The History of Cuba, vol. 5

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

The larger part of the Herradura tract, especially that which lay along the Western Railroad, was a light sandy soil, used by the natives in the olden days for grazing cattle, and burned over every winter, thus destroying nearly all of the humus in the land. This property was divided into 40-acre tracts and sold at $20 per acre. As soon as the settlers from the United States began to arrive in any numbers, the price was advanced to $40. Citrus fruit was held out to prospective home seekers as the surest means of securing an easy life and a fortune after the first four or five years.

Under favorable conditions, where all the essential elements to success are combined, this is possible. But Herradura did not combine all of the required features, hence hundreds of acres of abandoned groves can be seen along the railroad track for miles, as one enters the Herradura district. The cyclone of 1917 which added the last straw to the proverbial camel’s back, in the Isle of Pines, swept across the western end of Pinar del Rio Province also, and only those groves that had been provided with wind-breaks escaped from blight and ruin in the hurricane.

Today there are about 25 families, with perhaps 100 inhabitants, remaining in the colony of Herradura. Some of these settlers, men of experience, who came from the citrus grove districts of Florida, and others who took up general farming on the better lands, some two or three miles north of the railroad, have succeeded, and have built for themselves comfortable homes where rural life is enjoyed to the utmost.

Some of them have their machines with which they can motor over a splendid automobile drive to Havana, and spend a few days in the capital, during the opera season. Nearly all of them have a few saddle horses that furnish splendid exercise and amusement for the younger members of the colony. One of the successful old timers of Herradura is Mr. Earle, formerly chief of the Government Experimental Station at Santiago de Las Vegas, a scientific farmer and a good business man. Mr. Earle located on good land in a little valley well back from the road, planted 40 acres in citrus fruit and has succeeded where others failed.

On all lands where irrigation is possible, the growing of vegetables, especially peppers and egg plants, has proven very satisfactory. The average number of crates per acre is 350, and a dollar per crate net is the estimated average profit. The irrigation comes either from wells or little streams.

The raising of pigs and poultry has helped greatly all those farmers of Herradura who had the foresight not to neglect the live stock and poultry end in their farming enterprises.

The price of fairly good land in Herradura today is from $25 to $50 per acre. The successful owner of a well cared for citrus grove in this colony values it at $1,500 per acre. The freight on fruit and vegetables from Herradura to the city of Havana over the Western Road, is ten cents per box.

The colony boasts of a very comfortable school house, which also serves as a church and town hall. The old standbys, as they call themselves, seldom complain of their lot, and could hardly be induced to change or seek homes in other localities.

There are some half dozen American and Canadian colonies in the Province of Oriente, most of them scattered along the line of the Cuba Company’s railroad that has brought the interior of that province into contact with the seaports of Antilla, on the north coast, and Santiago de Cuba on the south. The colony of Bartle is the westernmost, located about fifty miles from the borderline between that province and Oriente.

The Bartle tract consisted originally of 5,000 acres, 3,000 of which lie north of the railroad and the remainder extending toward the south. Most of the land is covered with a heavy forest of hard woods and the work of clearing is a serious proposition, although the soil, once freed from stumps, is exceptionally rich and productive. Less than 2,000 acres have been cleared up to the present, and some three or four hundred have been planted in citrus fruit. Good water is found at a depth of 25 feet.