STOCK RAISING
Some of the men who followed Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic at
the close of the 15th century were accustomed to stock raising in Spain,
and all of them realized the value of the horse to the mounted warrior,
armed with long lance or sharp cutlass, with which he could ride down
the poor naked Indians of Cuba. They had come from Seville and the
southern provinces, and had perhaps acquired their appreciation of the
horse from the Arab, who made this noble animal his companion, and to
all intents and purposes a member of his family.
The conquerors brought with them their animals and thus the equine race
was introduced for the first time into the Western Hemisphere. All that
came from Spain in the early days were of Arabian stock, which, although
permitted to deteriorate, has still retained many of the characteristics
of the parent stock, among which are endurance and gentleness. A colt
that has always run wild over the ranges of Cuba, can be easily broken
to the saddle in a few hours.
Owing to the abundance of food throughout the year, and to the absence
of sleet, snow or cold rains, that sometimes chill and retard the growth
of young colts, this Island is probably quite as well adapted to the
breeding and raising of horses as any place in the world. During the
first Government of Intervention, a large number of American horses were
brought to Cuba by the Army of Occupation, and in spite of this abrupt
change of climate and conditions, cavalry officers stated that never
before had they found a place where their mounts seemed to thrive so
well, and to remain so free from disease. Out of two thousand horses
stationed at Camp Columbia, in the year 1901, only three were found in
the hospital, two of these suffering from accidents, and the third, from
a mild case of imported glanders.
The native horses, although smaller than the American, are hardy, gentle
and easily kept, and unless taught to eat corn, invariably prefer the
rich grasses to which they have always been accustomed. This native
stock, when crossed with good Kentucky, Missouri or Montana stallions,
produces really excellent service animals, especially for the saddle.
Since the accession of General Menocal to the Presidency, and especially
since his appointment of General Sanchez Agramonte as Secretary of
Agriculture, rapid strides have been made in the introduction of fine
thoroughbred stallions, most of them gaited saddle animals that have
been imported from Kentucky, and brought to Cuba for breeding purposes.
These animals have been distributed by the Department of Agriculture
throughout the different provinces, and improvement in resulting colts
is already beginning to be apparent.
Probably one half of the native horses of Cuba in 1895 were killed or
rendered useless during the War of Independence, which began in that
year. This, of course, was a great loss to the Island, but so rapid is
the rate of increase in this balmy climate that horses have again become
quite plentiful and consequently cheap.
Registered in the Department of Agriculture, in the year 1918, for the
Province of Oriente, were 218,876 horses; in Santa Clara were 212,985;
in Camaguey 129,023; in Matanzas, 108,900; in Havana, 94,214, and in
Pinar del Rio, 63,021; making a total of 827,019 registered in the
Island.
The small, pony-built, light stepping, sure-footed horses, of the
original or native stock of the Island, especially in the interior, are
quite cheap; mares selling in some places at from $10 to $20, while
geldings of the same grade will bring from $20 to $40, and stallions
from $25 to $50.
Nevertheless, a well gaited and spirited native saddle horse, in the
City of Havana, will find a ready market at anywhere from $75 to $200.
Imported saddle animals, well gaited, and from good stables, bring in
Cuba prices varying from $300 to $2,000; the price varying with the
merit of the animal and the fancy of the purchaser. With splendid
grasses, balmy climate, and excellent water, there is no reason why the
breeding of horses in Cuba, especially those types suited for fancy
saddle animals, military remounts and polo ponies, should not be
profitable and successful in every sense of the word.
Good mules are always in demand in Cuba, although not many are bred in
the Island, and most of them up to the present have been imported from
Missouri, Texas and other sections of the United States. Under normal
conditions a pair of good mules in Havana will bring from $250 to $500.
Scattered throughout the country in 1918 were approximately 61,000
mules, and about 3,250 asses.
When the first Spanish settlers, most of whom were lured to Cuba through
the hope of finding gold in quantities never realized, saw the great,
broad and rich grass covered savannas of Camaguey, dreams of riches from
cattle raising with far more promise than the fortunes expected from
easily found gold tempered their disappointment, and laid the foundation
for future prosperity.
A few cattle were brought over from Spain in the first expeditions and
left at Santo Domingo, where they at once began to multiply and thrive.
From this fountain head, Diego Velasquez brought several boatloads to
Cuba, that were distributed among his friends in the seven cities of
which he was the founder.
