TIMBER AND FRUIT TREES
Of the approximately twenty-eight millions of acres in Cuba and its
islands, it is estimated that from thirteen to fifteen millions of acres
are covered with timber, the vastly larger portion of it yet untouched
by the axe. Of this, mahogany and cedar lead in value as lumber, though,
for the variety of its uses, the palm, of which there are thirty species
in the Island, easily takes precedence. A notable peculiarity of tree
growth in Cuba is the presence of the pine, a distinctively northern
product, yet here it is found growing side by side with the mahogany;
and on the Isle of Pines it is so plentiful as to have given the name to
the island. The province of Pinar del Rio (River of Pines) also receives
its name from the pines which are so numerous there.
[Illustration: SAGO PALM.]
Of the thirty varieties of palm, the first and foremost is the Palma
Real, or Royal Palm, called also the "Blessed Tree" because of its
manifold uses to man. This tree is common all over the Island, growing
alike on hills and in valleys; but it is most frequent in the west,
where the soil is generally richest and heaviest. It rises to a height
of from sixty to eighty feet, like a tall shaft of rough, grey marble,
and from its top springs a great tuft of green leaves. Its peculiar
growth does not make it especially valuable as a shade tree, but an
avenue of palms is unequalled in its impressive beauty. Of its uses in
other respects an inventory can scarcely be made. Its roots are said to
have medicinal virtues. The stem of its leaves, or _yagua_, often six
feet in length, is like a thin board and can be used as a dinner plate
by cutting it into shape; it may be folded like stiff paper when wet;
and is bent into a _catana_, or basin, or a pot, in which food may be
boiled, and there is sufficient salt in the wood to make the food
palatable; it serves also as a basket for carrying farm products; it is
said a dozen _catanas_ will produce a pound of salt. The seed of the
royal palm furnishes an excellent "mast" for fattening hogs. Good
weather-boarding is made from its trunk, and the lumber may also be made
into plain furniture; its leaves form the roofs of houses; fine canes
are made from the hard outside shell, which may be polished like metal;
the bud of the tuft is a vegetable food much like cauliflower in taste,
and is eaten raw and cooked; and hats, baskets, and even cloth may be
made from its leaves and fibre. What further uses may be found for it,
future Yankee ingenuity will develop.
Of the other palms, the guano and yarey are valuable for their fibre,
from which very fine hats and baskets are made for export; the guano de
cana produces the vanilla-bean parasite and makes the best roofing
material; the cocoanut palm is another variety, probably better known
abroad by its product than any other; the guano de costa is noted for
its elastic and waterproof wood.
Mahogany is the most valuable wood for export, although Cuban cedar is
probably better known, because so much more of it is shipped to the
United States; for example, in 1894, a good year, 12,051 mahogany logs
were received here, and 106,545 cedar logs. Cuban mahogany is the most
valuable known in the market. The common variety is worth from $110 to
$150 per 1000 feet, and the bird's-eye, or figured mahogany, commands
almost any price. Ordinary prices for it run from $400 to $600 per 1000
feet, with more than double that for fancy varieties. Mahogany cutting
in Cuba is done in the most primitive fashion and under numerous
difficulties, and thus far it has been carried on in only the easily
accessible places, leaving millions of feet yet standing in the dense
forests of the interior. To begin with, the mahogany tree does not grow
in groups, but takes its stand alone, a very monarch of the forest. Here
it is found by the hunter, who sights its peculiar foliage from his
lookout in some tall tree. Noting all the landmarks, he climbs down and
cuts a path through the jungle to his prize, "blazing the way" for his
companions. The trees are often large, sometimes thirty feet in
circumference, and when they are very wide at the roots, the cutters
build rude platforms of poles or saplings, called "barbecues," around
them, and from these platforms the tree is cut from ten to fifteen feet
up the trunk. Thus are wasted several hundred feet of the finest part of
the wood about the gnarled and curly roots. It is fair to suppose that
there are fortunes to-day in the mahogany "stumpage" of Cuba, and it is
in the most accessible portion of the Island. A day's work for a man is
to cut down two trees of from eight to ten feet in circumference; two
men will cut three larger trees, and when a giant of a quarter of a
hundred feet around is found, four men take the entire day, which is
very short in the dense jungle, to lay it low. Great care is taken in
felling the tree not to have it split or break and destroy its value.
