appear, are removed, and every precaution taken to insure the full development of the leaf. The pruning is done with the thumb nail, as its dull edge closes the wound and prevents bleeding. According as the plants are topped high or low, there will be from 8 to 10 or from 18 to 20 leaves on a stalk. As soon as the leaves have ripened, the cutting begins. Each stalk is cut in sections, having two leaves on each; they are hung on poles and carried to the drying sheds. A section of each stalk with a good strong sucker on it is left in the field, from which a second, or what is called a sucker crop, results, and while the quality of this crop is not as good as the true crop it answers very well for fillers. The drying or curing process continues for three or four weeks or even longer. During this period "great attention must be given to the moisture, temperature, and ventilation of the drying house in order to produce those changes which characterize cured tobacco of a superior quality." Sweating or fermentation follows the curing, and it is to this that the tobacco owes its peculiar flavor. During or after this process the leaves are sprayed with water or a petuning liquid which is supposed to give the leaf a darker color and a better flavor, but this is questioned by some tobacco manufacturers.1 When fermentation has taken place, the leaves are sorted and made up into bundles, and these into bales of about 50 kilos (110 pounds) each. It is now ready for transport to market. The tobacco planters, in common with the sugar planters, experienced all the vicissitudes of the war, but as the province of Pinar del Rio was the last to become a theater of operations the crop of Vuelta Abajo tobacco was spared until 1896. COFFEE. The cultivation of coffee dates from somewhere about the years 1796-1798 and is said to have been introduced into Cuba by refugees from Santo Domingo after that island was ceded to France. Soon after the arrival of these emigrants, of whom there were upward of 30,000, coffee plantations made their appearance, and for many years the cultivation of coffee was one of the most remunerative industries of the island, as the following table of exports will show: 2 1 The report of Mr. Oscar Loew, of the Department of Agriculture, on the curing and fermentation of the cigar leaf tobacco should be studied by all tobacco planters. 2 Humboldt's Island of Cuba. Humboldt attributes the extreme variation in the figures of this table to the more or less abundant crops and to frauds in the customhouse. In the years 1843 and 1846 violent hurricanes visited Cuba and seriously damaged the coffee crop. Owing to these disasters, the increased coffee trade of the East Indies and South America, and the larger and more certain profits of sugar cultivation, the coffee industry of Cuba rapidly declined, and by 1850 the amount exported was but 192,061 arrobas. The coffee plantations were converted to other uses and the trade in coffee practically disappeared. The estimated coffee crop of the world for 1900 is 15,285,000 bags of 134 pounds each. Of this amount Cuba is credited with 130,000 bags-not enough for home consumption. It is hard to believe, with these figures before us, that in 1825 Cuba exported more coffee than Java, that in 1846 there were more than 1,600 coffee plantations in the island, and that in richness, flavor, and the productive capacity of the trees the coffee of Cuba was not surpassed by that of any other West India island or by South America. A consideration of these well-known facts may result in the revival of this important industry, which under free institutions will no doubt regain its former position among the agricultural resources of Cuba. At the close of the year 1894 coffee was cultivated in all the provinces of Cuba except Puerto Principe, and there were 191 cafetales, or plantations, although by far the larger number was in the province of Santiago de Cuba, where coffee cultivation was first attempted. The topographical features of this province, with its ranges of mountains, hills, and high plateaus, render it especially adapted to the purpose, for, while coffee will grow most anywhere in Cuba, it thrives best at altitudes between 1,500 and 2,500 feet. It is not an expensive crop to cultivate, and it is said that few occupations are more delightful than that of the coffee planter, or more remunerative under favorable conditions. In the cultivation of coffee the seeds are first sown in a nursery, and when the plants are a few inches high they are transplanted; thereafter, like the tobacco plant, they require great care. The trees begin bearing in the second year, and by the third a good crop may be expected. A tree in good condition will yield from 1 to 2 pounds of berries. The trees are rarely allowed to exceed a height of 10 feet for convenience in harvesting the berries; this is accomplished, and the trees are made to spread laterally by repeated prunings. Two crops each year reward the successful coffee planter, so that the trees are almost always in bloom. As the coffee berry requires shade, fruit and other trees are planted among the coffee trees for this purpose, so that a coffee plantation 1 Statesman's Year-Book, 1900. |
