Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1902-05-17


The beet and cane product both considered,
Cuba is surpassed by but one country, Ger
many, with one and one-half million tons, as
a sugar producer, and is equaled by but one
other, Austria.
Cuba has exported in one year more than
5000, 600 pounds cf leaf tobacco and more
than I34, 100000 cigars in addition to heavy
exports of baled tobacco of less valuable va
rieties.
The shipping of nine Cuban ports, which
includes Havana, for the year 1894 amount
ed to 1888, $50 tons, carried by 1874 vessels.
The above three paragraphs give gen
eral idea of industrial Cuba of the past;
they can scarcely be classed as even pro-
phetic of the future.
Cuba and the adjacent small islands be-
longing to it occupy an area of $4,000 square
miles-a little less in size than the state of
New York. Of this total area less than 10
per cent. has ever been under cultivation;
four per cent. is classed as forest land, and
large quantities of the remainder is virgin
soil awaiting development by a progressive
people under a progressive government.
When such a people under such a govern
ment have turned this unclaimed area into
productive territory we shall have the Cuba
of the future.
But to go back again to the Cuba of the
past. Cane sugar development has been
cOQuQSQ TO the VAST CSHlIdt pain ~ Ing 10
a great extent in MatanZa province. In the
season of 1929 this great plain yielded
1866, PIP tons of sugar, valued at $90,000,O0O.
The sugar plantations of this territory
vary in extent from 100 to 1000 acres, and
employ an average of one man to each two
acres under cultivation.
For several years the sugar industry in all
the West Indian islands has been in a de-
pIorable condition, but different causes
l, +bo ~ ,6s
than for the other islands. In Cuba it has
been the series of rebellions and insurrec-
tions that have caused the decline of the
industry. During the periods of compare
tive peace the industry has prospered, and
the reason may be found in the fact that the
Cuban planters have gone about the produc-
ton of sugar on a large scale, and equipped
with the most modern machinery. In COM
menting on this fact Mr.. Robert T. Hill, the
author of 'Cuba and Porto Rico" and an au-
thority on the West Indian islands, says:
''First, the climate and soil are admirably
adapted to the needs of the cane; secondly,
the Spaniards and Cubans have had the
courage to centralize their sugar houses and
go at the business individually on a scale
unequaled in any other country in the globe.
Old, small places were replaced by powerful
factories equipped with the best of modern
machinery, narrow gauge roads were built
in all directions, and, in short, great sums
were spent, and spent well. The main es-
sentials in competing with the beet sugar
countries were understood and complied
with, while the other islands are still hest
tating."
While sugar is the staple crop of first i'm
portance in Cuba tobacco has an important
place in the islands industries, and is even
more valuable than sugar when the acreage
under cultivation is considered As Matan-
zas is the center of the sugar industry SO is
Pinar del Rio the center of the tobacco in
terests, though the tobacco fields may be