The original cattle were of a type peculiar to Spain in the 16th
century; rather small, well shaped and handsome animals, of a light
brown or dark jersey color, similar to that of the wild deer in shade,
and usually carrying a dark streak along the spine, with a rather heavy
cross of black at the shoulders. Although almost no care was given to
these animals, and no attempt made at selection or improvement of the
breed, they continued to multiply and thrive on the rich native grasses
of the savannas throughout the Island.
In 1895, there were approximately 3,000,000 head registered in Cuba by
the Spanish colonial authorities. Beef was then plentiful and cheap, and
Cuba was supplying the British colonies of the Bahama Islands with
nearly all the meat consumed. Most of it was shipped from the harbor of
Nuevitas across the banks to Nassau.
With the beginning of the War of Independence, as in all wars, food was
a matter of prime necessity; hence the great herds of cattle roaming the
fields of the eastern provinces became at once legitimate prey, and
since there was no commissary department, and but little effort made on
either side to protect beef from unnecessary slaughter, thousands of
head of cattle were killed, not alone for food, but by each army, the
insurgent and the Spanish, in order to prevent the other side from
getting the benefit of the food. With this reckless method of
destruction, at the expiration of the struggle in 1898, 85%, perhaps
90%, of the cattle of the Island had been wiped out of existence.
The shortage of beef, of course, was serious, and at the beginning of
the first Government of Intervention steps were taken by General Brooke
and later by General Wood to encourage the immediate importation of
cattle from any locality where they might happen to be available. Hence
cattle were imported indiscriminately from Texas, Louisiana, Florida and
Venezuela, with the natural result that the breeding animals of
succeeding years were composed of a very mixed and ill selected lot.
With the installation of the Republic, measures were taken to remedy
this misfortune, and to improve the breed. Many private individuals who
had always been interested in the cattle industry imported thoroughbred
bulls from the United States. Quite a number of American stock raisers,
mostly from Texas and other southern states, attracted by the stories of
fine cheap grazing lands, with fresh grass throughout the year, came to
Cuba and settled in Camaguey. Many of these brought with them a stock of
better animals.
When General Menocal assumed the Presidency in 1913 the further
importation of good cattle was encouraged, and an Agricultural
Exposition or Stock Fair was held at the Quinto de Molinos, or Botanical
Gardens in Havana, where stock breeders from all over the world vied
with each other in the exhibition of fine, thoroughbred animals of many
kinds. An excellent exhibition of Jerseys, imported in 1901 by Joaquin
Quilez, then Governor of the Province of Pinar del Rio, represented a
fine grade of milch cows.
Cattle came not only from the United States, but crossed the Atlantic
from Holland and from France, while a very attractive breed of handsome,
dark red cattle, were placed on exhibition by the late Sir William Van
Horne, which he had previously imported from the Western coast of
Africa. Most interesting, perhaps, of all, were several specimens of the
Zebu, a large variety of the sacred cattle of India, that had previously
been introduced from abroad, and kept at the Experimental Station at
Santiago de las Vegas.
The Zebu, although of somewhat self-willed disposition, and with an
inclination to jump any fence under seven feet, is nevertheless proving
a very important addition to the breeding stock of Cuba. This largest
specimen of the bovine species, standing at the shoulders some six feet
in height, when crossed with the ordinary cow of Cuba, produces a much
larger and stronger animal, with this very important advantage, that at
two years of age, a weight equivalent to or in excess of the ordinary
three years old, is attained, while the quality of the meat is in no way
impaired.
The Zebu is not only valuable for beef breeding purposes but is probably
unequaled in the capacity of a draft ox. A pair of Zebus, when yoked to
a cart or wagon, will drop into a trot with an ordinary load at daylight
in the morning, and without serious effort make fifty miles by sunset.
The strength of these animals is almost incredible, and the cross with
the common cow will undoubtedly furnish a valuable adjunct to successful
stock growing in the Republic.
In all stock raising enterprises, plenty of fresh water is absolutely
essential. Rivers or running streams are most desirable acquisitions to
any ranch. Where these cannot be found, wells are usually sunk and water
met at depths varying from twenty to two hundred feet. In the foothills
and mountainous districts, never failing streams are found in abundance.
There still remain hundreds of thousands of acres of well watered and
well drained lands, that possess all the conditions desired for stock
raising. Much of the territory formerly devoted to grazing has been
recently planted in sugar cane, owing to the high prices of sugar,
resulting from the European War. In spite of this fact there are still
large tracts in nearly every province of the Island that not only are
available for stock raising, but would, if sown in grasses and forage
plants, produce, under proper management, returns per acre quite as
satisfactory as those derived from sugar cane.
