The History of Cuba, vol. 5Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
The History of Cuba, vol. 5
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Cuba -- Economic conditions; Cuba -- History
Putting the maximum annual production of henequen or sisal hemp in
Yucatan at 1,200,000 bales, of 400 pounds to the bale, and assuming an
average yield of three bales per acre, indicates that about 400,000
acres of land are actually producing hemp in that country; and allowing
for a margin of twenty five per cent of such area, to cover and provide
for depletion and propagation, it would seem that about 500,000 acres of
land is the approximate area now actually planted with and growing
henequen on that peninsula. These statements are made to justify the
calling of attention to the fact that large areas of more or less flat,
rocky lands exist in various localities throughout the island of Cuba,
notably in the western extremity of the Province of Pinar del Rio, along
the north coast from the city of Matanzas to the Bahia de Cardenas, on
the Cayos and, at intervals, along the north coast from Caibarien to the
Bay of Nipe, and especially along the Caribbean Coast, in the vicinity
of the Cienaga de Zapata; all of which lands are possessed of the same
physical characteristics, and are subject to the same climatic
conditions that apply to the lands in Yucatan now planted with henequen
and at the present time successfully producing sisal hemp. The aggregate
of these several areas of henequen lands is conservatively estimated at
not less than 1,000,000 acres: or double the area now planted with
henequen in Yucatan.
About 9,000 acres of these Cuban lands are now actually planted with and
successfully growing henequen; and about 5,000 acres are now producing
sisal hemp which in quantity and quality compares favorably with the
product of the best henequen lands in Yucatan. The results obtained from
these lands now actually planted and producing are conclusive as to the
results that could be obtained if other and larger areas of such lands
should be planted with henequen.
Furthermore a large part of these Cuban henequen lands are so level and
have such uniform, unbroken surfaces that, at an expense less than that
involved in preparing the henequen lands of Yucatan, they could be put
in condition to be kept clean mainly by motor-driven mowing machinery,
instead of the enormously expensive man-power machete system employed
upon the rougher lands of Yucatan. In addition to such advantages these
rocky areas either comprise, or are margined by, large areas of rich
land capable of producing many important items required for human
sustenance; while in Yucatan everything needed to sustain human life has
to be imported.
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