, conjectural
as it is, there exists moral certainty
that its conditions will Ge such as to
lead to the freest possible interchange
of commodities between them. We will
continue, as before, to be the greatest
purchaser of Cuban products, and Cuba
will be as never before a rich market
for our manufactured goods, cereals,
lumber, machinery, hardware, etc.
The mining industries of Cuba are
almost solely conducted by Americans,
but its capabilities in this respect have
been but slightly tested. There are val.
liable mines of iron ore Of the best quail,
ity, of copper, manganese, coal and
other minerals that only await men of
means and business talents to make them
sources of great profit, Cubans the
negroes in especial, are not good miners,
and there would undoubtedly be scope
here for some Of the workers in the
congested mining districts in Pennsyl-
vania and elsewhere, providing they
could stand the ravages Of the climate.
There are $1,000 600 acres of fertile
plains in Cuba, which so far have only
been used as natural pastures. Cattle
run wild TN these grassy eXpanses, and
hot as the climate is they seem to flour
ish as we'll as in more northern lati-
tudes. Many Of the plains are also in
the inland regions, lying ensconced be.
tween the hills and mountains, where
the altitude tempers the heat of the
sun. They are generally well watered
by the mountain streams, and where
these do not exist the copious rains
keep them ever green. This is another
industry that awaits development, and
which SO far has been almost entirely
neglected.
The forest products of the island, in
exhaustible as they are, also present
immense possibilities to American en-
terprise. Its 1900, 900 acres of wood
land contain the most valuable species
of trees used in the manufacture of fur
niture, such as mahogany, rosewood,
etc., as we'll as those suitable for ship
building and other purposes. This field
has scarcely been touched so far and
can undoubtedly be worked to great
profit.
Coffee was at one time the principal
source of Cuba's wealth. In the early
part of the present century 81, 600, 600
pounds of coffee, worth $780, 600, 600,
were produced annually in the island.
The industry had been started by French
planters who had escaped massacre in
Santo Domingo when the negroes re-
VOTED. The trade tiourished to an un-
paralleled extent, but finally after many
years the French planters were expelled
by the Spanish authorities. Since then
the production of coffee in Cuba has
been reduced to minimum owing to
the reason stated and also because the
reduced price of coffee rendered its pro-
duction less profitable.
But anteCedent to any great develop
ment of the resources of Cuba there
. must come an extension of its railway
system. This up to the present has been
entirely inadequate to the needs of the
country and would be fatal bar to the
, utilization of the vast resources of the
island There is scope here also for
, American enterprise. 1t is very improb-
able that anything of the kind will be
attempted by the people of Cuba, After
, years Of insurrection they have not the
capital required for constructing rail
roads, and even if they had it is ques-
| tionable if any of them would be will
ing to invest it in such an enterprise.
, NEIL MACDONALD.