At Preston, the Nipe Bay Company, a corporation controlled by the United Fruit Company, operates a sugar plantation considerably more than one hundred thousand acres in area, and what is claimed to be the most complete and up-to-date mill in existence. This factory is in course of enlargement, so that it will consume five thousand tons of cane daily. The plantation, mill, and village of Preston are more fully described in the chapter on “Cuba’s Sugar Industry.” The Dumois-Nipe Company owns about fifty thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Saetia. This is devoted to various products. The largest area, about one thousand acres, is planted in sugar-cane, somewhat more than half as much land in bananas, and a considerable acreage in pineapples. Oranges and grape-fruit occupy several hundred acres. The Spanish-American Iron Company, which controls extensive mining properties at Daiquiri and elsewhere in the Province, has its latest and most extensive operation at Felton in the Nipe Bay district. The ore deposit here is more than twenty miles in length and from ten to sixteen in breadth. In depth the workings average about twenty feet. Steam shovels are employed in taking the material out. In its ultimate form the ore is shipped in small pellets upon the Company’s steamers, which dock in immediate contact with the plant. Nothing could be surer than the future great development of Oriente, with a continuance of the present trend. American capital is constantly looking for new investments in the Province. Its mineral deposits and its fertile valleys will be exploited by Americans. The American influence is already prominent in every part of it. American methods prevail in all its industries and American money is the universal currency. Oriente will advance by leaps and bounds into the position of the most productive province in Cuba. THE END. APPENDICES I COMMERCIAL CONVENTION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA _Signed at Havana, December 11, 1902._ _Ratification with amendments advised by the Senate March 19, 1903._ _Ratified by the President, March 30, 1903._ _Ratified by Cuba, March 30, 1903._ _Ratifications exchanged at Washington, March 31, 1903._ _Proclaimed, December 17, 1903._ BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Whereas a Convention between the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba to facilitate their commercial intercourse by improving the conditions of trade between the two countries, was concluded and signed by their respective plenipotentiaries at the City of Havana on the eleventh day of December, 1902, the original of which Convention, being in the English and Spanish languages, is, as amended by the Senate of the United States, word for word as follows: