PROVINCE OF HAVANA
The Province of Havana, with its area of 3,171 square miles, is the
smallest in Cuba, and yet, owing to the city of Havana, capital of the
Republic, it plays a very important part in the social, political and
economic life of the Island.
Geographically, it is the pivotal province of Cuba, since the narrowest
place across the long arch-like stretch of the Island is found along the
border between Havana and Pinar del Rio, where only twenty-two miles lie
between the Mexican Gulf and the Caribbean Sea. The province proper
measures about thirty miles from north to south, with an average width
of fifty-five.
The topography of Havana includes a varied assortment of hills, ridges,
plateaus, valleys and plains, so that the scenery never becomes
monotonous; and with the numerous automobile drives that radiate from
the Capital, shaded with the luxuriant foliage of royal palms, bamboo
and other forms of tropical vegetation, it offers to the tourist and
traveler an almost endless panorama of charming change and pleasant
surprise. The average altitude of Havana province is slightly lower than
that of either Matanzas or Pinar del Rio, bordering on the east and
west.
Columbus, on his second voyage of discovery, cruised along the southern
coast of Cuba until he reached a point a little west of the Indian
village of Batabano. Here he heard of another island not far to the
south. Leaving the coast he threaded his way through shoals and
scattered keys, that even up to the present time have been only
imperfectly charted, and finally, on July 12, 1494, landed at some place
on the northern shore. He called this island the Evangelist. It is the
largest of a chain of keys running parallel with this part of the south
coast, irregular in form with an area of approximately eight hundred
square miles, and forms the southern half of the judicial district of
Havana.
Columbus remained here, taking on fresh water and wood, until July 25,
and then began his return voyage east, sailing over shoals that
displayed so many varying shades of green, purple and white, that his
mariners are said to have become alarmed.
Some twenty years later Diego Velasquez cruised along the southern coast
to a point west of the Guines River, where he founded a city, which he
called San Cristobal de la Havana. The fifty odd colonists whom he left
behind soon became dissatisfied with the general surroundings of the
spot which he had selected for their abiding place and moved over to the
north shore of the Island near the mouth of the Almandares River, which
they found in every way more agreeable as a place of permanent
residence. In 1519 a second move was made to the Bay of Carenas, where
they located permanently on the harbor, destined soon after to become
the most important port of the West Indies.
The inhabitants of that irregular group of palm thatched huts little
dreamed that four centuries later the Port of Havana would have a
foreign commerce whose tonnage is excelled by only one other in the
Western Hemisphere.
With the exception of the low, grass-covered plains of the southern
shore, the topography of the Province of Havana is undulating and
picturesque. The northern shore, throughout most of its length,
especially from the City of Havana west to Matanzas, rises more or less
abruptly from the beach until it reaches a rather uneven plateau,
several hundred feet above the level of the sea.
In the northwestern corner, some two miles back from the shore line, the
“Pan” or “Loma of Guayabon,” which is really a continuation of the Organ
Mountains of Pinar del Rio, forms a palm covered, picturesque ridge,
six hundred feet in height, extending from east to west for several
miles. Along the southern edge of this range of hills, runs a beautiful
automobile drive, connecting the capital with the city of Pinar del Rio,
the wonderful valley of the Vinales, Guane and the extreme western end
of the Island. A drive leading from the city of Guanajay extends fifty
miles northwest to the Bay of Bahia Honda, chosen originally as a
coaling station for the Navy, but never occupied.
In the east central part of the province lie two small mountains known
as the Tetas de Bejucal, and from them, extending in an easterly
direction into the Province of Matanzas, are broken ridges, plateaus,
and hills that form one of the connecting links between the Organ group
of mountains in the west, and the still higher cordilleras of the
Province of Oriente in the extreme east.
