The History of Cuba, vol. 5

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

Several acres are devoted to this experimental grape field and have been supplied with convenient trellises and facilities for irrigation. The Director and those interested with him are much encouraged with the present stage of the experiment and have great confidence in their ability to establish successfully in Cuba many of the choice grapes of the world, although the medium of the vigorous Cimarron grape of the island. If these experiments prove successful, there is no reason why many of the hillsides of this country should not be converted into immense vineyards, and the cultivation of grapes become a prominent and permanent source of agricultural wealth.

Although intoxication among the inhabitants of Cuba is almost unknown, the drinking of wine, as in all other Latin American countries, has been a custom from time immemorial and the annual importation of wine, most of which comes from Spain, approximates $2,500,000 a year. Should the culture of grapes in Cuba meet with the success expected, there is no reason why this industry, together with that of wine making, might not be carried on in connection with coffee growing in the mountains, since the soils of the fertile hills throughout the Island are adapted to the culture of both at the same time.

In the matter of popular beverages it is somewhat interesting to note that in each hemisphere, nature provided trees of the forest, the fruit of which for countless centuries has furnished to man beverages that today are almost as essential as food. In fact the Cacao of the western hemisphere is a very nutritious food and drink at the same time. While coffee is indigenous to Arabia and Abyssinia, whence the trees have been carried into nearly all parts of the tropical world, cacao, on the other hand, was indigenous to the West Indies, to Mexico, Central America and probably to all countries bordering on the Caribbean. The shores of the latter great sea or basin of the ocean, with their rich warm valleys formed by the rivers tributary to it, are the natural home of the cacoa, botanically known as Theobroma, or food of the gods.

When Cortez forced himself as an unwelcome guest upon Montezuma, in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, he found a delicious drink called caca-huatl, made by the Aztecs from the seeds of this really marvellous plant. The taste of chocolate is so delicate and so palatable that fondness for the drink does not have to be acquired in any country. From the West Indies cacao, or cocoa beans, were carried to Spain and the cultivation of the plant was introduced into the warmer latitudes of the eastern hemisphere. The government of Spain, with its short-sighted greed of those days, succeeded in keeping the manufacture of this drink more or less secret from the outside world, and for chocolate demanded prices so high that only the rich could afford to buy it, retarding thus its general use in Europe for nearly a century.

The consumption of chocolate today, both as a beverage and as a food, especially in the manufacture of confections, has assumed throughout the world very large proportions. Approximately 150,000,000 pounds of chocolate and cocoa produced from the cacao trees of the Caribbean basin are consumed in civilized countries, while the demand for the beans is increasing by rapid bounds every year.

There is perhaps no form of nutritious food more condensed and complete than that of the better grade of chocolate. Nine-tenths of the content of this wonderful bean are assimilated by the system, hence its value not only to travelers but also to armies and forces in the field, who demand condensed foods like chocolate, with a large amount of nourishment in a very small bulk. An analysis of cacao yields of carbohydrates, 37%; of fat, 29%; and of protein, 22%. In the better grades of chocolate, used for both food and drink, there is practically no waste.

From the above it may be readily seen that the cultivation of cacao, from which the chocolate and cocoa of commerce are derived, has become one of the standard agricultural industries of the world, and one which for the future gives great promise, since the demand for the cacao beans is increasing rapidly, as is also the market price.

The Central American republics bordering on the Caribbean, as well as the northern coast of Colombia and Venezuela, are the greatest producers of cacao, while Trinidad, Cuba and other islands of the West Indies, produce considerable amounts.

The culture of cacao, like that of coffee and citrus fruits, is a healthful and profitable employment, and especially agreeable for those fond of life in the open, and who enjoy living in the mountains and valleys that slope toward the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Its cultivation may be carried on where conditions are favorable, in company with coffee, since while the latter is grown on the fertile foothills and mountain sides, cacao is at its best in the sheltered valleys of the forest. Cacao demands a rich, deep, moist soil, well drained, since the roots of the tree will not tolerate standing water, and the subsoil, if not pervious, must lie at least six feet below the surface.

The forest-covered valleys of tropical Cuba, receiving as they do the washings of the hillsides, upon which decayed vegetable matter has accumulated during centuries, furnish ideal locations for cacao. In preparing for the cultivation of the plant, all underbrush is removed, leaving only the tall stately trees, that although giving the required shade will still admit some sunlight to the soil below; otherwise the cacao, reaching up for the light, assumes a tall slender growth, inconvenient in gathering the crop. Trees for commercial purposes should not attain a height of more than 25 or 30 feet, the branches leaving the trunk six or eight feet from the ground. They are planted as a rule from 12 to 15 feet apart, which is equivalent to from 200 to 300 trees per acre.