WATER SUPPLY AND GARBAGE DISPOSAL. 175 as 100 such dwellings are as follows: In Habana province, Marianao (196), San Antonio de los Baños (369), Batabano (505), Guines (500); in Matanzas province, Jovellanos (408) and Bolondron (188); in Pinar del Rio province, Mariel (192); in Santa Clara, Abreus (139), Rodas (188), and Sagua la Grande outside the urban part (127); in Santiago, El Caney (427) and Baracoa (687). The general reliance upon water from streams in the two provinces at the ends of Cuba-Pinar del Rio and Santiago-and upon cisterns in the four central provinces is clearly shown in the preceding tables. There seems some reason for doubt whether the line of division between cisterns for rain water (aljibe) and well or spring for ground water (pozo) was clearly understood by the enumerators and those who answered their questions. DISPOSITION OF GARBAGE. The enumerators were instructed to write in the column for answers to this question "Municipal" (municipal), "Particular" (private), or "Se quema" (by burning), according to the method of disposition used at the dwelling where the question was put. In addition to these three classes it was necessary to introduce a fourth for unspecified or insufficiently specified, but only 2 per cent of the houses fell into this last class. The facts for Cuba as a whole are shown in the following table: In this respect, as in that of water supply, the main difference is between the city and the country districts. In the following table, therefore, the methods of disposing of garbage in the several cities are given: Per cent of urban dwellings using specified method of garbage disposal. From this table it is clear that, taking the dwellings as a whole, in the 14 cities, 7 in every 8 of them had some municipal system of disposing of garbage. The cities of Santa Clara, except Cienfuegos, were apparently least well provided in this respect. In the cities of that province, more commonly than elsewhere in Cuba, garbage was disposed of by burning. In the following table the same facts are given by provinces for the rural districts of Cuba: Per cent of rural dwellings using specified method of garbage disposal. Outside of the 14 cities about 1 dwelling in 7 enjoyed some public means of garbage disposal, and the prevalence of this varies in rough agreement with the density of rural population as given on page 74. The only private means specified is that of burning, and this is increasingly prevalent from west to east. To show this, the provinces have been arranged in the following list in their order from west to east and the per cent of rural dwellings burning their garbage indicated. The houses having other means of garbage disposal obviously vary in the reverse way; that is, when burning is common, other private means are uncommon, and vice versa. DISPOSITION OF EXCRETA. The entries which the enumerators were allowed to make in the column containing the answers to this question were pozo, inodoro, or ninguna (none). In addition to the three thus allowed there will be found in the tables a fourth class of "not specified" to cover cases where the question was not answered. The only recognized methods. of disposal, therefore, were pozo and inodoro. As it is difficult to find any exact English equivalent for these words, they will be retained in the following discussion of the tables.1 The following table shows the frequency of these various modes of disposal: About half the dwellings in Cuba had no provision of any kind for this purpose. It is said that in rural Spain the inhabitants commonly have no closets or outhouses, but resort to the fields, and the same is apparently true of Cuba. Of the houses having conveniences of this sort nine-tenths (8.9 per cent) reported a pozo and one-tenth an inodoro. In this respect the provinces stand as follows: Per cent of total dwellings supplied with specified mode of disposal of excreta. It is clear that outside of Habana City and Matanzas province the inodoro is hardly known. In the following table the facts are given for the thirteen other cities separately reported: Per cent of urban dwellings using specified method of disposing of excreta. 1 Note on meaning of pozo and inodoro. The "inodoro" includes every receptacle for excreta in which an effort is made to destroy or decrease the foul odors arising 24662-12 This table shows that Matanzas is the only city besides Habana in which an inodoro was found in one-tenth of the dwellings and that in half the other 12 cities it did not occur in an appreciable number of cases. In 4 of these 13 cities at least 10 per cent of the houses were without closet conveniences and in 2 more than 1 dwelling in 5 was thus unprovided. In the following table the facts are given for the rural districts of Cuba: Per cent of rural dwellings using specified method of disposing of excreta. In rural Cuba there was a pozo in connection with about one-third of the dwellings, while two-thirds were without this or any other form of receiving excreta. therefrom, usually by the addition of such substances as lime, dry clay, or ashes. The pozo includes all other forms of closet. The modern form of closet flushed by water from a system of pipes, called escusado inglés, is very unusual in Habana, and unknown elsewhere in Cuba. Either the inodoro or the pozo is cleaned, when it is cleaned at all, by scavengers hired by the property owner. 1774.. 1792. 1817. 1827 Habana TABLE II.-Population of Cuba and its provinces at various censuses. Pinar del Rio. Puerto Principe Santa Clara. Santiago de Cuba. Cuba Province. 1 Population of provinces estimated. See Appendix XVI. TABLE III.-Population of municipal districts in 1887 and 1899, as constituted at the latter date, with gain or loss of population. |