When the tree is down, all of it that is available for market is
squared. It is hauled either to the nearest stream or to the coast or to
a railroad station, as may be. Three hundred trees, averaging 2000 feet
each, are a fair season's work for an ordinary camp. Notwithstanding the
poor methods of getting out mahogany timber, the shipments to the United
States alone since 1885 have been 235,000 logs, aggregating 35,700,000
feet, valued at upwards of $5,000,000. The following statement of the
shipments since 1894 will show the disastrous effects of the war.
1894 12,051 logs
1895 20,388 "
1896 3,607 "
1897 757 "
1898 (to December) 738 "
[Illustration: MAHOGANY CARRIED BY OXEN.]
Although the mahogany tree in the wilds, when it reaches its best
condition, reaches enormous growth, much of that coming to market is
comparatively small. Some logs are not over two feet in circumference,
but fine logs are five times that. It may be explained that the mahogany
which gives prestige to the Cuban product and which commands the highest
price, comes from the Santiago district. In other parts of the Island
the timber is smaller, but it is noted for its hardness.
The United States is most familiar with Cuban cedar in the form of cigar
boxes. The shipments of cedar since 1885 have exceeded 700,000 logs
containing over 70,000,000 feet, valued at $4,900,000, allowing $70 per
1000 as the average price in the market. Proportionately, cedar has
suffered equally with mahogany by the war, as will be seen by the
following table of shipments:
1894 106,545 logs
1895 61,888 "
1896 28,130 "
1897 4,055 "
1898 (to November) 5,204 "
Of the supposed forty varieties of hard woods in the Cuban forests,
lignum-vitæ is one of the hardest, and it grows fairly plentifully. Not
a great deal of it has been shipped, and it is worth from thirteen to
thirty dollars per ton according to quality. Cuban ebony is a fine wood
growing generally about the Island, and is noted for its blackness. The
majagua is a flourishing tree, forty feet in height at its best, and its
bark produces a fibre which is made into rope equal to much of the hemp
rope now in use. Its wood is also hard and durable. The baria is a
fragrant flowering tree of hard wood, and the granadillo, though only a
small tree of ten to twelve feet in height, produces a wood of great
hardness and fine colour, from which handsome canes are made. The acana,
roble blanco (white), roble amarillo (yellow), jique, and caiguaran are
hard and durable woods, the last being especially useful for fence
posts and other underground work, as it lasts like iron. The cuia is
durable in water, and is useful for dock timber and such purposes. The
caimitillo, yaya, moboa, and cuen are all useful woods in the making of
house frames, furniture, barrel hoops, handles, and carriage shafts. The
jaguey is a peculiar tree, beginning as a parasite on some other, from
which it sends shoots to the ground, where, taking root, they grow up
and choke out the parent tree, taking its place as a tree composed of
innumerable stems or vines. It bears a fruit of which bats are fond, and
they are thick in these trees in May. Its wood is used for
walking-sticks and other small articles.
The ceiba, cottonwood or silk-cotton tree, is a tree of beauty and size,
and of very general growth. It bears a pod filled with beautiful white
silk-cotton, used for stuffing pillows, but too short of fibre for
spinning. One of the notable trees of the world that travellers tell us
of is the great ceiba tree in the Plaza at Nassau, Jamaica. The rubber
tree has been introduced, in addition to some native gum-producing
trees, undeveloped; and though enough was done towards its cultivation
to prove that it could be grown successfully, the usual fate of new
industries in competition with the Spanish style of taxation proved too
much for it, and the business was ruined. The sand box receives its name
from the peculiar rattling of its pods as of dropping sand. The trumpet
tree is so called because of its hollow trunk which produces a
trumpet-like sound. The banyan tree is noticeable along the coasts,
where it generally prevails. One specimen, near Marianao just outside of
Havana, has hung its branches down and taken root until it covers four
or five acres, and is a great curiosity to the traveller.
Rosewood is plentiful in some parts of the Island, also logwood and
other dyewoods, but little or nothing has been done to develop business
in this direction, and they are holding their riches for the new
discoverers from the north who shall explore the Island in good time.
Concerning the practical side of the timber and lumber industry in
Cuba, Mr. Charles M. Pepper, journalist, writes as follows:
"I have heard a hint that some of the Pennsylvanians who know
something of lumber have got ahead of the Michigan and Wisconsin
lumbermen who were expecting to exploit the forests of the
interior. It is of no consequence who does it so long as the
industry is developed. A civil engineer came to me the other day to
ask some points about reaching a certain part of the Island. He
also wanted to know a good land-title lawyer. His plan was to take
the lawyer along and close up purchases of timber lands at once.