With the exception of the coastal plain running along the southern
boundary, the remainder of the province is undulating, more or less
hilly, and quite picturesque in its contour. A little east of the Tetas
de Bejucal, from the top of the divide that forms the water shed of the
province, looking south, one sees below him the Valley of the Guines,
known as the Garden of Havana. Thousands of acres are here spread out
before the view, all irrigated by the Guines River, whose source is in
the never failing springs that gush from the base of a mountain ridge in
the east center of the Province.
The rich soil of this section, furnished as it is with water throughout
the year, produces a marvelous yield of sugar cane, potatoes, tomatoes,
peppers, egg plants and other vegetables, affording an inexhaustible
supply during the winter to the capital, forty miles north. Engineers
are making a study of this river so that its water may be more
economically distributed and the acreage of irrigated lands greatly
increased.
In the southwestern quarter of Havana Province, known as the Tumbadero
District, experiments were first made in growing tobacco under cheese
cloth. These were so successful that in a few years Tumbadero, or Havana
wrappers, became famous for their fineness of texture, and within a
short time thousands of acres in that section were converted into
fields, or vegas, whose returns in tobacco leaf product were excelled in
value only by those of the celebrated Vuelta Abajo district of Pinar del
Rio. The towns of Alquizar and Guira de Melina were built and sustained
by the reputation of the Tumbadero wrapper, and the tobacco district was
soon extended well up into the center of the province, including Salud,
Rincon, San Antonio de los Banos, and Santiago de las Vegas. In the
northwestern corner of the Island, the rich valley extending south and
east of the “Pan de Guayabon,” including the towns of Caimito, Hoyo
Colorado, and Guayabal, has recently rivaled the Tumbadero district in
the excellence of its tobacco, and excels in citrus fruit.
Over three-fourths of Havana Province have been blessed with a
remarkably fertile soil, and although much of it has been under
cultivation for three centuries or more, with the judicious use of
fertilizers, the returns, either in fruit or vegetables, are very
gratifying to the small farmer.
Along the delightfully shaded automobile drives that radiate from the
Capital in nearly all directions, the price of land within thirty miles
of the city has risen so rapidly that it is being given over almost
entirely to suburban homes and country estates, maintained by the
wealthy residents of the capital. In a climate where frost is unknown,
where the foliage remains fresh and green throughout the winter, it is
comparatively easy to convert an ordinary farm into a veritable garden
of Eden.
One of the most beautiful places on the Island within the last few years
has been created by General Mario G. Menocal, President of the Republic.
It covers several hundred acres and is known as “El Chico,” or the
“Little One.” A commanding residence of Cuban colonial architecture,
standing a little back from the road, has been surrounded with beautiful
drives, lined with every variety of fruit tree, flower and ornamental
plant known to Cuba. The green lawn sweeps up to the stately building
occupied by President Menocal as a residence or country seat in summer.
On this place may be found many varieties of poultry, recently imported
from the United States for experimental purposes, in which the President
is deeply interested. Competent gardeners and caretakers are maintained,
with the result that “El Chico,” where General Menocal and his family
spend much of their time, has become one of the show places of the
Province.
Col. Jose Villalon, Secretary of Public Works, and Col. Charles
Hernandez, Director of Posts and Telegraph, have pretty country estates
located west of Havana, not far from El Chico.
The soil of the Province, throughout most of its extent, has been formed
through the erosion of tertiary limestone, colored in many places a
reddish brown of oxide of iron that has impregnated most of the soils of
Cuba. Just south of Havana, serpentine has obtruded through the
limestone along a belt some two or three miles in extent, and forms the
round topped hills in evidence from the bay.
The greater part of Havana Province, when found by the Spaniards, was
covered with forests of hard woods, that were gradually cut away during
the centuries in which the land has been tilled. The trees, according to
early records, included cedar, mahogany, acana, majagua and others,
still found in the mountainous districts and those sections of Cuba not
yet brought under cultivation. These valuable hard woods formed the
posts, joists, rafters, doors and windows of nearly all the old-time
residences of early days. Many buildings that have remained standing
through centuries, have ceilings that are supported by heavy carved
timbers of mahogany and give promise still of long years of service if
permitted to remain.
