A space of about half an acre, chiefly in front of the house, General Van der Voort had plowed and planted for a garden. Vegetables were sown in February and a little later a good number of pineapple plants, banana, orange and coffee trees, etc., were set out. The vegetables began to come on in April, and the fruit trees and pineapples exhibited a thrifty growth from month to month. Small palm trees were also set out along the path leading from the house across the garden to Central avenue. The company had another and larger garden near by which was planted in the latter part of January. Some of its products were ready for the table in March, and radishes even earlier. The soil of these gardens was not of the richest, being red and containing oxide of iron; but, for all that, seeds came up marvelously quick and plants grew well. I have known beans which were planted Saturday morning to be up on the following Monday. The soil of practically all of the plantations and many of the town lots is very rich. On February 21, the day before Washington's birthday, occurred the first birth in La Gloria, a lusty son being born to Mr. and Mrs. Olaf Olson. Mr. Olson was one of the most prosperous and progressive of the colonists, and his wife was a true pioneer. At the time of the birth the Olsons were living in a tent on their town lot on Market street, not far from Central avenue. Dr. Peirce was the officiating physician, and the infant developed as rapidly, in proportion, as plants in that tropical clime. It proved to be a remarkably healthy child. It was promptly named Olaf El Gloria Olson, and on the request of the Pioneer Association, the company generously made it a present of a town lot. Soon after the birth of the child, Mr. Olson moved into a house of his own construction. The weather at this time was good and the temperature very comfortable. Ordinarily the thermometer registered throughout the day from 70 to 84 degrees of heat. The lowest temperature for January was 55°; the highest, 91°. The lowest for February was 56°; the highest, 91°. The extremes of heat are nearly as great in winter as in summer, but there is much more variation. In summer the temperature ordinarily runs from about 78° to 90°, but occasionally touches 94°, which is the highest I have ever known it to be in La Gloria. Even at this figure the heat is not oppressive. There is such a refreshing breeze night and day in Cuba that one does not suffer from the heat either in summer or winter. The climate is so fine at all seasons of the year, that to a New Englander it seems absolutely perfect. The colonists worked hard every day under the rays of the sun and suffered no ill effects. They came to the conclusion that getting acclimated was a "cinch" in comparison with enduring the changing weather of the Northern states.