Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1910-08-06
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so than otherwise, for, exactly the opposite OF
the case in the west these far eastern lands need
to be reduced.
Tbey are almost too rich, and the fruit of
trees they produce, particularly young trees, is
apt to be coarse skinned, too big, and pithy
These defects, nevertheless, time remedies, for
as groves age they lessen the supply of plant
food. Eventually it will become necessary to fer
tiIize the trees, and then growers, by selecting
their fertilizer. control the quality OF their
fruit.
They have meanwhile acquired their grove
without the expense for fertilizer the grower IN
the west has been put to in order to produce MS
He on the other hand, has been to less expense
than the man in the east in the matter OF clear
ing and he has not had to sit up nights wedding
to keep his grove from disappearing under
tangle of tropical vegetation
The obvious conclusion, is therefore, that SIX
is onehalf dozen. Groves in both eastern and
western Cuba will produce trees and good fruit,
but neither will do for any owner not willing
to pay the price under head or another in
cash and also in hard work
1t is conservatively estimated that no man
should undertake even fve-acre grove anywhere
in Cuba unless he has at least $4,000 where he
can lay his hands it. If he is a lively, capable
man he will probably not need that amount of
money but no matter what his ability he should
be able command at least that sum before en-
barking in the citrus fruit business here He may
need it all, and more.
While no complete statistics are available, II
is the writer's impression that in western Cuba
including the Isle of Pines, the acreage of or
anges is more than that OF grape nu1t, wh1le IN
the east it would seem that the grapefruit acre
age is the larger. The older groves SEEM usu-
ally, to be orange groves; the younger the grove
the larger the proportion of grape fruit in it.
Problems of transportation to market demand
careful study from all growers, prospective or
established. Groves situated at a distance from
railway lines are handicapped at the start, for.
although there many good roads in Pinar del
Rio province and all the Isle of Pines, every
foot of haul counts, and where the roads are not
excellent it counts heavily, most especially In
wet weather.
Americans and Canadians have plunged head
foremost into citrusfruit culture in Cuba They
are building against odds, by their indom1table
courage and optimism, an industry into wnicn
preceding owners of the lands they hold did not
venture The Spaniards and Cubans did not so
venture may have been because they were blind
to the possibilities, lacked specific knowledge,
or the energy required; possibly they were
outmatched by adverse conditions in past dec
AIDES. Then again, 1t may be they were deferred
not by these things at all, but by true under
standing of basic conditions here; by realiza-
ton of difficulties in the way of competing not to
say controlling in the markets where the citrus
fruit of Cuba must be sold; and, especially by a
keen appreciation of more profit to be made more
quickly and inexpensfvely elsewhere In fine,
they may have been governed by caution, which
does not notably distinguish the Anglo-Saxon
when engaged in opening up fields to him new.
New to him, be 1t noted, but in Cuba's case
not in themselves either untried. This
island is not virgin wilderness in toto 1t has
been under the domination of white men for 400
years. Not all these white idle and
incompetent They appreciated the country and
in developing its resources-not to the fullest
tent possible nowadays, to be sure. but as far
as possible to them in their times-they
made fortunes.
The Spaniards devoted all the energies they
had for agriculture in Cuba to sugar and to-
bacco in the eastern and central provinces, and
especially to tobacco in the west For four cen
turtles they held fast to these two productsS thus
demonstrating that they were possessed of NO
more versatility than the American and the Ca
madam who, In Cuba, insist upon discovering no
future save in citrus fruit
From tobacco and from cane the Spaniard, and
the Cuban with him. has wrested the wealth OF
the Indies Rich Cuban planter'-planter
of cane and tobacco, not OF oranges and grape
& fruits significant English phrase To attain
to the wealth and the ease it implies has been
the ambition of the adventurous and the ayarf