FERTILITY OF THE SOIL--WORK DURING SUGAR-MAKING--FIRE IN THE
CANE-FIELDS.
Generation after generation of thriftless Cubans cultivated the same
fields, with but slight diminution in the harvests; and the belief
in the inexhaustibility of the soil was so universal, that the land
was neither enriched, nor allowed to rest, until the evidence of the
long-continued drain became very apparent. Our own was one of the
estates that had been “overworked”--first in coffee, then in cane; and
realizing the necessity of thorough fertilization, we, like others,
used cane-stalk ashes and sugar-skimmings, the immense accumulation of
which, during the grinding season, filled a large pool, in which the
mixture remained till thoroughly rotted, when it was freely spread upon
the land. The coral formation of the mountain-range was pierced with
innumerable caves, affording safe retreats for myriads of owls, bats,
and jutias. In all these caverns was a fertilizing deposit, possibly
the accumulation of centuries. Convinced of its value, samples were
sent to the United States, where the analysis more than confirmed
the most sanguine expectations. Lack of transportation facilities
prevented utilizing it, as we hoped, for exportation; but the judicious
application on many exhausted fields brought forth vigorous growth.
By the liberal use of fertilizers, thus within our reach, the soil
soon regained pristine fruitfulness, yielding crops largely in excess
of what had ever been produced before--averaging nearly four thousand
pounds of sugar and two hundred gallons of molasses per acre. Cane is
often grown in large tracts never touched by a plow, the surface of the
ground being so entirely covered with soft, porous rocks that the cane
can only be planted between the stones by the aid of a pick, one joint
deposited in each hole, and only cultivated with a grubbing-hoe; yet it
yielded abundantly. We had several acres of cane on the mountain-top,
planted in such a rocky field that scarcely any soil was visible, yet
the growth was luxuriant and the yield satisfactory. The cane from this
elevation was slid down the steep mountain-side in an immense chute
prepared for the purpose.
The fertility of the soil is almost beyond comprehension. Weeds and
grass grow luxuriantly, and it requires the utmost diligence to keep
the ground free from tangled vegetation till the cane attains a height
sufficient to make a shade in which the weeds can not flourish. Cane
once planted, and properly cultivated and cared for while young and
tender, will yield good crops year after year. We made excellent sugar
from cane that we were solemnly assured had not been replanted in forty
years. Sweet-potato vines live for many years, bearing abundantly;
in time the product deteriorates in quality, becoming misshapen and
tasteless, so at long intervals the plant has to be renewed. One
banana planted--they are propagated from the stalk, and not from the
seed--bears within twelve months a cluster of fruit, and perishes; but
from the root spring a half-dozen stalks; each bears its one cluster,
dies, and sends up its half-dozen sprouts. So there is a rapidly
increasing renewal from the one original plant. Many plants that are
annuals in the United States become perennials in Cuba. The blossoms
sometimes diminish but more often increase in size. Tomatoes grow wild
through the fields and by the fence-borders; they are to be had the
year round. The fruit is very small and seedless, but the taste is the
same, and, for seasoning, very freely used. There are myriads of wild
flowers and blossoming vines of brilliant colors through the woods and
on the rocky hill-sides. A species of bean, whose flowers are as large
and variously colored as pansies, is to be found in the early autumn,
covering every fence with its luxuriant drapery, and making it “a
thing of beauty.” Lily-bulbs, in quiet field-corners or shady spots,
send up their long, thick stems topped with brilliant red or purple
blossoms. Morning-glories tie slender tendrils round the growing cane,
and hang their delicate pink and blue cups on every blade, and in dewy
mornings the glistening web of the field-spider is spread over all like
a dazzling veil. Few of these beautiful flowers have any fragrance,
but the air is always redolent with the odor of blooming and ripening
fruits. Strange though it may appear, the brilliant-plumaged birds that
frequent those woods are not singers. A rooster rarely crows unless he
is of the fighting breed, and a hen never cackles when an egg is laid.