The men he represented must have had money or they would not have
indulged in the luxury of a lawyer to accompany them to the wilds
of the interior. But their idea was the right one. Their money is
in Havana banks. When they find timber lands which suit their
purpose they will buy the tracts instead of seeking options and
going back to the United States to sell these rights. Options on
land are hardly known in Cuba. Nobody is likely to make money by
that means.
"As to how far the woods can be cleared by native labor I asked the
opinion of Major Van Leer, the government engineer who is
superintending the construction of Colonel Hecker's little military
railroad across the bay at Guanabacoa. He has had experience in
South America, in Santo Domingo and in other parts of the West
Indies. 'Native labor,' he said, 'will do for most everything
except to boss the job and run the sawmills. They don't know much
about sawmills in these tropical countries, but they quickly learn
how to get out the timber. A few lumbermen from Michigan or
Pennsylvania would be able to handle the work without trouble.'
"The Cubans have already learned how to get out the mahogany,
though only the edges of the forests have been touched. They have
also learned something of sawmills, for in Pinar del Rio I have
seen the tracts which they cleared of pine and cedar.
"These remarks on lumber are a digression. They may be taken at
sawdust value by real lumbermen who have been brought up in
Wisconsin or Pennsylvania. They are made because some folks with
money have come to Cuba to buy timber lands. As long as it was only
promoters forming companies for the exploitation of an unknown
timber country it was not worth mentioning. Other phases of
investment are becoming live topics for the same reason."
Next in value to the lumber trees in Cuba are fruit-bearing trees of an
almost innumerable variety, some of which are universally known in the
United States. With a climate and soil peculiarly adapted to the highest
development of all kinds of tropical fruits little has as yet been done,
and what has been accomplished has not been by the natives. It is said
of too many of them that when they are too lazy to pick the fruit nature
so lavishly bestows upon them, they simply lie down under the trees and
wait for it to fall. Though all kinds of southern fruits grow
luxuriantly, the most valuable commercially thus far developed are
bananas, cocoanuts, lemons, oranges, limes, and pineapples, and the
north-eastern uplands seem to be, by climate and soil, especially
adapted to the highest development. While some degree of progress has
been made in the raising of bananas and cocoanuts, very little has been
done with the other fruits, and the possibilities are wonderful.
The banana, of which millions of bunches are shipped annually, easily
leads its competitors, in point of value. It is scarcely necessary to
comment upon a fruit so well known to every American. As usual with
fruits shipped out of the latitude of their growth, the banana of
commerce is not the banana of its native garden, although it suffers
much less by the transition than other fruits, as it ripens almost as
well off the tree as on. It is much more wholesome for the foreigner in
his own home than in Cuba. The banana has three stages of usefulness: in
the first, roasted or boiled, it is nourishing and a good substitute for
bread; at three-fourths of its growth it is sweeter, but not so
nourishing; and at last it takes on an acid, bitter taste, healthful and
palatable. Bananas of various kinds grow wild in many parts of the
Island, and the poorer people practically live upon them free of cost.
The fig banana, which is much more delicate than the common kind, is
used as a dessert everywhere, and is very fine, but it cannot be
shipped. During the past eight years, shipments of bananas from the four
ports handling the business were as follows:
Baracoa 7,570,547 bunches
Gibara 7,369,193 "
Banes 4,751,000 "
Cabonico 3,118,007 "
[Illustration: CUBAN FRUITS.]
The war wiped out the banana business at Baracoa. The shipments fell
from 1,552,700 bunches in 1894, to 2000 in 1896; but at the other ports
the effect was not so serious. Gibara sent away 1,305,000 bunches in
1896 to 1,671,000 in 1894; Banes, 755,000 in 1896, to 1,028,000 in 1894;
and Cabonico, 550,000 in 1896, to 643,000 in 1894. The plantain, another
variety, may be called the vegetable banana, and is of very general
local use as a food.
Cocoanuts are raised in the same north-eastern section, and Baracoa
handles, or did handle, the business; 27,430,413 were shipped from 1890
to 1896. Here, again, the war laid its heavy hand, and shipments fell
from 6,268,000 nuts in 1893 to 35,000 in 1896. Of cocoanut oil, 4672
barrels were shipped in 1890-1896, with the highest number of barrels,
1500, in 1896, as against 50 barrels in 1893. Shipments of cocoa in
1894-1896 were 2,930,445 pounds.
