The San Angelo press. (San Angelo, Tex.) 1897-1907, 1902-05-14

taxes and during the war strip
ping the country of every animal
that wore horns, hide, or hoof.
The war took away nearly every
COW, OK, mule horse and hog that
ranged the pastures, and since
the war we have been importing
at the rate of at least 100000
yearly to supply the deficiency.
As TO the smaller CATTLE" like
hogs, they are their own foragers
and can subsist from one years
end to another on the seeds of
wild palms. The island is now
being restocked as rapidly as pos
sible and yet probably has no
more than a million head of do
nestle cattle at the present time.
All cattle in the tropics, however,
are extremely fecund, and, there
being no winter cold to stunt the
growth, the increase is wonderful.
HALF THE ISLAND is WILD LAND.
Notwithstanding the vast acre
age devoted to our great staple
sugar cane, nearly or quite half
the islands 10000 square miles
is either wild pasturage or forest
lands. Cuba is essentially an ag-
ricultural and grazing country,
and nearly one-fifth of its total
population, say 300, 900, is engag-
ed in tilling the soil or raising
cattle. Not many are giving
their attention to cattle raising
at present for the simple reason
that they cannot get the cattle to
raise, Notwithstanding the impor-
tation last year to the amount of
oversize, 100000. The war de-
stroyed, it is estimated, two-thirds
the islands wealth and 12% of its
population, but we are rapidly re-
cuperating and not long hence we
will have regained all that we lost
and much more.
There is population of less
than fifty to the square mile, and,
owing to the Spanish custom of
laying the taxes on industry and
commerce rather than upon real
estate, there are vast estates COM
posed practically of wild pasture
lands which only need to be in
CLOSED to make the finest ranches
in the world. Grass is luXuriant
in the winter months as well as in
the summer, and one great advan-
tage we have over cattle raisers in
the North consists in the fact
that cattle can remain on the
ranges the whole year through,
no housing being necessary.
These plains of Puerto Principe
Santa Clara are covered with rich
parana and Guinea grass, album
dant and succulent, and near the
cities of Santa Clara and Matan-
zas there are already inclosed pas
lures which show what can be
done with the native material in
a country with an equable climate
abundant rainfall and agricultur-
ally one of the richest regions in
the world.
LAND PRICES ARE ADVANCING.
Land may be had at prices vary
ing with the location and the de-
mand. 1t is usually sold by the
"caballeria" of thirty-three acres
and when one buys he would bet
ter be on the watch for flaws il
the title as the Cubans have beer
very lax in the past not only il
their manner of recording titles
but of obtaining them. Prices
have gone up of late since the
great central railway was begun
This will run through the center
of the island from Havana
to Santiago province anc
open up vast territory hitherto
unknown and undeveloped. Th'
railroad company has purchased
vast tracts Of lands in the centra
and eastern provinces not onl,
for its franchise, but for specula
tive purposes: but there is We