The amount of work accomplished during the six winter months was
enormous and varied. Every operation, from the planting of cane to the
shipping of sugar, was in progress at the same time. As the cane--to
be ground--was cut and hauled away, the field was taken possession of
by the _boyero_ to herd and feed his oxen, and they followed day by
day in the wake of the cane-cutters. The slender cane-tops, and leaves
that grow along the stalk, form the only food the cattle receive in
winter, though in time the saccharine matter contained therein destroys
the teeth. In two weeks after the oxen gleaned a field, young cane
sprouted up, straight and stiff like asparagus-shoots, till all was
covered with a carpet of delicate green; then the plows and hoes were
used to destroy the weeds that crept in among the tender cane-sprouts.
Meanwhile cane was being hauled in heavy wagons all day long to the
sugar-house, passed through the powerful mill, that crushed it to a
pulp; the extracted juice was carried through troughs to the kettles
and boiled; the newly made sugar was shoveled into hogsheads, placed
over the molasses-cistern to drain eight or ten days, then “headed up”
and shipped to the city by cars.
The pressed cane-stalks, spread over the ground, were tossed in the
sun to dry for fuel. Men were plowing, hoeing, cutting cane, loading
wagons, driving teams, boiling, skimming, stirring fuel, filling
hogsheads, and driving wagons to the depot loaded with sugar and
molasses, day after day. For manifest reasons, no insurance could be
effected on plantation property; therefore the planters deposited
their produce in city warehouses as rapidly as possible. Our hogsheads
were all made from staves and heads shipped direct from Maine, and
put together by Chinese in our cooper-shop. Casks to contain molasses
were furnished by a merchant in Matanzas (the great molasses market),
whose warehouses were provided with enormous tanks into which the casks
were emptied, then returned to be filled again. We had a well-equipped
carpenter-shop and blacksmith’s forge, and mechanics, mostly among our
own laborers, who were equal to almost any emergency. Other plantations
around us were similarly provided and managed. There was daily more
or less of _borrowing_ going on; though only a matter of sixty miles
from Havana, it was often impossible to obtain from the city the aid
required in a sudden emergency. The planters were generous, kindly,
and mutually helpful in cases when extra assistance was needed, often
sending their own mechanics and sugar-makers if necessary.
Six months of tireless activity was conducted with clock-work
regularity. The bell tolled the hours of meals, and changes of watch
day and night. No one, from Lamo in the house to the cattle-tenders
in the field (except the delicate women), had more than six hours for
sleep during the twenty-four.
After the first week, all became accustomed to the change; and, by the
end of the season, every living creature was rounder and fatter, except
the hard-worked oxen. These had to be sent at once to a _potrero_
(grazing-farm), and boarded at the rate of a dollar a month, until the
next busy season.
Toward the end of winter all vegetation, albeit _green_, was parched
and dusty; the cane-leaves hung from the stalks in dry and curled
shreds. A carelessly dropped match, or a half-extinguished cigar, often
caused a conflagration that swept over acres, and destroyed property
worth thousands of dollars. From the veranda we had a commanding view
of the broad plain which spread from the mountain to the sea, and
scarcely a day passed that ascending smoke did not indicate burning
cane-fields, sometimes in two or three widely separated places.
