The soil of the whole island seems well-nigh inexhaustible. Except in tobacco culture, fertilizers are never used. In the sugar districts are found old canefields that have produced annual crops for a hundred years without perceptible impoverishment of the soil. Besides sugar and tobacco, the island yields Indian corn, rice, manioc (the plant from which tapioca is prepared), oranges, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, guava, and all other tropical fruits, with many of those belonging to the temperate zone. Raw sugar, molasses, and tobacco are the chief products, and, with fruits, nuts, and unmanufactured woods, form the bulk of exports, though coffee culture, formerly active, is now being revived, and its fine quality indicates that it must in time become one of the most important products of the island.
As a sugar country, Cuba takes first rank in the world. Mr. Gallon, the English Consul, in his report to his government in 1897 upon this Cuban crop, declared: "Of the other cane-sugar countries of the world, Java is the only one which comes within 50 per cent. of the amount of sugar produced annually in Cuba in normal times, and Java and the Hawaiian Islands are the only ones which are so generally advanced in the process of manufacture." Our own Consul, Hyatt, in his report of February, 1897, expresses the belief that Cuba is equal to supplying the entire demands of the whole western hemisphere with sugar—a market for 4,000,000 tons or more, and requiring a crop four times as large as the island has ever yet produced. Those who regard this statement as extravagant should remember that Cuba, although founded and settled more than fifty years before the United States, has nearly 14,000,000 acres of uncleared primeval forest-land, and is capable of easily supporting a population more than ten times that of the present. In fact, the Island of Java, not so rich as Cuba, and of very nearly the same area, with less tillable land, has over 22,000,000 inhabitants as against Cuba's—perhaps at this time—not more than 1,200,000 souls.
MINERAL AND TIMBER RESOURCES.
The mineral resources of Cuba are second in importance to its agricultural products. Gold and silver are not believed to exist in paying quantities, but its most valuable mineral, copper, seems to be almost inexhaustible. The iron and manganese mines, in the vicinity of Santiago, are of great importance, the ores being rated among the finest in the world. Deposits of asphalt and mineral oils are also found.
The third resource of Cuba in importance is its forest product. Its millions of acres of unbroken woodlands are rich in valuable hard woods, suitable for the finest cabinet-work and ship-building, and also furnish many excellent dye woods. Mahogany, cedar, rosewood, and ebony abound. The palm, of which there are thirty-odd species found in the island, is one of the most characteristic and valuable of Cuban trees.
CITIES AND COMMERCE.
The commerce of Cuba has been great in the past, but Spanish laws made it expensive and oppressive to the Cubans. Its location and resources, with wise government, assure to the island an enormous trade in the future. There are already four cities of marked importance to the commercial world: Havana with a population of 250,000, Santiago with 71,000, Matanzas with 29,000, and Cienfuegos with 30,000, are all seaport cities with excellent harbors, and all do a large exporting business. Add to these Cardenas with 25,000, Trinidad with 18,000, Manzanillo with 10,000, and Guantanamo and Baracoa, each with 7,000 inhabitants, we have an array of ten cities such as few strictly farming countries of like size possess. Aside from cigar and cigarette making, there is little manufacturing in Cuba; but fruit canneries, sugar refineries, and various manufacturing industries for the consumption of native products will rapidly follow in the steps of good government. Hence, in the field of manufacturing this island offers excellent inducements to capital.
SEASONS AND CLIMATE.
Like all tropical countries, Cuba has but two seasons, the wet and the dry. The former extends from May to October, June, July, and August being the most rainy months. The dry season lasts from November to May. This fact must go far toward making the island more and more popular as a winter health resort. The interior of the island is mountainous, and always pleasantly cool at night, while on the highlands the heat in the day is less oppressive than in New York and Pennsylvania during the hottest summer weather; consequently, when once yellow fever, which now ravages the coasts of the island on account of its defective sanitation, is extirpated, as it doubtless will be under the new order of things, Cuba will become the seat of many winter homes for wealthy residents of the United States. Even in the summer, the temperature seldom rises above 90°, while the average for the year is 77°. At no place, except in the extreme mountainous altitude, is it ever cold enough for frost.