The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-10-17


service already mentioned, has favored
the colonial system Of farming on
shares. In reality this is not so very
different from the store-cred.t system
of our southern states, by which the
capitalist takes NOR: gage on the land
and crops for the supplies advanced to
the cultivator, except that in Cuba the
title to the land rests with the former
party. In other words, the land owner
stocks small farm and supports the
tenant until crop can be raised, TAX
ing share of the crop in repayment.
Theoretically, this ought to be more
favorable to the cultivator than the
store credit system, for he is not bound
to repay any fixed amount upon which
interest runs until the obligation is
met. But if we are to take the word
of the small tobacco planters working
under this system, the net outcome to
the laborer is about the same. How
ever, it ought to he added that in Cuba,
as in the South, the industrious and
intelli gent laborer can accumulate saw
ings and acquire property under this
sort of contract
Tenancy on shares works rather
better in the tobacco than in the sugar
country. The labor is lighter, and in
time Of need the entire family can be
employed in the fields; no heavy carts
and oxen are needed to transport the
crop; the tenant is not confined to a
single buyer in disposing of his inter-
est in the product of his fields, and he
does not have to wait so long for his
first paintings to yield him an income.
OF late years he has had more as
sured and profitable market for his
crop than has the sugar planter.
Coffee planting was once consider
able industry in Cuba, until it was
displaced by the more profitable sugar
culture. At the present time some
tenan, farmers are being stocked in
Santiago province. but this crop is not
being rapidly extended, for lack o. an
export market. In some contracts of
IA 81, II, ,,,E 1,tl
each tenant is given r"bnh'rrm 1894
acrcs) OF ground. and paid $50 Ameri-
can year for thee Years for getting
in stand of coffee and cacao, the lat
ter serving to shade the young coffee
plants. At the end of the period a
six-year contract is made, by which
the owner and tenant share the crop
equally. the tenant delivering the coffee
at the drying place. Coffee pickers
are paid 20 eentdvos silver lf cents
American currency for picking five
gallons, the petroleum cans used by
importers having become standard
OF measure in this as in many other
lines of business. 1t is only in con-
nection with cacao that coffee can be
made to pay in Cuba at present.
Grades of skill are recognized among
agricultural laborers, and influence the
scale of wages paid. The latter is
more especially true during the dull
season. At plowing time in Pinar del
Rio, good plowman is worth SOC.
silver (5Oc. AmerIcan) day. His
two assistants, or the driver and leader
for it takes three men in Cuba to
plow with a yoke Of oxen-reccive 40
and 3Oc. silver (2S and Gle Amcrican)
day, respectively. Women are paid
the same wages as men in the cane
fields. The working day upon the
plantation is from sunrise to sunset,
with one or two hours rest at midday
During the busiest season the sugar
mills run nj oht and day, and mill
hands and train crews, including load
rrS, work in two shifts, putting in
altogether nearly y twelve hour day.
Ten or eleven hours effective work.
however, is all that is usually demand
ed. except in special emergencies.
There are particular conditions and
divisions of occupations peculiar to
the raising of each of the staple crops
Of Cuba Most important from an in
dustrial point of view is sugar. This
is sometimes planted in falIow lands
simply bv laying the cane in a trench,
or inserting it in sloping holes made
with pointed sick. 1t grows viyor
Ou>ly under such conditions, and with
a little attention at first will soon kill
out weeds and competing plants. The
cane is perennial, requiring about IS
months to come to maturity for the
first time, and can be rccut in some
instances for 30 or so seasons without
replanting. Humboldt records one in
stance where cane was cut from the
same settings for 40 years, and small
patches can now be found in Santa