The basic wealth of the province, as in nearly all other sections of
Cuba, is dependent on agriculture, although since the inauguration of
the Republic in 1902, manufacturing and various other industries are
beginning to play a prominent part in her economical wealth.
In agricultural products, the Guines Valley previously referred to
undoubtedly produces greater returns than any other similar lands in
Cuba. Hundreds of thousands of crates of tomatoes, egg plants and other
vegetables, that have been raised through the whiter month by
irrigation, are shipped to the United States from December to April.
Thousands of barrels of Irish potatoes from the Guines Valley, also, are
sold in Philadelphia, New York and Boston during the month of March, at
prices averaging four dollars per hundred weight.
In the Valley of Caimito, Guayabal and Hoyo Colorado, large crops of
vegetables are shipped to the northern markets during the winter months,
when good prices are assured. A certainty of profit, however, can only
be depended on where irrigation from wells is secured.
Large acreages of pineapples are grown in the same district, although
the center of the pineapple industry in Havana today is located about
thirty miles east of the City, on the road to Matanzas. Over a million
crates every year are shipped out of Havana to the northern markets
between the middle of May and the middle of July.
It is probable that no section of either the West Indies or the United
States offers greater opportunities for the canning industry than is
found in Cuba at the present time, especially in the Province of Havana,
where facilities for transportation are plentiful. A general canning and
preserving plant, intelligently conducted, could be operated in this
province throughout the entire year. In this way all of the surplus
pineapples not shipped abroad could be utilized.
During the last few years several manufacturing industries have sprung
up on the outskirts of Havana, all of which seem to be yielding
satisfactory returns. Three large breweries are turning out a very good
grade of beer that is disposed of throughout the Island. The plants are
located in the suburbs of Havana, each surrounded by grounds rendered
attractive by landscape gardeners and furnishing places for recreation
and rest to both rich and poor on holidays, which are plentiful in Cuba.
A large up-to-date bottling plant, located just west of the City,
manufactures the containers for the output of the breweries.
Between the city of Havana and the suburb of Ceiba, a modern rubber tire
and tube factory has been established, and is said to be working on full
time with very satisfactory profits. Several large soap and perfume
factories, recently established, are supplying the demand for these
products with satisfaction, it is said, both to the manufacturer and the
consumer.
A number of brick yards and tile factories are located not far from the
City, the combined output of which is large. The erection of wooden
buildings within the city limits of Havana is not tolerated. In fact
they are not at all popular in Cuba since the climate is not conducive
to the preservation of wood, aside from cedar and mahogany or other hard
woods, which are too expensive for construction work. Limestone, easily
worked, and of a fine quality for this climate, is found in abundance,
hence it is that the vast amount of building going on at the present
time in Cuba makes heavy demands on both this material and brick, for
all constructive purposes.
Nature has again favored this Island in her large deposits of excellent
cement-clay, limestone and sand, which are essential to the manufacture
of cement. The Almandares factory located on the west bank of that river
has long been in successful operation. Within the last year another
large modern cement factory has been established on the eastern shores
of the harbor of Mariel, twenty-five miles west of Havana, and today is
turning out high-grade cement at the rate of six hundred barrels per
day.
Local factories have had a monopoly of the match-making industry in Cuba
for many years. Few, if any matches are imported from abroad, and may
never be, owing to the fact that the people of Cuba prefer the wax taper
match. Although short and rather inconvenient to those who are not
accustomed to this miniature candle, the flame burns longer and persists
more successfully in a breeze, hence it is probable that the Cuban match
will hold its own against all competitors. Quite a revenue is derived
from the penny stamp tax placed on each box of matches.
Large quantities of pine lumber are imported into Cuba from the Gulf
cities, especially from South Pascagoula, Miss., and Mobile. This
material is used throughout the island for interior work, sash, doors,
blinds, etc. Unless covered with paint, hard pine is not very lasting in
this climate, for which reasons, perhaps, show cases, fancy work and
ornamental doors are usually built of the native cedar and majagua,
which are practically impervious to either decay or attack from boring
insects.