In both Havana and Matanzas Provinces good lands command a price that is
rather prohibitive for grazing purposes. But in Pinar del Rio, and the
three large eastern provinces of the Island, there are still extensive
tracts, both in the level sections, and in the foothills, that are ideal
grazing lands, and if not absorbed in the near future by the cane
planters, these lands will eventually, owing to their advantages for
stock raising, yield revenues quite as satisfactory as those of any
other in the Republic.
These lands can be secured at the present time, in large tracts, at
prices varying from $15 to $50 per acre, and if properly administered,
will easily yield an annual net return from 25% to 50% on the
investment. One prominent stock raiser in the Province of Camaguey, an
American who, starting with nothing, has built up a very tidy fortune in
the last ten years, stated that his return in the year 1918 represented
a profit of 104% on his capital invested. This excellent showing,
however, may have resulted from the practice of buying calves at low
figures that have been dropped in less advantageous sections, and
removing them to rich potreros where they were quickly fattened for the
Havana market.
Cuba at the present time is importing approximately $10,000,000 worth of
pork and pork products annually, notwithstanding the fact that this
Island, owing to exceptional conditions for raising hogs economically,
could not only supply the local demand, but could and will ultimately,
export pork products to all of the Latin American countries bordering on
the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
Hogs breed twice a year in Cuba, and the climate, free from extremes of
heat or cold, enables probably a larger percentage of the young to be
brought to maturity, with less care and less risk, than in any section
of the United States. Science today has rendered it possible to
eliminate the danger from contagious disease to pork; hence it is that
raising of small stock, especially hogs, under the supervision of
intelligent management, is bound to prove one of the most remunerative
industries of this country.
Hogs were introduced into Cuba from Spain by the early Spanish settlers,
but no effort was made either to improve the breed by selection or even
to prevent its retrograding through lack of care and good food. Nearly
all hogs raised in Cuba, even at the present time, are permitted to run
in droves in the forests and foothills of the thinly settled sections,
as did their ancestors four centuries ago.
Even the owners of these droves have but little idea of the number of
hogs belonging to them. Monteros, or forest men, are hired to herd them,
which is done with the assistance of dogs. The hogs in this way are
followed from place to place where the forests may furnish natural food
for the mothers and their progeny. As a rule, at evening each day, the
montero or herder, in order to keep up a partial contact between him and
his drove, carries a few ears of corn slung over his shoulder in a sack,
or to the saddle of his horse. This he shells and drops as he rides
along the narrow trails of the forest, uttering at the same time a
peculiar cry or call, heard in the mountain jungles of the hog
districts, when the monteros are coaxing their herds out into the open,
so that they may catch a glimpse of them before they dodge back into the
leafy glades of the interior.
This semi-savage breed of hogs of course would cause a smile if seen on
a first-class stock farm in the United States. He is usually black in
color, long and lank, resembling very much the “razor back,” once common
in the southern part of the United States. He is prolific, a good
fighter, and hustles for his own living, since nothing is provided for
him excepting what he picks up in the forest. This, however, is pretty
good feed.
The royal palm that covers many of the hillsides and slopes of the long
mountain chains throughout Cuba, produces a small nut called palmiche,
which furnishes a never-failing food and aids the stock man greatly in
raising hogs. The palmiche, picked up by the animals at the base of the
palms or cut by the monteros, who with the assistance of a rope easily
climb these tall smooth barked ornaments of the forest, will keep
animals in fairly good condition throughout the year.
The palmiche, however, although only about the size of the kernel of a
hazel nut, is very hard, and much of it is rather indigestible. This
nut, when ground and pressed yields about 20% of excellent oil, either
for lubricating or commercial purposes, while the residue of the nut, or
pressed cake of the palmiche, from which the worthless part has been
separated previous to grinding, owing to its rich content of protein and
oil, furnishes an easily digested and splendid food.
The recent demand for oil has resulted in the introduction of a number
of presses in Cuba since the beginning of the European War, and the
palmiche cake is being placed on the market as a stock food product. In
this form it is quite probable that a valuable adjunct will soon be
added to the other natural foods of the country.
Palmiche fed pork in Cuba, or for that matter wherever it has been
eaten, is considered a greater delicacy than any other pork in the
world, and in this Island is preferred to either turkey or chicken. This
is owing to the peculiar nutty flavor which the palmiche imparts to the
meat of the forest-bred hog. Young palmiche fed pork, known as lechon,
roasted over a hardwood or charcoal fire, during the holidays of
Christmas and New Year’s in Havana, readily retails at 75¢ to $1 per
pound, and little roasting pigs at that time of the year will bring from
five to ten dollars each.
