The Tupelo journal., 1910-05-13

AlA Va u Tvs
tracts of land on the
face of the earth. There are but two
places in the whole world where the
ground is worth so much as In the
vuelta Abajo.
Those two places are that portion
of the valley of the Rhine where the
Johannisberger grape is grown, from
which Liebfraumilch and other fine
wines are made, and the Kimberly
diamond district in South Africa. In
the. Vuelta Abajo the soil grows to-
bacco which when properly cured,
rolled and stamped can be sold in the
shape of cigars at the rate of S $50
each.
= What, then, is the marvel of this
priceless tobacco ground? To the
eye-nothing. Dusty red loan rather
thin on rocky hillsides and sparingly
spread with tender concern as a half
bald man disperses his hair impair
tally over his head. Next to each to-
bacco vega "a farm of an average ex-
tent of 40 acres) is a bayfield,. The
hay is not raised for animals. 1t is
cut and spread on the tobacco land
and there decomposed and washed
into the soil by the rains. 1t is the
fertilizer.
But it is not hay fertilizer alone
that makes Vuelta Abajo tobacco
what it is, nor yet the cheesecloth
protection that keeps out the hottest
rays of the sun, nor yet the choice
seed, nor even yet the mild, equable
nature of the climate, nor the chem
ical composition of the soil. For each
and every one of these conditions is
reproduced in other places without
that surprising and delicious climax
of tobacco culture that mn alone
from the heart of Pinar del Rio.
Neither science nor experience can
tell exactly what it is that makes
Vuclta Abajo tobacco just what it is.
But the native Cuban knows the Sc
cret. In strict confidence he some
times confides this secret and / in
tend now for the first time to make it
public. The great superiority of Vuel-
ia Abajo tobacco over all others lies
in the fact that each year on Easter
Sunday the soil of every vega in the
province is anointed with the blood of
a fighting cock killed in honorable
combat.
That | might have no doubt of this
astonishing agricultural theory | was
shown the training quarters of the
fighting cocks of the district. While
/ was there the old trainer gave them
their morning meal of bananas and
milk and massaged them under the
wing pits with Malaga wine.
The cockfight has entered curious
ly into Cuban politics. The most bril-
liant man in affairs there is Alfredo
Zayas, now vice-president. He is the
Elihu Root of the island, an attorney,
shrewd, hard working, farsighted. I'm
fortunately for his presidential aspi-
rations he listened long and eagerly
to American ideas of Cuban affairs as
they should be. That is where he fell
down. Jose Miguel Gomez listened to
Cuban affairs as they are.
Zayas thought it would be a good
thing to suppress the cockfight. The
Americans told him it would be. 1t is
a cruel sport; it is barbaric; it is not
pleasant to the Anglo-Saxon taste; so
the Americans told Zayas and Zayas
listened, too eagerly. Gomez knew he
was dealing with a Castilian people;
he was a Castilian himself. He loved
a cockfght himself, just as every n
Of his true compatriots did. He loved
Zayas in Havana was trying to con-
vince his countrymen that they should
abolish cockfghting Gomez, in Pinar
del Rio, was personally attending the
Easter Sunday amounting of Vuelta
Abajo tobacco lands; and Gomez was
elected president of the Cuban repub-
lie.
But Cuba is only one-half tobacco.
The other half is sugar, with a dash
of bacardi. This half stretches from
Guantanamo to the Bay of Nepi and
disgorges its sweet substance through
iago. A trip to Cuba would not be
complete without a visit to a sugar
refinery, and that is comparatively
easy for an American, for four-fifths
OF them are either owned or managed
by Americans and their countrymen
are always welcome visitors.
There you can see the sugar cane
hoisted from the fiat cars at one end
of the refinery and, following it down
the course of it's journey to the other
end, you discover strange emanations
into the various watts. Into the first
pours a strip as thick and almost as
black as crude asphalt and into the
end one pours the very finest strip
of all. a yellow stream as thin as the
sap from a maple tree in spring.
From the black stream is c~rystallized
the lowest grade of brown sugar;
from the light yellow stream the high
est grade of cube sugar.
AS you leave the sugar refinery you
will pass through miles of sugar cane
and If you are there late in the sea-
son you will at convenient intervals
come upon a treacherous looking fell
low carrying a rifle in the hollow of
his arm. He scans o closely n
will he quite sure of your pacific iden-
tity before you will be allowed to pass
on. All over the island those guards
are as numerous almost as the work
ers.
Right here, in this sugar guard. you
can study quickly all the complicated,
m~elodramatic politics of the stand.
WHY should he guard sugar cane? Be-
cause in the heart of the sugar cane
lies all the infiammable spirit OF revo-
1ution. Around this sugar cane re-