Due South; or, Cuba Past and PresentBallou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
History
Due South; or, Cuba Past and Present
Ballou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
Cuba
Those agriculturists who possess sufficient means confine themselves
solely to the raising of sugar, coffee, and tobacco, the former
principally employing capital. Indian corn, which the first settlers
found indigenous here, is quite neglected, and when raised at all it
is used before ripening, almost universally, as green fodder; very
little is ripened and gathered as grain. It is found that horses and
cattle can be kept in good condition and strength, while performing
the usual labor required of them, by feeding them on a liberal
allowance of cornstalks, given in the green state, before the corn has
begun to form on the cob. The Cubans will tell you that the nourishing
principle which forms the grain is in the stalk and leaves, and if fed
in that state before ripening further, the animals obtain all the
sustaining properties which they require. The climate is particularly
adapted to the raising of oranges, but there is very little attention
given to propagating this universally popular fruit, more especially
since the increased production which has taken place on the other side
of the Gulf Stream in Florida. Three years after the seed of this
fruit is deposited in suitable soil in Cuba the tree becomes ten or
twelve feet in height, and in the fourth year rarely produces less
than a hundred oranges, while at ten years of age it commonly bears
three and four thousand, thus proving, with proper care, extremely
profitable. It will be remembered that it is the longest lived of
succulent fruit trees. There are specimens still extant in Cuba known
to be one hundred years old. The oranges produced in Florida are of
equally good quality, and bring a better price in the market, but the
crop is subject to more contingencies and liability to loss than in
Cuba. The frost not infrequently ruins a whole season's yield in the
peninsula in one or two severe nights, while frost is never
experienced upon the island.
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