The pork industry, however, in Cuba, to be really successful should be
conducted along lines similar to those of the United States. Excellent
food can be provided for hogs, fresh and sweet at all times of the year,
simply by planting the various crops with reference to the season and
period needed for feeding. Among those foods best adapted to sows and
growing pigs in Cuba are peanuts, cow peas, sweet potatoes, sugar cane,
calabasa or pumpkins, chufas, malanga, and other root crops peculiar to
the country. For topping off, or putting into condition, shoats for six
weeks before being sent to market should be fed on either corn or yucca,
or both.
The latter, yucca, is one of the best root crops grown in the Island
for fattening hogs. The tuber, some three or four feet in length, with a
diameter of three or four inches, comes from a closely jointed plant
that at maturity varies in height from three to five feet. The stalk of
these plants, if cut into short joints, and planted in furrows about
three feet apart, produces its crop of tubers in about twelve months,
although the yield will increase for five or six months after this. The
yucca tubers are covered with a cocoanut brown peel, while the inside,
consisting of almost pure starch, is white as milk.
Yucca will produce a splendid, firm fat on pork in a very short time,
and has the advantage over corn in the fact that the weight of the crop,
from an acre of land, varies from four to twelve tons, according to the
quality of the soil, and hogs delight in harvesting the crop themselves.
At the Experimental Station at Santiago de las Vegas may be seen many
excellent breeds of hogs that were introduced from the United States
some years ago. Among these are found the Duroc or Jersey Red, the
Hampshire, the Chester White, the Berkshire and Tamworth, all of which
under the favorable conditions found at the Station have done remarkably
well. Interesting experiments on the various foods of the Island, and
their adaptability as food for hogs, are being carried on there
throughout the year. Those breeds which seem to give the greatest
promise, up to the present, are the Duroc and the Hampshire. Some very
interesting animals have been produced from crosses between Hampshires,
Durocs and Tamworths, the shoulder mark or saddle band of the Hampshire
being prominent in all of its crosses.
The population of Cuba is rapidly approaching three millions, and no
people in the world are more addicted to the use of pork in all its
forms than those not only in Cuba but in all the Latin American
Republics lying to the west and south of the Caribbean. The hog industry
at the present time does not begin to supply the local demand, and
probably will not for some years to come. Fresh pork before the European
war seldom varied throughout the year from the standard price of ten
cents per pound on the hoof, while hams imported from the United States
brought twenty-five cents at wholesale in Havana.
With the use of dams and turbines, power can be easily secured from the
many mountain streams with which to furnish refrigeration and cold
storage, and there is no reason why a pork-packing industry, combining
the curing of hams, shoulders, etc., should not be carried on
successfully. Branches of large packing houses in the United States have
long imported their hams and shoulders, in brine, afterwards smoking
them in Cuba. Experts in pork packing soon discovered that most of the
small hard woods of the Cuban forests were splendidly adapted for
smoking meat, giving it a piquant and aromatic flavor, pleasing to the
taste.
With the large local demand for hams, shoulders, bacon, etc., a
profitable business is assured from the beginning, while the proximity
of so many Latin Republics south and west of the Caribbean render the
prospect of the export trade very promising.
Owing to the genial climate, sheep in Cuba, lacking the necessity for
wool with which to retain warmth, very naturally lose it within a
comparatively few years. Mutton, however, always commands a good price
in the local markets, hence it is that the raising of sheep for food,
especially by those small farmers who are close to large markets, will
always yield a satisfactory return.
The large hotels of Havana, especially during the tourist season, are
compelled to supply mutton of good quality to their guests, and since
the local supply is not sufficient, a considerable amount of this
excellent food is imported, dressed, from the United States. In this
latitude, where green grass may be found in abundance throughout the
year, sheep may be profitably raised and used in many ways. They are
close grazers and will keep down the heavy growth of grass in citrus
fruit groves, and also along the roadsides and in the surface drains
that border hundreds of miles of automobile drives scattered throughout
the Island.
Thousands of dollars are expended by the Department of Public Works
every year in cutting out this rank growth of grass, so that the flow of
water in the ditches may not be impeded. This work could undoubtedly be
done by sheep, and a great deal of manual labor be saved, if the system
of roadside grazing was once introduced into this country. Sheep are
found in small numbers throughout all parts of the Island, and up to the
present the Government has made no attempt to register them.
