corporations are the United Fruit Company, the Nipe Bay Company, the Spanish-American Iron Company, the Dumois-Nipe Company, and the Cuba Railroad Company.
The United Fruit Company’s property extends for more than twenty miles between Dumois and Banes, its shipping point. The plantation, which was formerly devoted to bananas, is now occupied by sugar-cane to the extent of 25,000 acres. The product is consumed by the Central Boston, one of the largest mills in Cuba. The extent of the Fruit Company’s property here is probably nearly 100,000 acres. Five thousand head of stock and the numerous buildings require a large proportion of it.
The Cuba Railroad’s interest is in the port of Antilla, where it has established a flourishing little town, and built extensive docks and warehouses. These are much in excess of present needs, but the railroad management is confident that this will become the principal shipping point of the eastern end of the Island, a conclusion that seems to be founded on logical grounds.
At Preston, the Nipe Bay Company, a corporation controlled by the United Fruit Company, operates a sugar plantation considerably more than one hundred thousand acres in area, and what is claimed to be the most complete and up-to-date mill in existence. This factory is in course of enlargement, so that it will consume five thousand tons of cane daily. The plantation, mill, and village of Preston are more fully described in the chapter on “Cuba’s Sugar Industry.”
The Dumois-Nipe Company owns about fifty thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Saetia. This is devoted to various products. The largest area, about one thousand acres, is planted in sugar-cane, somewhat more than half as much land in bananas, and a considerable acreage in pineapples. Oranges and grape-fruit occupy several hundred acres.
The Spanish-American Iron Company, which controls extensive mining properties at Daiquiri and elsewhere in the Province, has its latest and most extensive operation at Felton in the Nipe Bay district. The ore deposit here is more than twenty miles in length and from ten to sixteen in breadth. In depth the workings average about twenty feet. Steam shovels are employed in taking the material out. In its ultimate form the ore is shipped in small pellets upon the Company’s steamers, which dock in immediate contact with the plant.
Nothing could be surer than the future great development of Oriente, with a continuance of the present trend. American capital is constantly looking for new investments in the Province. Its mineral deposits and its fertile valleys will be exploited by Americans. The American influence is already prominent in every part of it. American methods prevail in all its industries and American money is the universal currency. Oriente will advance by leaps and bounds into the position of the most productive province in Cuba.
THE END.