The most important industry of the Province, from the monetary
viewpoint, at least, is the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes, which
are produced in greater quantity in Havana and throughout the province
than in any other part of the world. It is needless to state that the
cigars made in Havana from the celebrated Vuelta Abajo leaf are shipped
from this capital to all parts of the world, and may be found, it is
said, on the private desk of every crowned head in Europe. Large
shipments are made every year, also, to Japan and the Orient. Thousands
of men and girls are employed in this industry, the value of which, in
the export trade alone, amounts to over $30,000,000 a year.
The Province has but one harbor of any importance, the Bay of Havana,
located near the center of the north coast. It covers several square
miles, and although the entrance between the promontory of Morro and the
Punta is only a few hundred yards across, the channel is deep, perfectly
protected, and leads to an anchorage sufficient for large fleets of
vessels. The shore portions of the main body of the harbor were rather
shallow in early times, but during recent years have been well dredged
up to the edge of the surrounding wharves, thus reclaiming a large
amount of valuable land, and greatly increasing the capacity of the Bay
for shipping purposes.
Since the inauguration of the Republic in 1902, a series of large,
modern, perfectly equipped piers, built of concrete and iron, have been
extended out from the shore line of the western side of the bay, so that
the largest ships may now discharge and take on cargoes, eliminating
thus, to a great extent, the custom of lightering which prevailed only a
few years ago. Owing to the fact that nearly all the principal railroad
systems of Cuba radiate from the Capital, each with a terminal system
connecting with the wharves, the transportation facilities of this port
are superior to any others in Cuba.
Steam and sail vessels are leaving Havana for different parts of the
world every day in the year, and it is a fact of which the Republic has
reason to be proud, that under normal conditions, or up to the beginning
of the great war, a greater amount of tonnage entered and left the
Harbor of Havana than that of any other city of the Western hemisphere,
with the exception of New York. Dredging is still going on with new
wharves in process of construction and projected, so that today frontage
on the bay is valuable and hard to secure at any price.
Owing to its excellent transportation facilities and to the local market
furnished by the City of Havana itself, the growing of fruits and
vegetables, within a radius of one hundred miles from the capital, has
proved more profitable than in other parts of the Island.
Although several small streams flow to the north and south of the
dividing ridge, passing through the center of the Island, none of them,
either in length or depth, could well be termed rivers.
The Almandares, that has its origin in a group of magnificent springs
near the western center of the Province, meanders through a
comparatively level valley, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, some three
miles west of Havana Harbor. The mouth of this stream, with a depth of
twelve or fourteen feet, accommodates schooners that come for sand and
cement at the factory.
The Vento Springs, already referred to, are a most valuable asset of the
City of Havana, since the abundant flow of water, that through skilful
engineering has been conveyed some eight miles into the City, is of
excellent quality. The quantity of water, with economy, is sufficient,
according to engineering estimates, for a city of one or two millions.
In the latter part of the 16th century the Italian engineer Antonelli
cut several ditches across the intercepting ridges and brought water
from the Almandares River into the city of Havana, not only for domestic
purposes but in sufficient quantity to supply the ships that dropped
into port on their long voyages between Spain and the eastern coast of
Mexico.
On November 7, 1887, the famous Spanish engineer D. Francisco Albear y
Lara completed the present aqueduct and system of water works by which
the springs of Vento are made to contribute to the present Havana, with
its 360,000 inhabitants, a supply of excellent drinking water, although
only a small portion of the flow is utilized.
Owing to the peculiar coral and soft limestone formation on which the
soil of this province has been deposited, numerous lagoons and rivers
flow beneath the surface at various depths, ranging from 30 to 300 feet.
