The History of Cuba, vol. 5

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

This semi-savage breed of hogs of course would cause a smile if seen on a first-class stock farm in the United States. He is usually black in color, long and lank, resembling very much the “razor back,” once common in the southern part of the United States. He is prolific, a good fighter, and hustles for his own living, since nothing is provided for him excepting what he picks up in the forest. This, however, is pretty good feed.

The royal palm that covers many of the hillsides and slopes of the long mountain chains throughout Cuba, produces a small nut called palmiche, which furnishes a never-failing food and aids the stock man greatly in raising hogs. The palmiche, picked up by the animals at the base of the palms or cut by the monteros, who with the assistance of a rope easily climb these tall smooth barked ornaments of the forest, will keep animals in fairly good condition throughout the year.

The palmiche, however, although only about the size of the kernel of a hazel nut, is very hard, and much of it is rather indigestible. This nut, when ground and pressed yields about 20% of excellent oil, either for lubricating or commercial purposes, while the residue of the nut, or pressed cake of the palmiche, from which the worthless part has been separated previous to grinding, owing to its rich content of protein and oil, furnishes an easily digested and splendid food.

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.

At the Experimental Station at Santiago de las Vegas may be seen many excellent breeds of hogs that were introduced from the United States some years ago. Among these are found the Duroc or Jersey Red, the Hampshire, the Chester White, the Berkshire and Tamworth, all of which under the favorable conditions found at the Station have done remarkably well. Interesting experiments on the various foods of the Island, and their adaptability as food for hogs, are being carried on there throughout the year. Those breeds which seem to give the greatest promise, up to the present, are the Duroc and the Hampshire. Some very interesting animals have been produced from crosses between Hampshires, Durocs and Tamworths, the shoulder mark or saddle band of the Hampshire being prominent in all of its crosses.

The population of Cuba is rapidly approaching three millions, and no people in the world are more addicted to the use of pork in all its forms than those not only in Cuba but in all the Latin American Republics lying to the west and south of the Caribbean. The hog industry at the present time does not begin to supply the local demand, and probably will not for some years to come. Fresh pork before the European war seldom varied throughout the year from the standard price of ten cents per pound on the hoof, while hams imported from the United States brought twenty-five cents at wholesale in Havana.