The Carlisle independent., 1910-08-04
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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.
 They are almost too rich, and the fruit of trees they produce, particularly young trees Is ant to be coarse skinned, too big, and pithy. These defects nevertheless time remedies, for as groves age they lessen the supply or plant food Eventually it will become necessary to fer tilize the trees, and then growers, by selecting their fertilizer, can control the quality or thelr 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 hls. 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 a tange of tropical vegetation.
 The obvious conclusion, is therefore, that SIX is one-half dozen. Groves in both eastern and western Cuba will produce trees and good fruit, but neither will do so for any owner not willing to pay the price under one head or another Ill cash and also in hard work
 / It is conservatively estimated that no man should undertake even a five-acre grove anywhere in Cuba unless he has at least S5,000 where he can lay his hands on 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 to command at least that sum before em- barking in the citrus fruit business here. He may need it all, and more.
 While no complete statistics available, it 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 fruit, while 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 hlicba aJ a distance from railway lines are handicapped at the start, for although there many good roads in Pinar del Rio province and all over the Isle Of Pfnes every foot of haul counts and where the roads are not excellent, 1t counts heavily, most especially In wet weather.
 Americans and Canadians have plunged head foremost into citrus-frut culture in Cuba They are building up against odds, by their indomitable courage and optimism, an industry into whch 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 ades. Then again, it may be they were deterred not by these things at all, but by true under standing of basic conditions here; by realza- tion 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 inexpensively 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 it noted, but in Cuba's case not in themselves either untried This island is not virgin wilderness in toto It 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 it's resources-not to the fullest tent possible nowadays, to be sure, but as far possible to them in their times-they made fortunes.
 The Spaniards devoted all the energies they had for agriculture in Cuba to sugar cane and to. bacco in the eastern and central provinces and especially to tobacco in the west. For four cen tures they held fast to these two products thus demonstrating that they possessed of no more versatility than the American and the Ca nadan who, in Cuba, insist upon discovering no future save in citrus fruit
 From tobacco and from the Spaniard and the Cuban with him, has wrested the wealth oi the Indies. Rich as Cuban planter"-panter of cane and tobacco, not of oranges and grape fruit-is significant English phrase. To attain to the wealth and the ease it implies has been the ambition of the adventurous and the avari cious from 1892 to the present time.