Recognizing the value of alfalfa, which is today probably the standard forage of the Western and Southwestern States of North America, experiments were made in Cuba at different times, but not always with success. A fairly good stand was apparently secured on President Menocal’s farm “El Chico,” just out of Havana. But in spite of earnest efforts on the part of the gardener, weeds eventually choked it out, so that the field was abandoned. At the Experimental Station a small tract of alfalfa has been recently planted that seems to give promise of permanence and complete success.

In the Province of Camaguey, a well-known stock raiser from Texas secured seed from his native state that had been inoculated, and planted it in drills three feet apart. All weeds had been previously exterminated through the use of a heavy cover crop of velvet beans, turned under. As soon as the alfalfa began to show, light-pony-drawn cultivators were kept running between the rows, cutting out every weed that appeared, and allowing the alfalfa gradually to spread, until the spaces between rows were completely covered, and further cultivation was unnecessary. The soil was rich and moist, and could be irrigated in February or March if necessary. From his alfalfa today, he is making seven heavy cuttings a year, which demonstrates the fact that this valuable forage plant under favorable conditions can be successfully grown in Cuba.

Cowpeas of almost all varieties are successfully grown in Cuba as they are in the Gulf States of America, where the climate, aside from cold rains and frost in winter, is somewhat similar to Cuba. Both the peas and the pea-vine hay command good prices throughout the year, in the local markets of the cities; hence the cultivation of this excellent forage plant and vegetable, especially when grown with corn, is in common practice.

A variety of the cowpea, known as La Carita, is very popular in Cuba, owing to its large yield, and to the fact that after a shower of rain it can be planted with profit any month of the year, with the exception perhaps of July and August. The carita belongs to the running or ground covering variety, and if grown with corn will use the stalks on which to climb, without detriment to the major crop. The pods are long and filled with peas about the size of the small Navy beans of New England. The color is a cream white, with a little dark stain around the germ, which gave it the name of Carita or little face. The pea for table use is excellent, of splendid flavor, and becomes soft and palatable with an hour’s cooking. The vines make good hay, and the average yield of beans is about 1200 pounds to the acre, which at prices varying from five to ten cents per pound forms quite a satisfactory crop.

The kinds of beans grown in Cuba are almost unlimited. Various soils of the Island seem adapted to the legume family, and many varieties have been introduced not only from the United States but from Mexico and Central America. One indigenous bean, the botanical name for which has not been determined, is found growing wild along the southern coast of Pinar del Rio. The pods are well filled, and although the bean is very small it is nevertheless delicious eating. The running vines make a perfect mat or surface carpet and yield an abundance of hay, nutritious and greatly liked by stock. The origin and habits of this bean, and the extent to which it might be improved by cultivation, are being studied by the Government Experimental Station at the present time.

Of all forage and food crops grown in Cuba, there is none, perhaps, more universally successful than the peanut. The little Spanish variety, owing to its heavy production of oil, is popular and very prolific in all parts of the Island where the soil is sandy.

On the red lands, or those that have a clay basis, the Virginia peanuts thrive wonderfully well. Unlike the little Spanish, the Virginia, or larger varieties, are usually planted in the spring months, and continue growing all through the summer. The yield of the Virginia peanut is large, and the hay resulting from the vines, under favorable conditions, will approximate two tons or more per acre. This hay is considered one of the best forage crops, and the field, after the peanuts have been removed for market, can be very profitably converted into a hog pasture, so that the small nuts, and those that escape the harvester, are turned into excellent account, and the field is put into splendid condition for the next planting.

The yield of the Spanish peanut varies according to conditions of soil, and control of water, anywhere from 40 to 100 bushels per acre. Every bushel of Spanish peanuts will produce one gallon of oil, the price of which at the present time exceeds $1. From each bushel of nuts with the shells ground in, about 20 pounds of splendid oil-cake are secured. This, fed to stock, especially to hogs, in combination with corn or yucca, is undoubtedly one of the finest foods for fattening and quick growth that can be found. Peanut-cake readily brings in Havana from $30 to $40 per ton.

CHAPTER XXV
ANIMALS

CUBA, like the other West Indian Islands, is strangely poor in its indigenous mammals. The largest wild animal is the deer, a beautiful creature, resembling much the graceful Cervidae of the Virginia mountains. It is in fact a sub-species of the American deer. But these were imported into Cuba from some unknown place, and at a time of which there is no record extant. They are very plentiful throughout nearly all of the thinly settled sections of Cuba, especially in the Province of Pinar del Rio, where, in places not hunted, they exhibit very little fear of man and frequently appear near native huts in the hills, drawn there probably through curiosity, which is one of the weak points of these most beautiful denizens of the forest.