The History of Cuba, vol. 5Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
The History of Cuba, vol. 5
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Cuba -- Economic conditions; Cuba -- History
The large hotels of Havana, especially during the tourist season, are
compelled to supply mutton of good quality to their guests, and since
the local supply is not sufficient, a considerable amount of this
excellent food is imported, dressed, from the United States. In this
latitude, where green grass may be found in abundance throughout the
year, sheep may be profitably raised and used in many ways. They are
close grazers and will keep down the heavy growth of grass in citrus
fruit groves, and also along the roadsides and in the surface drains
that border hundreds of miles of automobile drives scattered throughout
the Island.
Thousands of dollars are expended by the Department of Public Works
every year in cutting out this rank growth of grass, so that the flow of
water in the ditches may not be impeded. This work could undoubtedly be
done by sheep, and a great deal of manual labor be saved, if the system
of roadside grazing was once introduced into this country. Sheep are
found in small numbers throughout all parts of the Island, and up to the
present the Government has made no attempt to register them.
So far no discrimination has been used in introducing those breeds of
sheep best suited for the production of mutton. That which the Island
has is usually tender, and of excellent flavor, and if small farmers
would take the trouble to import good rams from desirable breeds in the
United States, the raising of mutton, even as a side issue, would add
greatly to the revenue of farms located near large consuming centers.
The Republic of Mexico for many years has derived a very large revenue
from the sale of goat skins, most of which were purchased by the New
England shoe factories, while the by-products in the form of salted and
sun dried meat, fat and other materials, always command a market. Recent
years of devastation, however, have practically annihilated all of the
great herds once so profitable, since for three or four years they
furnished food to the roving bands of different contestants in that
unfortunate country.
In the various mountain chains, foothills and fertile ravines of Cuba
are hundreds of thousands of acres of forest land, in much of which
sufficient sunlight enters to permit of new growth, the tender shoots of
which are preferred by both goats and deer to any other food in the
world. More than all, the goat is by nature a hill climber, and is never
content until he gains the nearest ascent from which he can look down on
his companions below.
For many years to come, most of these vast ranges will be unfenced and
free, and the keeping of the goats will require nothing more than a
herder with a couple of good dogs for every thousand head. With this
excellent food that can serve no other purpose, and the splendid water
of mountain streams, the goat industry in Cuba could not fail to be
profitable, and yet the raising of goats has never been considered there
commercially.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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