These, when found and tapped, furnish an abundance of splendid fresh
water, seldom contaminated with objectionable mineral matter. At the
Experimental Station at Santiago tiago de las Vegas, a magnificent
spring of water was discovered at a little over one hundred feet in
depth.
Other springs have formed a shallow lagoon just south of the city of
Caimito, the exit from which is furnished by a small swift running
stream, that after a surface flow of five or six miles suddenly plunges
down into the earth some forty feet or more, disappearing entirely from
view and never reappearing, as far as is known. Like many other streams
of this nature, it may come to the surface in the salt waters of the
Caribbean, off the south coast.
The disappearance of this river takes place within a hundred yards of
the railroad station, in the town of San Antonio de los Banos, and
furnishes rather an interesting sight for the tourist who is not
familiar with this peculiar phenomenon.
Although the City of Havana is considered one of the most delightful
winter resorts in the Western Hemisphere, there are many who claim, and
with reason perhaps, that the Capital has many advantages also as a
place in which to spend the summer. Many visitors from the Gulf States
in summer have been loath to leave Cuba.
The mean annual temperature of Havana varies only twelve degrees
throughout the year. During the winter the mercury plays between the two
extremes of 58 and 78 degrees, with an average of about 70. During the
summer the temperature varies from 75 to 88 degrees, although there are
occasional records where the mercury has reached 92 degrees. Even at
this temperature, however, no great inconvenience is experienced, since
the cool, strong, northeast winds, that blow from the Atlantic, straight
across the Island, sweep into the Caribbean the overheated atmosphere
that otherwise would hang over the land as it does in the interior of
large continents, even in latitudes as high as northern Canada.
This continual strong current of air, that blows from the Atlantic
during at least 300 days in the year, with its healthful, bracing
influence, tempers the heat of the sun that in latitude 22 is directly
overhead, and probably prevents sun strokes and heat prostrations,
which are absolutely unknown in Havana at any time of the year.
During the first Government of Intervention, American soldiers in the
months of July and August, 1900, put shingled roofs on barracks and
quarters built at Camp Columbia, in the suburbs of Havana, without the
slightest discomfort. Officers who questioned the men with more or less
anxiety, since they were not accustomed to the tropics, were laughed at
for their fears, the soldiers declaring that, “although the sun was a
little hot, the breeze was fine, and they didn’t feel any heat.” Of the
thousands of horses and mules brought from Kentucky and Missouri not one
has ever fallen, or suffered from heat prostration in the Island of
Cuba.
The nights are invariably cool, so much so that even in July and August,
during the early morning hours, a light covering is not uncomfortable.
There is every reason to believe that in the near future summer resorts
will be successfully established on many of the elevated plateaus and
mountainous parks in various sections of the Island.
The Province of Havana, even during the times of Spanish rule, had three
or four fine military drives radiating to the south and west of the
Capital. Since the inauguration of the Republic, these highways, shaded
with the evergreen laurel, the almendra, flamboyant and many varieties
of palm, including the royal and the cocoanut, have been converted into
magnificent automobile drives, to which have been added many kilometers
of splendidly paved roads known as carreteras, which connect the towns
and villages of the interior with each other as well as the capital with
the principal cities of other sections of Cuba.
Along these highways every three or four miles, are found road repair
stations supported by the Department of Public Works, in which laborers
to whom the keeping up of the road is assigned, live, and which shelter
the necessary rollers and road builders under their direction. These
stations are well built, well kept, and sometimes rather picturesque in
appearance. Their presence should be a guarantee of the permanence and
extension of good road-building in Cuba.
The political, social and commercial heart of the Republic of Cuba
centers in the city of Havana, hence the province shares more directly
in the national life and prosperity than any other. Cables, wireless
stations and passenger ships of various lines coming and going every day
in the year, maintain constant touch with outside world centers.
The Presidency, the various departments of the Federal Government, the
Army, Navy, higher Courts, Congress and Universities all pursue their
activities at the capital. The surrounding province, therefore, although
the smallest of the Island, will probably always remain the most
important political division of the Republic.