Of all varieties, the Redfield Beauty is probably the tomato most in vogue among growers in Cuba. It grows luxuriantly and yields from two hundred to three hundred crates per acre.
Eggplants as a rule are successfully grown on all rich mellow soils. The methods of cultivation are almost identical with those employed in growing tomatoes. A small pear shaped variety is grown for the local markets in Havana and other cities, but for export purposes it would be unsatisfactory. The finest varieties known in the States are all found here. The yield under favorable conditions is large and the crop stands shipment for long distances without injury.
As a rule the prices obtained in the north have rendered the growing of egg plants very profitable. From $3 to $7 per crate are the usual limitations in price. The uncertainty of this price, however, in different seasons, has rendered the production of the eggplant rather an interesting gamble. This is true regardless of the quality of the fruit, in nearly all products sold in distant markets.
Okra, or quimbombo, as the vegetable is called in Cuba, while not as a rule commanding fancy prices, nevertheless brings satisfactory returns, both abroad and in the local market, where the demand is more or less steady. Like all others mentioned, it is strictly a late fall or winter vegetable, and its cultivation is identical with methods employed in the United States. Prices usually obtained are from two to three dollars a half bushel crate.
The growing of lima beans in Cuba has proved a gilt-edge undertaking for those who have been careful in the selection of seed and proper cultivation after planting. The price obtained in the United States has varied between $2 and $8 per hamper, or bean basket, with an average of perhaps $5. The crop is quickly grown and with sufficient labor to gather the beans at the proper time the grower is relieved of his only cause for worry. The labor problem can usually be overcome if the farm is located near any one of the small towns where help of women and children is available.
String beans, while readily grown in Cuba, do not always find a demand in the northern markets sufficient to justify the fancy prices frequently obtained for other vegetables. The local demand in Havana, while not large, is nevertheless satisfactory to the small farmer living within a short distance of the city, where he can deliver his crop without the expense of railroad transportation.
The summer squash, too, succeeds very well in Cuba, and if the crop does not encounter the competition of the growers in the Gulf States, it is, as a rule, fairly profitable. A variety of the native squash known as the Calabaza, always finds a ready sale in the local markets. This prolific Criolla production is almost always planted with corn by the native farmers, since its yield never fails and its market is constant and satisfactory.
Recent experiments have been made by an American grower who has imported the seed of the small pie-pumpkin into Cuba. To use his own words, “This variety grows even faster than weeds, and the pumpkins cover the ground so thick that you can hardly avoid walking on them.” They make a very fine fall and winter crop, with an average yield of five tons per acre. This delicate variety of pumpkin, when canned, will probably prove available for export purposes.
The great drawback to profitable vegetable growing in Cuba lies largely in the uncertainty of the northern markets, where prices fluctuate so rapidly, with the minimum and the maximum so far apart, that it is difficult for the vegetable grower, a thousand miles away, to count with any certainty on the returns from his crops when shipped abroad. The establishment of receiving agents, perhaps, under the control of men who were financially interested with the growers themselves, might remedy this difficulty. The canning industry, if established on a sufficiently broad scale, would also add stability to the price of all crops grown in Cuba, and place the cultivation of vegetables on a more certain foundation.
The introduction of irrigation, wherever possible, insures so generous a crop of almost any vegetable planted in this Island, that the returns to the grower, even where the price may not be fancy, will be decidedly remunerative. The incalculable advantages to be secured by irrigation, especially in the growing of vegetables, planted in the late fall and gathered during the winter and early spring, when rains are not always forthcoming, is a matter in which the Department of Agriculture is deeply interested.