The History of Cuba, vol. 5Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
The History of Cuba, vol. 5
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Cuba -- Economic conditions; Cuba -- History
The recent demand for oil has resulted in the introduction of a number
of presses in Cuba since the beginning of the European War, and the
palmiche cake is being placed on the market as a stock food product. In
this form it is quite probable that a valuable adjunct will soon be
added to the other natural foods of the country.
Palmiche fed pork in Cuba, or for that matter wherever it has been
eaten, is considered a greater delicacy than any other pork in the
world, and in this Island is preferred to either turkey or chicken. This
is owing to the peculiar nutty flavor which the palmiche imparts to the
meat of the forest-bred hog. Young palmiche fed pork, known as lechon,
roasted over a hardwood or charcoal fire, during the holidays of
Christmas and New Year’s in Havana, readily retails at 75¢ to $1 per
pound, and little roasting pigs at that time of the year will bring from
five to ten dollars each.
The pork industry, however, in Cuba, to be really successful should be
conducted along lines similar to those of the United States. Excellent
food can be provided for hogs, fresh and sweet at all times of the year,
simply by planting the various crops with reference to the season and
period needed for feeding. Among those foods best adapted to sows and
growing pigs in Cuba are peanuts, cow peas, sweet potatoes, sugar cane,
calabasa or pumpkins, chufas, malanga, and other root crops peculiar to
the country. For topping off, or putting into condition, shoats for six
weeks before being sent to market should be fed on either corn or yucca,
or both.
The latter, yucca, is one of the best root crops grown in the Island
for fattening hogs. The tuber, some three or four feet in length, with a
diameter of three or four inches, comes from a closely jointed plant
that at maturity varies in height from three to five feet. The stalk of
these plants, if cut into short joints, and planted in furrows about
three feet apart, produces its crop of tubers in about twelve months,
although the yield will increase for five or six months after this. The
yucca tubers are covered with a cocoanut brown peel, while the inside,
consisting of almost pure starch, is white as milk.
Yucca will produce a splendid, firm fat on pork in a very short time,
and has the advantage over corn in the fact that the weight of the crop,
from an acre of land, varies from four to twelve tons, according to the
quality of the soil, and hogs delight in harvesting the crop themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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