Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1901-07-13
SMALL FARMS IN CUBA.
Opportunities Offered In the Dis.
trict of Guines.
VALUE OF IRRIGATION SHOWN.

Potatoes and Onions Can Be Grown
For the American as Well as the
Cuban Market-Extent of q Cabal-
ferin of LaEd-A Texans Profitable
Venture.
1t Is one Of the common mistakes that
Cuba Is good to raise only sugar and
tobacco, says the New York Tribune's
correspondent writing from Guines'
Leaving out the culture of fruits, which
Is going to take front rank in its agrl-
cultural industry in the near future,
there is yet a further variation in pro-
ductlon. Guiues is the district of small
farms and small farming. They raise
crops not only for local consumption,
hut for export to the United States No
section of the island gives a better
chance to study the prospects and the
conditions of small farming.
Before the instruction brought such
great destruction the Guines district
was one of the most prosperous parts
of the island. 1t has been coming up
rather slowly because, with so large a
proportion of small farms destroyed
and with their owners dead or heavily
in debt, speedy recuperation was not
possible. The foreclosure Of mortgages
which has begun still bears heavily on
some unfortunate landowners, but this
i, of 1,n col re nf
war which no authority Of government
could entirely relieve. Nevertheless. in
spite Of the grip of the Spanish money
lender, many of the original owners Of
the small farms or their heirs seem to
be keeping their property or part Of
it. Their burdens are heavy, yet en-
enlargement is given that with a good
season or two these will be lightened.
The Gunes district is not given over
entirely to small farming. for half the
there are several large centrales, or
sugar mills, which did not have to be
rebuilt. All of these have raised fair
crops this year, which have brought an
average price, and thus the gradual re-
yival of the sugar industry has helped
other agricultural pursuits. The cane
planted insures Il crop at least one
fourth larger next season. and this will
be an additional aid toward recupcra-
ton.
The Guines district differs from other
parts of the island in that it does not
depend Oh mature alone for it's fertility.
Irrigation enabled it to become the
market garden Of Havana and to eX-
port a considerable surplus crop of
onions. potatoes and other vegetables
to the United States. 1t is claimed that
a good part of the Bermuda onions, in
stead Of coming from Bermuda, come
from Guincs. BY means of irrigation
the district is enabled to market two
crops of both potatoes and onions an
nually in addition to other products
which are raised for the island con-
sumption.
The irrigatinS bitches have not been
restored 20 their former condition, but
enough is seen of the system to dem
onstrate its value in country where
the rainy season of four or five months
is supposed to furnish sufficient mois-
ture for the rest of the year Guines,
by means of irrigation, has had the ad-
vantage over the other parts of the is
land in that it could alternate the crops
with greater regularity and was not af-
fected by the occasional droughts
which occur often enough to demon
strate that the rains in Cuba are not
perennial or perpetual The soil is both
of the rich black loan and of the red
earth, which is sometimes called mu,at-
to land. 1t is good for sugar as we'll as
for fruits and vegetables, but it does
not produce the tobacco leaf of the
quality or quantity sufficient to make
this cultivation profitable.
In the days before the war and insur-
rection the possession of caballeria of
land. with few oxen, anywhere in the
Guines territory constituted what would
be called in the United States we'll to
do farmer. A caballeria is SO 1-3 acres.
yet In its productive value it would
pass for the quarter section of 100
acres on western prairie The farm
houses and outbuildings. as in all parts
of rural Cuba, are simple and inexpen-
sive, and the conditions of life, except
for the oppression and corruption of
the Spanish officials, were not difficult
to meet. Sometimes caballeria would
be sold for $1,000 or Whereabouts, but 1t
was difficult to put any fixed price. The
small holding was valuable enough to
secure more than one advance from the
bodeguero, or storekeeper. who usually
was the money loaner. In spite of IS
or 20 per cent interest. compounded an.
nually, the productiveness of the soil
was great enough to stave off the fore
closure for long time, and the small
farmers with the debts hanging over
them managed to get along about as
the great sugar planters did with their
enormous obligations. Because Of the
distress and poverty caused by insur-
rections some Of the land has to be
sold ut a sacrifice, and it is cheaper
than before the war. yet none Of it is to
be had for a song. A caballeria under
cultivation, while it may be bought