The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-21
TURK ISLANDS SALT CROP.
LITTLE KNOWN SgLF-GOVERN.
ING TROPTO COLONY

ror n Hundred Years Il Has n cen FuFmlsh.
ing salt 20 tho WOrld-Llttle Elise Pro.
duSed There-Yet 10 10 Net q bad Place
TO LIve-Gathering the SALT Harvest.
20 a Government Office at Turk Islands.
West Indies; came the question, where are
Turk IslandsI All my life / knew OF
Turk Island salt, and know Il was the salt
for curing beef, pork and Ash; to this day
II is the belief Of the old New England
farmer that no salt Ia 30 good and safe to
insure perfect picked pork as that Of Turk
Islands.
Naturally I turned to the encyclopedias.
and found a description Of the Islands to
the effect that in a general way they were In
the Bahama group; but curiously enough.
although for a hundred years they had
furnished salt in large quantities to the
commercial world, only q few lines were
devoted to them, and these rather unsatis-
factory.
1t was winter and the rainy season when
I arrived at my post and a steady fall Of
rain gave the little city Of Grand Turk
rather a misty appearance. We were
anchored just at the edge Of the white water,
40 termed because for half a mile from
shore the water "a only from one to ak
fathoms deep. The white sand gives 1t a
light color, and under the almost constantly
clear day, all the changes possible in green
and blue are seen.
At the edge Of the white water a clearly
marked line Of dark shows where the change
takes place and an abrupt drop in q ships
length to a hundred fathoms. A diver
who explored the edge OF the deep water
found that it was not only perpendicular
but receded q short distance from the sur
face, leaving q Cliff projecting over Q sub
marine cavern
Grand Turk, the seat OF government for
Turk Islands, lies along the bay for a short
mile, within a fat curve Of five or six miles,
extending almost the full length of the
island. The view from the steamer gives
one the impression Of a toy village. A few
trees in sight, the low red rooted houses,
with the small beacon on the end OF the
Government wharf, all appear dwarfed and
queer. In an open space in the middle of
the town were great piles OF salt which to
our Northern eyes % like banks OF
snow.
Turk Islands is a little colony composed
Of Salt Cay and numerous ANAL Gays and
the group OF the Caicos Islands, to the north
west Of Grand Turk. This island is seven
miles long and in nc place moro than one and
q half miles wide and only some twelve
feet above the level OF the sea on the west
eide; along the east coast acliff OF soft, white
rock, some seventy feet high, extends the
full length. Low bushes cover the waste
places OF the island. .
A few hundred cocoa and date palms,
sapodilla, hamboyer, tamarind and casual
rina trees are planted in the yards Of the
homes. The native paw-paw grows to a
height OF thirty feet and bears n fruit re-
sembling in size and color an American
muskmelon, eight or ten inches long.
The whole Island is covered with sand,
80 light that large bushes can be pulled
up by hand. Along the hill small pockets
OF earth may be found, which Is bought
by the house wives and carefully put into
boxes and half barrels, where they raise
very fine roses, with the fragrance and
tender appearance of those grown in hot
houses.
The yards, and in fact all parts Of the
island, are honeycombed by crabs, which
throw up the sand at the mouth Of the
holes, and hermit crabs trail about in their
borrowed shells. Tomato plants grow
fifteen feet high and when the little lizards
do not eat OF the blossoms bear large
and finely favored fruit.
Turk Islands derive their name from
the great quantities of Turks hea cactus
which grow on Cotton Cay, one Of the many
large and small islands forming the group.
The islands are about eighty miles north
Of Hayti and Santo Domingo, 100 north
west Of Cuba and i,t75 almost directly
south of New York.
II fifty years the population OF the colony
has increased only 1000. Many OF the
negroes are descendants Of African slaves
and others are from Bermuda. The islands,
It is believed, were visited by Columbus.
History states that Ponce de Leon in 1912
discovered the islands, and then the dead
silence In regard to them is not broken
for l5 years, or till 1887. In 1873, irpmi-
grants came from Bermuda and opened
the salt ponds.
For more than 100 years Grand Turk,
like a shuttlecock, was tossed back and
forth between the Spaniards, French and
English, and then II was a bone OF conten-
ton between the authorities OF Bermuda
and the Bahama Islands. The home Gov
eminent formerly appointed a President,
but now the Government officers are a Com
missioner, a Judge n three physicians
appointed by the NOME OHlCo'
Turk and Calico islands may be termed
an independent province, which Is self
sustaining. It pay its Commissioner,
Judge and physicians; issues Government
notes for circulation OF los. and El; it issues
its own postage stamps, postal cards, and
stamped envelopes. The stamps bear the
coat OF arms OF the colony, a full rugged
ship with a pile OF salt in the foreground.
At one time, before the abolition OF slavery
in 1884. there was more or less cotton grown
on the island. Cotton gins worked by wind
power were in use, but the yellow fly proved
so destructive that the cultivation was ban
doned. At the present time there are sea-
island cotton trees scattered over the islands.
They grow ten or twelve feet high, and pro-
duce fine cotton in mail quantities.
There il not q snake, toad, or frog on
Grand Turk, and aside from the harmless
lizards, with a rare scorpion or centipede
and still rarer tarantula, there is very little
vermin, IL we except minute ants, OF which
there is no end, n q fair share Of large
cockroaches. The native nora Ia limited,