Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-08-02

they are today.-Thomas O'Donnell, NJ.
p, In Review of Reviews.
1000
CUBAN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES,
1t is wholly probable that one of
Cuba's greatest industries, If not her
greatest, will be the production of fruits
and vegetables for the American market.
Thirty or forty years ago, the Havana
orange was the choice orange of the
market. American cultivation of the
fruit, and the energy with which the
American output has been pushed, have
sent the Cuban orange into the back
ground. But there is no question that
the proper cultivation, in Cuba, of the
Cuban stock will result in the produc-
ton of an orange which for juicness,
flavor, size, and sweetness will be with
out superior in the world. The free
skinned mandarin oranges can be pro-
duced to advantage, as can the kindred
fruits, the shaddock, the grape fruit, the
lime, and the lemon.
Cuba can raise all the bananas that the
United States can eat, and it is probable
that at no distant day those concerns
which now control the trade in bananas
anu NONOdhulS anu PibNoPPiNS wa W.
look to nearby Cuba for their supply of
these fruits, leaving Jamaica and Belize
and San Domingo to find new markets.
Figs, dates, guavas, nectarines, apricots.
and pomegranates are all among the
ready possibilities for either canning or
shipment. The aguacate Is fruit which
careful shipment might well lay down in
northern markets to the great advantage
of northern palates. To those who have
eaten mangoes in the Philippines and
other points in the far East, the Cuban
mango Is a distinct failure. The guava
Jelly of Cuba is endlessly superior to the
product of India and the far East, and
larger market should be opened for it.
1t is quite probable that there are
several moderate fortunes waiting for
those who will go to Cuba and grow
strawberries in business way. The
same may be said of melons. By proper
cultivation, strawberries may be pro-
duced every month in the year under
natural conditions. Specially selected
sites and artificial irrigation might be
necessary, but the sites and the water
are there for those who will make scien-
tific study of a promising indus try.
Small watermelons of delicious sweet
ness and flavor, and muskmelons of
excellent quality, make their appearance
in the market early in the year. Pine
apples are receiving considerable at
tention, and there are both promise and
opening for wide extension of their
cultivation. Cuba is land of fruits and
vegetables, and the great markets of
America are open TO her products.
Many vegetables will produce two crops
per year, and some are perennial. New
York may we'll eat Cuban peas and
tomatoes and Strawberries, all fresh
from the vines, at reasonable prices in
midwinter. With capital, cheap sugar,
and intelligent direction, Cuban canned
fruits and preserves might well become
famous. Careful and Intelligent in
vestigation of Cuba's possibilities in
fruits and vegetables will open many
avenues for profitable investment. The
Cuban "sisal grass" is of better quality
than the Mexican, and the industry is
hardly touched. The yucca is plant
whose root yields a highly superior
starch-Albert G. Robinson In Review of
Reviews.
| 900
THE BARBARIAN IN CHINA,
The massacre at Blagovestchenk,
which was the most horrible of the
many horrible episodes of the Chinese
war, has been denied absolutely by
some Russian officials, but the Russian
government has acknowledged it by i'm
plication. A correspondent of The Pail
Mall Gazette, whom we have quoted
before, speaks of the positive orders by
the car to prevent such atrocities in the
future and another traveller in Manchu-
ria, Mrs. Arthur Little, reports the
severe reprimand OF its responsible
authors, one of whom is said to have
committed suicide as consequence.
Mrs. Little also gets at some direct
testimony with reference to the mas
racre, which she has sent to the London
Times in the words of another Russian
officer, as follows:
| l cannot think how 1t occurred. Grbsky,
the governor there, is a most charming man,
and the governor OF Khabarovka, to whom
he referred the matter, has the kindest of
hearts. think it must have been a mistake
| about telegram. You see, when Grlbsky
| telegraphed from Blagovestchenk asking
what was to be done, the Governor OF Kha- !
| barovka telegraphed back, "ln war burn and
destroy" and think Gribsky cannot have
noticed that sin war" You see they just
took all the Chinese and forced them into
| the river on boats that could not carry them. |
and when the women threw their children on
shore and begged that they, at least, might
be saved the Cossacks caught them on their
bayonets and cut them to pieces.
Besides this Mrs. Little has the eyi-
dence of photographs taken before and
after the massacre, which show that the
Chinese settlement at Sahaline, across
the river, was reduced from a prosper
Gus place of FROM 5000 to 6000 inhab-
tants to a condition of absolute ruin.
Town and people appear to have been
blotted ont together, and a Russian lady