The sun. (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1906-07-14
by w. E. Pabor.

Frank G. Carpenter, the globe
trotter and syndicate newspaper man.
has been to Cuba, "the Winter Gar
dens of the United States" he calls
1t and writes so enthusiastically
about the island and Its possibilities,
that / fear he has been the guest
there of some big land corporation or
steamship line: indeed the appeal
ance of his optimistic article In the
Cuban Review and Bulletin makes
the surmise almost certain.
Florida Is, of course, destined to
take back seat In the early here
after" Its citrus groves and pinerles
sink into scale Of production so low
as will be scarce worth mentioning,
beside 5000 acre enterprises now be-
ing carried on in the isle OF beauty,
fertility and yellow fever; only this
last feature In connection with sum-
mer quarantine regulations Is not
touched upon.
Mr.. Carpenter, having visited
most of the islands OF the world"
knows none which has such wonder
full resources and such bright pros
pects," revolutionary movements In
cluded, we presume. He says:
Cuba Is to be the winter garden
of the United States. II Is destined
to supply the most Of our tropical
fruits and the greater part OF our
vegetables consumed from December
until May. The island Is 80 situated
that its products can be taken to New
York, Chicago and others of our
great cities, both East and West, IN
competition with those Of Florida
and California; and Its soil Is so pro-
ductive that II intensely farmed It
would almost feed our nation.
"Have you ever considered the To-
cation Of Cuba? II is only step
across the way from Florida. You
can reach II in comfortable steamers
within few hours from there, from
Mobile or New Orleans, and II Is
only two or three days from New
York. 1t lies, in fact. in Uncle
SANS front yard with a short AMI
cheap water route to his kitchen
door"
It has about 150, 900 inhabitants,
but can easily support fifteen million,
hHu lU0 ldHu Gun w CuibtNatCu w thO
tops of the hills and. we suppose.
down on the other side to the edges
of the water that surrounds It. It
can supply sugar for the world aud
also tobacco. SO the sugar cane
growers of the sunny south land and
the sugar beet raisers Of the wes-
tern and Rocky Mountain region may
as we'll begin to turn their attention
tn other CROPS or. perhaps, seek to Sc
cure foothold In Cuba before all
tha lnnds advertised In the Bulletin
nv the various realty companies and
fruit syndicates are disnosed OF.
After sundry Introductory para
graphs Of a general descriptive char
acter we come to "the milk in the
cocoanut" IN an account Of planta-
tion owned nv q combination Of
American and Cuban capitalists, on
which. however. only Cuban laborers
are emploved. to the number Of If
teen hundred.
"Four wears ago." he says, "the
land which comprised It was a fun
gle. Today It contains million
banana trees. three hundred thor
sand orange trees. one hundred and
sixty. thousand coffee trees, eiehty
thousand cacaoi trees--all thrifty
growing. Tn addition To this II has
one million pineapDles set out IN rows
which are Welding nanv crates NJ
pines for the markets OF New York.
ard also vast extent OF fine sugar
plantations.
"The cultivated land IN that tract
n IN the neighborhood OF Ave thou
sand acres. rode thirty-hve miles
over n on horseback, taking two
days for nv several excursions and
IN al my rides did not see a dozen
weeds nor a score blades If grass
The ground between the plants and
trees Ia as clean as Hoor and the
growth is beyond belief"
Five thousand acres and not TWEEN