The History of Cuba, vol. 5

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

Nearly all seed is brought from the United States, fresh, each year, and the planting season for some crops begins in September, extending through the entire winter, especially where irrigation or fortunate rains furnish a sufficient amount of moisture to carry the crop through the dry months of early spring.

The methods employed in vegetable growing are identical with those of the United States, and the results are practically the same, aside from the one important fact that all fall grown vegetables, or those that may be placed on the markets of large cities in the United States between January and April, bring, as a rule, very high prices.

Later in the spring the vegetable gardens of Florida and the Gulf States come into competition, causing the growers of the Island gradually to yield to those of sections further north. It is at this time, or in the late spring, that the canning industry could take care of the great surplus of vegetables that for any reason might fail to find a profitable market abroad. Well equipped plants could handle this crop with great benefit both to the vegetable growers and the canners.

Irish potatoes, planted in the fall so that the crop may be brought to maturity in March, have proven very successful throughout this section, as well as in the beautiful Guines Valley, southeast of Havana. The potato growers of Cuba have experimented with nearly all of the standard varieties of the United States and it is rather difficult to determine which has given the best results.

The Early Rose variety of Irish potato is quite a favorite in Cuba, owing to its rapid growth and productivity. Later potatoes, while finding a sale perhaps in the local market, are not considered profitable, since, as a rule, one can procure during summer and fall excellent potatoes from Maine and Nova Scotia, with greater economy than by growing them in Cuba, at times when the land can be more profitably used for other purposes.

Potatoes, of course, need barn yard manures and fertilizers, the more the better; or rather, the greater is the return. The yield varies according to conditions anywhere from forty to one hundred barrels and more per acre. The Cuban product is almost invariably of good quality, and when placed in the eastern markets of the United States in the month of March, will bring anywhere from $6 to $10 per barrel. Under normal conditions $8 seems to be the ruling price for Cuban potatoes on the wharves at New York, where they are sold as exotics or new potatoes. Thus $500 may be considered a fair return per acre.

Green peppers, too, have been found to be one of the most satisfactory and profitable crops in Cuba. They are planted in rows three feet apart, spaced a foot or more in the row so that they can be kept clean with adjustable cultivators drawn by light ponies. Hand cultivation, although sometimes indulged in, with the present price of labor is practically impossible.

A well-known pepper grower of the Guayabal district, in the northwestern corner of Havana Province, on less than a hundred acres of land, grew 6,000 crates of green peppers in the winter of 1917-18, that netted him $6 per crate in the City of New York. Peppers are easily grown and handled, and the market or demand for them seems to be quite constant, hence they have become one of the favorite vegetables for the export trade.

Tomatoes, too, are grown very successfully in Cuba during the late fall and winter. The seed is secured from reliable houses in the United States each year, and is selected largely with reference to the firmness or shipping quality of the fruit. The methods of cultivation are similar to those employed in the United States. The weeds are usually killed out of the field in the early spring, and kept down with profitable cover crops, such as the carita and velvet bean. These, when turned under or harvested by hogs, place the soil in perfect condition.

The planting is done usually in October and November and the cultivation carried on either with native horses or mules, or gasoline-propelled cultivators. The yield where the water control and other conditions are favorable, is large, and the price secured in the northern markets varies from $2 to $5 per half bushel crate. It is true that when tomatoes from Florida and the Gulf States begin to go north in large quantities, there are frequently reports of glutted markets and falling prices. It is then that the canning factory comes to the rescue of the planter and contracts for the remainder of his stock at satisfactory prices.