So far no discrimination has been used in introducing those breeds of
sheep best suited for the production of mutton. That which the Island
has is usually tender, and of excellent flavor, and if small farmers
would take the trouble to import good rams from desirable breeds in the
United States, the raising of mutton, even as a side issue, would add
greatly to the revenue of farms located near large consuming centers.
The Republic of Mexico for many years has derived a very large revenue
from the sale of goat skins, most of which were purchased by the New
England shoe factories, while the by-products in the form of salted and
sun dried meat, fat and other materials, always command a market. Recent
years of devastation, however, have practically annihilated all of the
great herds once so profitable, since for three or four years they
furnished food to the roving bands of different contestants in that
unfortunate country.
In the various mountain chains, foothills and fertile ravines of Cuba
are hundreds of thousands of acres of forest land, in much of which
sufficient sunlight enters to permit of new growth, the tender shoots of
which are preferred by both goats and deer to any other food in the
world. More than all, the goat is by nature a hill climber, and is never
content until he gains the nearest ascent from which he can look down on
his companions below.
For many years to come, most of these vast ranges will be unfenced and
free, and the keeping of the goats will require nothing more than a
herder with a couple of good dogs for every thousand head. With this
excellent food that can serve no other purpose, and the splendid water
of mountain streams, the goat industry in Cuba could not fail to be
profitable, and yet the raising of goats has never been considered there
commercially.
Under the management of men who are familiar with the raising of goats
for their hides, and by-products, there is no reason why this industry
should not assume importance in Cuba, especially since these animals are
invaluable for cleaning out undergrowth economically and effectively.
Although it is a well established fact that the Angora goat will thrive
in any country that is not low and damp, with the exception a few pairs
of Angoras, that were introduced at the Experimental Station at Santiago
de las Vegas some years ago, the breeding of this variety of goat has
never attracted the attention which it deserves. Those of the station,
although not located under the ideal conditions which prevail in the
mountains, have nevertheless fulfilled the reputation which this animal
enjoys in other parts of the world.
The Angora, unlike the sheep, does not lose or drop its beautiful silky
fleece when introduced into a warm climate. It is, however, desirable to
shear the mohair twice a year instead of once, in order to avoid loss
that might come from pushing its way through heavy underbrush in the
mountains. In raising or breeding this variety of goat, where the long
fine fleece is the chief source of income, provision should be made for
rounding up and coralling the herd each night, in order to insure
against the possibility of loss from dogs or theft, although the goat
himself is an excellent fighter, and stoutly resents the intrusion of
any enemy.
Under favorable circumstances the annual increase of kids will amount to
100% of the number of ewes in the flock. The young bucks, of course,
when a year old may be sold at a profit, as is the ordinary goat, but
since the finest yield of hair comes from the younger animals, it would
seem ill advised to dispose of them until at least five or six years
old.
The average price of a good angora ewe for breeding purposes is about
$15, and the value of the mohair has been increasing steadily for the
past ten years. Its price, of course, depends on the length and fineness
of the fleece, and varies at the present time from 75¢ to $1 per pound.
When it is considered that a good angora will produce five or six pounds
of fleece each year, and that the entire expense is practically that of
herding and clipping, the profit of the business is apparent. On the
basis of a six-pound yield to each goat, and an average price of
83-1/3¢, a revenue of $12,000 would be derived from a herd of 2,400
goats that would cost $36,000; or in other words the net returns would
exceed 25% on the capital invested.
Aside from a sufficient amount of land on which to establish night
corrals, and the purchase of a few good collie dogs, there need be no
other initial expense than that of the purchase of breeding animals
themselves. Good herders can be readily secured at a salary of $50 per
month and the feeding range is not only free but practically unlimited.
When it is considered that the angora, when living on high lands, with
plentiful food and water, is free from disease, and that the capital
stock is multiplying at the rate of 50% per year, with an overhead
expense that may be considered as almost nothing, and an absolutely
assured market at good prices for the mohair, the raising and breeding
of angora goats would seem to be a very profitable investment in Cuba.
The deer of Cuba, while resembling in color, general form and
configuration of antlers the deer of Florida, is somewhat smaller in
size, the average height of the buck at the shoulders being only about
three feet. Although hunted considerably during the open season, they
are still very plentiful in Cuba, and if not chased by dogs soon become
quite tame.
If deer parks or reserves were established in the mountains where these
animals could be confined, cared for and bred, a market for venison
could undoubtedly be found in the United States, while many city parks
and zoological gardens would find them interesting and ornamental as an
exhibit of the Cervidae family from Cuba.