The cocoanut palm rises to a height of fifty feet or more. The nuts grow
in bunches in the tuft at the top of the trunk; bunches which often
weigh as much as three hundred pounds. The nut furnishes meat and drink
to the hungry native. The milk of the green cocoanut, a most palatable
drink, is said to have valuable medicinal qualities in kidney troubles.
A few other Cuban fruits are oranges, lemons, limes, mangoes, rose
apples, pineapples, pomegranates, _sapotes_, tamarinds, citrons, figs,
custard apples, guavas, and _aguacates_. Cuban oranges are considered by
many experts to be the best and sweetest in the world and they are the
favourite fruit of the better classes of Cubans. One orange and a cup
of coffee in the morning to a Cuban is what a chew of tobacco and a
drink of whiskey is said to be to a Kentuckian. Although little
attention has been paid to the cultivation of oranges, except for local
use, they still constitute the second most valuable fruit import from
the Island. The United States received $530,680 worth from 1887 to 1896.
The imports reached their greatest value ($97,078) in 1887; in 1896 the
imports amounted to $58,612. Cuban oranges are of the seedless variety
and are extremely cheap all over the Island. The possibilities of their
cultivation are limitless, and it is safe to say that within a few years
the production for export will be enormous.
The lemon tree, with its white flower and its varicoloured fruit, is one
of the prettiest trees to be found in Cuba. Its leaves are almost as
fragrant as are those of our lemon verbena. The yield is continuous.
Generally the fruit is of large size, though the finest lemons are
rather small, juicy, thin-skinned, and of full flavour. The larger
variety is thick-skinned. Little or no attention is paid to proper
cultivation and no lemons are exported. The same is true of the lime,
the fruit of which is very largely used, for its therapeutic qualities,
in beverages of various kinds.
The rose apple, or rose fruit, grows on a tree of remarkable symmetry,
with glossy leaves, and is as large as a good-sized peach,
smooth-skinned and cream-coloured; with an odour and taste of attar of
roses, so strong in fact as not always to be agreeable after the first
one is eaten. Cubans use it as flavour for soups and puddings. The
mammee, or mamey, is an odd fruit, growing on high trees. It is as large
as a muskmelon, with a firm texture and somewhat the taste of a peach.
It is of no commercial value. The natives eat it, but it is not
agreeable to foreign palates. The mango, of Oriental origin, flourishes
everywhere in Cuba, growing on a tree similar to our apple tree. It is
the size of a pullet's egg, yellow in colour, grows in long bunches, is
very juicy when fully ripe, and is agreeable to most tastes. The natives
are especially fond of it. Whether it can be grown for shipment remains
to be seen. Dates and figs find a genial climate and a good soil, but so
far they have been left to look out for themselves. The _sapotilla_ is a
fine tree with a bell-shaped white flower, as fragrant as apple
blossoms; and the fruit is the size of a peach, in a rough russet skin.
When ripe it is delicious and melts in the mouth. The custard apple
grows wild and is also cultivated. It is green in colour, tough-skinned,
acid in flavour, and full of small black seeds. It weighs as much as a
pound and a half, and is used for flavouring purposes. The star apple is
so called because, when cut in half, a star appears in the centre. The
meat is green in colour when the fruit is ripe. It is eaten out of the
skin with a spoon, and has the flavour of strawberries and cream. The
guava grows on a tree about like an American cherry tree, and though not
eaten in its natural state, it is of universal use in making the
well-known guava preserves and jelly. The guava has a peculiar odour
which will scent a room for hours after the fruit is cut.
The pomegranate is a bush fruit of handsome appearance not unknown in
American hothouses and in southern localities, and though not at its
best in Cuba, it is a great favourite, taking the place there that
apples take in this country. The well-known citron, with many other
Cuban fruits, is waiting for the care and attention that will make it a
valuable commercial product. The tamarind grows in a pod-shape on a
lofty shade tree, and when ripe is of the consistency of marmalade, and
quite as toothsome. It is a sweet acid, and is used in making a
favourite drink in tropic countries. The tamarind can be exported. The
wild or bitter orange is used for hedges, and the thick skin of the
fruit makes a sweetmeat of some commercial value. The _aguacate_, better
known to us as the alligator pear, is a vegetable fruit and is used as a
salad.
