The national and other experiment stations have not been established long enough to permit of wide effect from their efforts. In their immediate vicinities the improvement in farming due to their influence is marked and there is every reason to count upon its extension. The most interesting of these stations is that maintained by the Cuba Railroad, under the direction of Dr. Paul Karutz. It covers about six acres of land, immediately contiguous to the Hotel Camaguey.
Here may be seen an acre of cotton, all the plants healthy and vigorous, and most of them bearing more than one hundred and twenty pounds each. A model citrus fruit grove, with
HOTEL CAMAGUEY.
mulched trees, and velvet beans growing between, will encourage those who still have faith in the citrus fruit industry of Cuba. An acre of peanuts, in remarkably good condition, yields a crop of fourteen hundred pounds. Broomcorn, cassava, arrowroot, jute, and many other commercial plants, may be seen in different stages of growth and development.
Experiments with corn are constantly in progress, with the object of producing a serviceable seed by crossing Cuban, United States, and Argentine varieties. Three new varieties have been secured, each having long ears, large kernels, and thin cobs. The station is distributing small parcels of this seed-corn to such farmers as show an inclination to improve their crops.
Failure has fallen upon the efforts of a large proportion of the thousands of Americans who have taken up farming in Cuba. This has been due to a variety of causes. The chief of these has been insufficient money to make a fair start. Too often the settler comes out with little more than enough to pay for his land, build a modest dwelling, and buy a few pounds of seed. He is forced to depend upon his own labor solely, with inadequate mechanical equipment, and the land must support him from the first crop, or he is faced by starvation. In other cases, where the immigrant has money enough to buy good land and proper farm equipment, he approaches the task in complete ignorance of the peculiar conditions of agriculture in Cuba, and often with the additional handicap of preconceived ideas that are entirely wrong. He plunges into the cultivation of certain crops without any previous study or experience, and regardless of shipping and market conditions. Sooner or later he awakes to his mistake, but seldom before the loss of time and money has seriously crippled his resources. Many failures are to be attributed to the widespread tendency among American settlers in Cuba to take to fancy farming. They are fired with the desire to do something out of the ordinary and to produce something that no one else is growing. It is usually the pure amateur who is afflicted with this mania, which always costs him dearly. He generally ends as a man whose sole possession is a theory.
There is no question about the assured success of the man who may undertake farming in Cuba with the proper equipment. He must have ample capital,—that is to say, enough for all calculable requirements and a little over. He must defer serious work until he has made a thorough study of the conditions. He should then devote his efforts to the production of the surest crops, those entailing the least hazard in cultivation, and for which there is a permanent market with a steady demand. If, furthermore, he uses intelligent methods in the cultivation of his land, he can not fail of success.