While a fire on an adjoining plantation was an excitement, it did not
compare with the intense alarm created by one in our own fields. The
first shout of “_Fuego!_” and loud peal of the bell, started every
one to his feet. Several horses were kept saddled, and others hitched
under the sugar-house shed, for such emergency. So well did they
know the signal of the bell at an unusual hour, that with the first
taps they were frantic to start, and, if a rider did not immediately
appear, sometimes broke loose and ran at the top of their speed in the
direction of the fire. At the first alarm, Lamo, Henry, and Zell, were
on the saddled horses, and off at a sweeping gallop. I snatched the
key from its hook and hurried to unlock the store-room, where Ciriaco
and Martha stood ready, each side the door, to distribute _machetes_
(cane-knives)--always kept in reserve for such an emergency--to the
men who were at work about the sugar-house. Those first ready mounted
the tethered horses, sometimes two or three on one animal, and were
off like the wind. It was an unwritten law that a fire-alarm _must_
command an immediate response from laborers, white and black, on every
plantation in sound of the bell. Before the echoes of our signal had
died away, Brito’s hands could be seen pouring pell-mell down the
mountain-side, followed by the ardent Don José himself, on horseback,
urging them forward; from the right, Valera’s workmen, _machete_ in
hand, tumbled over the low rock fence and aloe hedge that divided the
two estates; while from another direction came Don Pancho, on his fiery
stallion, brandishing his sword, and hurrying the entire force of the
“Josefita” to the scene of action.
The excitement was intense and wide-spread. Steam is shut off, fires
hastily raked from under the sugar-kettles, and all work at the
sugar-house abandoned. Every hand that could wield a _machete_ sped to
the fiery fields, only a few white employés remaining in the vicinity
of the buildings.
With straining eyes and bated breath the handful of us left at the
house stood upon the veranda and watched the black volume of smoke
rise in dense clouds and spread like a pall over the place where the
brilliant flames were shooting heavenward in fiery, forked tongues.
The shouted orders of the _mayorals_ rose above the crackling sounds
of destruction. By the aid of a field-glass we followed the rapid
riding hither and thither, and rushing of hands with the glistening
_machetes_, as the fitful wind changed from side to side. Sometimes an
erect rider, with uplifted sword, was revealed against such a brilliant
background of flame and rose-tinted smoke, that he seemed enveloped
with the fiery element. Breathlessly we watched, passing the glass from
one to another! How nervous and anxious we were, lest the flakes of
fire, swept by a whirlwind through the air, might fall among dry leaves
and increase the conflagration, and truly thankful when the diminished
smoke and flame indicated a victory; and later saw the negroes, all
begrimed and drenched with the sweat of toil, who had been fighting the
fire inch by inch until it was subdued, turn their faces toward the
house, where a refreshing dram of _aguadiente_ (native rum) was waiting
for them! The planters and _mayorals_ rode around the charred field,
estimating the number of acres burned, that they might be fully advised
whether we required assistance in cutting and hauling the scorched cane
that stood in blackened, serried ranks, forming a melancholy blot in
the midst of the universal verdure that hemmed it in on every side. Our
generous neighbors were ready with men and teams to help, if more cane
was injured than could be put under shelter in a week; longer delay, or
a rain, rendered it sour and worthless.
The whole party adjourned to the veranda, all more or less disheveled
and begrimed, some having lost their hats, and others singed their
beards, in the fierce conflict, but all in good-humor; and, while
partaking of coffee, extended their sympathy in our loss, and freely
offered further assistance if needful.
In the United States, under similar circumstances, some more
stimulating beverage than coffee would have been in “good form”; but,
after such fatigue and exposure, it would not have been accepted in
Cuba. While it is the custom of a Cuban to offer you his house and all
that therein is when you call, or his _volante_-horses if you chance to
admire them, or his watch if you cast a glance at it when he tells you
the hour, there lies beneath all this effusion, which to matter-of-fact
people seems so unmeaning and absurd, a genuine kindness of heart.
You are not expected to accept the horses or watch; it is only their
Oriental way of signifying a desire to serve you. Our neighbors, who
had so promptly responded to our signal of danger, however, were not
like the disappointed and chagrined Frenchman, who “did offer his
_voiture_ for _la politesse_, and he took it for ride!”
The offer of laborers and teams was a frequent occurrence, in fact a
business accommodation, and meant more than _la politesse_--it meant
just what was expressed. While in such emergencies Lamo had on several
occasions suspended work, in order to loan for a day all of Desengaño’s
available force to a neighbor, it had always happened that we were able
to triumph over misfortune without placing ourselves under similar
obligations.