Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-03-07
Interesting Letter From the
Land of Constant Summer.
BY A. W. LEE.

percentage of the crop raised. It is
stated that they are good workers, are
inoffensiye and tractable, but are lack
ing in ambition and do not care to earn
much more than enough to provide a
living and few bright colored articles
of clothing for the members of their
family. The most profitable crop to
handle with this class of labor is to-
bacco and sugar cane. Sugar cane is
the easiest to plant and cultivate,
though the first planting Is very ex-
pensive. costing about $35 per acre.
However. this planting does not have
to be renewed more often than each
five or six years. Sugar cane is har-
vested one time per year, and will pro-
duce gross about $3.50 per acre. The
cultivation of tobacco is more diff
cult and requires an immnese amount
Of labor. 1t Is said, that one family
can care for only about one and half
acres of tobacco. Tobacco is planted
by hand each year and there are three
cuttings Of the leaves, the first cutting
is the best quality and the second and
third cutting are generally known as
filters" Tobacco leaves are cut in
twos and are hung up on poles in big
tobacco barns for about three months.
At one time during this period the to-
bacco must be taken out of doors in
order to dry properly. The value Of
an acre of tobacco varies so greatly,
that no average can be stated. Some
OF it Is worth as much as $1,000 per
acre and others only small amount.
The Crops of Corn,
Corn grows abundantly and natures
fully here. Three crops can be grown
per year on the same ground and a
fair quality of land will produce Is
bushels Of corn to the acre. The ear
is not as large as in Iowa, but is said
to contain a higher percentage of
starch. In view Of this large produc-
ton and the absolute certainty of the
crop, we asked why is it that more
corn is not grown, and why we do not
see great corn cribs filed to over
flowing. as would be the case in Iowa.
"Oh," replied the farmer, I'VE can't
do that here, the corn must be used
as soon as it is gathered, otherwise it
becomes infested with worm or wee
vii, which destroys it entirely" Most
of the corn used here is gathered as
fodder and fed green to the horses.
Hogs feed on nuts and roots, princi-
pally the nut from the royal palm. The
Pinar del Rio ranch has probably a
thousand hogs at this time who run
entirely wild in the palm grove of the
ranch which we are informed is the
finest palm grove on the Island Of
Cuba. 1t comprises many thousands
of these majestic trees, and produces
a practically unlimited supply of hog
food. The hogs, which run wild on
this place. are sold at an average of
about SO each and as their food has
cost practically nothing the profit is
very satisfactory. While there are
portions of the island where beef cat
tie are produced in this section the cat
tie raised are for work purposes. All
farm work and heavy hauling here is
done with oxen. Instead of trying to
produce beef cattle. the Pinar del Rio
ranch breeds for horn, strength and
disposition. in order to raise oxen
which will sell at the highest market
price as beasts of burden
How Bananas Are Grown.
One of the agricultural surprises to
the northern visitor is to see how the
banana really grows. The popular idea
of the northern visitor is that the great
punches of bananas grow on high trees
with the fruit hanging downward.
Such, however, is not the case. The
banana tree Is not tree at ALL 1t is
something of an overgrown pie plant,
reaching height of probably Is or Is
feet, the stalks growing up new each
season, each stalk producing one
bunch of bananas which hang with the
fruit pointing upwards instead of down
wards as we see them in the fruit
stores. The roots continue alive for
an indefinite period and send up stalk
after stalk which die down as soon as
they have produced their allotted por-
ton Of fruit.
Certainly our Iowa friends have a
fine proposition in the Pinar del Rio
ranch. Much of this land was worth
fifty TO hundred years ago from 5000
to $500 per acre and actually pro-
duced big dividends upon that valua-
ton, but the wars desolation in the
Island of Cuba has been something
fearful to contemplate We are in
formed that in single days horse
back ride, starting from the Pinar del
Rio ranch. one can visit no less than
fifty ruined sugar mills. which were
destroyed during the late war, and
| which cost from one-fourth to one-half
a million dollars each.
Annexation Sentiment.
Everywhere are to be seen ruins,
not only of these sugar mills, but of
magnificent homes. many of which
were princely palaces At the close
of the war, the devastation of this
country was almost complete, and vast
tracts of land by reason of being neg
lected and uncultivated for years, had
returned to a wild state. The people
were impoverished to an almost in
comprehensive degree, and it is only
now that they are beginning once
more to get a start. In the last four
years it is said that land values gener-
ally have doubled and tripled, and it is
believed that this will continue until
the old anti-bellum values are again
restored. Everything now seems to
depend mainly on the government. If
Va Of nh