The _guanabana_ is a green-skinned fruit with white meat, and is used
chiefly for making a pleasant drink, although it can be eaten. Somewhat
similar to it is the _anon_, a pulpy and rich fruit in great favour.
Neither of these can be shipped out of the country. The bread-fruit is
not a native Cuban, having been brought in about a hundred years ago.
Little has been done in its cultivation. The cinnamon tree, introduced
by Las Casas, will grow well, but nothing has been done towards its
cultivation.
Humboldt mentions the fact that in the early times the Spaniards made
wine of Cuban wild grapes, but grape culture is not of any value, though
some fine varieties are grown. The water-and muskmelon and cantaloup
grow easily, but they need more care than they have to be equal in
flavour and popularity to those raised elsewhere.
The strawberry grows everywhere and produces two crops yearly, but the
natives are too lazy to give it any attention. Strawberry culture in
Cuba could be successfully carried on to supply the early markets of the
United States. The zapote is a fruit of brown colour similar to our
apple, and is not edible until it has rotted.
Last but not least is that delightful fruit, the pineapple. There are
several varieties growing wild in Cuba and cultivation greatly improves
them. The fruit grows out of a bunch of great leaves, eighteen inches or
two feet from the ground. Each plant bears one apple weighing from one
to four or five pounds. The fruit stem matures in about eighteen months
from planting, bears one apple, and will bear an apple annually after
that for three or four years. The plant is raised from slips. Pineapples
are chiefly grown in the Isle of Pines and Western Cuba. This latter
section, however, takes the lead in all fruit-growing. Thirty-two
thousand pineapples were shipped from Banes in 1894. As yet the Cuban
pineapple is a weak competitor of the Bahama fruit.
[Illustration: COFFEE MILL, SANTIAGO DE CUBA.]
As may be readily seen, fruit-raising in Cuba is yet in its infancy, and
inasmuch as there is no serious competitor in the American market, save
Florida and Porto Rico, there is no reason why the future development
should not be of the vastest proportions. Since the great frost in
Florida, which killed out the orange trees and slaughtered fruit and
vegetables generally, that garden spot has become more or less
unreliable; and as Cuba has never known a killing frost, is not much
farther from the markets than Florida, and has water communication from
all points, it must be accepted that Cuba will control the future fruit
supply of this country, and American capital will not be slow to avail
itself of the opportunities offered.
Authorities differ as to the introduction of coffee, which is not
indigenous to Cuban soil. One sets the date as 1742, and asserts that
the plant was imported from Haiti; another says it came in 1709 from
Martinique; but, whenever it came, coffee culture grew at once into a
flourishing industry, and in time Cuban coffee ranked with the best in
the world. Sugar-growing first lessened its field for profit by showing
larger returns with much less labour and care, always an object of first
consideration with Cubans; and in 1843 and 1846 disastrous hurricanes
destroyed many plantations. Later, Brazil and other coffee-producing
countries came into the market with a product grown under more
favourable circumstances of governmental liberality and new and improved
methods and machinery, and Cuban coffee practically disappeared from
foreign markets. Still there are several hundred coffee plantations,
supplying the local demand, and the business is profitable. The eastern
end of the Island is the coffee-producing section, and 14,048,490 pounds
were raised in the province of Santiago de Cuba in 1890-1896. Shipments
to Spain in 1891-1895 aggregated $322,266. There is no prettier sight
than a coffee plantation. The trees are set out in rows with wide alleys
between, where waggons may pass to receive the crop, and with other
trees, of various kinds, to furnish the shade needed for the proper
development of the berry. The berry or seed grows peculiarly. Instead of
hanging from the boughs of the tree, it gathers in clusters along the
trunk. The seed in its pod resembles some strange kind of parasite.
The harvest extends from July to December; the plant is in the full
glory of its blossom in February. Coffee-raising is a very pleasant
occupation, for the plantations are in the uplands where the climate is
good, and the work is much easier than that required either in sugar-or
tobacco-raising. Naturally the condition of labour is considerably above
the average, and a much better class of workmen is employed. All things
considered, it is fair to conclude that coffee culture will receive more
attention than sugar, tobacco, or fruit from the small farmers who
migrate to Cuba from the United States; and in future the industry will
be restored to the high place it once occupied, now that the burden of
Spanish taxation is removed, and every encouragement will be given to
all who undertake its cultivation.