Chapter III: Relations Between Crystalline Form and Chemical Composition (2)

Fruits are varied and delicious. The pineapple is the most favoured by
Cubans. Four or five annual crops grow from one plant, but not more
than three can be marketed, unless locally, as the product
deteriorates. The better ("purple") varieties are mainly consumed in
the island, and the smaller and less juicy "white" varieties exported.
The tamarind is everywhere. Bananas are grown particularly in the
region about Nipe, Gibara and Baracoa, whence they are exported in
large quantities, though there is a tendency to lessen their culture
in these parts in favour of sugar. Mangoes, though exotic, are
extremely common, and in the E. grow wild in the forests. They are the
favourite fruit of the negroes. Oranges are little cultivated,
although they offer apparently almost unlimited possibilities; their
culture decreased steadily after 1880, but after about 1900 was again
greatly extended. Lemons yield continuously through the year, but like
oranges, not much has yet been done with them commercially.
Pomegranates are as universally used in Cuba as apples in the United.
States. Figs and grapes degenerate in Cuba. Dates grow better, but
nothing has been done with them. The coco-nut palm is most abundant in
the vicinity of Baracoa. Among the common fruits are various
anonas--the custard apple (_Anona cherimolia_), sweet-sop (_A.
squamosa_), sour-sop (_A. muricata_), mamon (_A. reticulata_), and
others,--the star-apple (_Chrysophyllum cainito_, _C. pomiferum_),
rose-apple (_Eugenia jambos_), pawpaw, the sapodilla (_Sapota
achras_), the caniste (_Sapota Elongata_), jagua (_Genipa americana_),
alligator pear (_Persea gratissima_), the yellow mammee (_Mammea
americana_) and so-called "red mammee" (_Lucuma mammosa_) and limes.

_Fauna._--The fauna of Cuba, like the flora, is still imperfectly
known. Collectively it shows long isolation from the other Antilles.
Only two land mammals are known to be indigenous. One is the hutia
(agouti) or Cuban rat, of which three species are known (_Capromys
Fournieri_, _C. melanurus_ and _C. Poey_). It lives in the most
solitary woods, especially in the eastern hills. The other is a
peculiar insectivore (_Solenodon paradoxus_), the only other
representatives of whose family are found in Madagascar. Various
animals, apparently indigenous, that are described by the early
historians of the conquest, have disappeared. An Antillean rabbit is
very abundant. Bats in prodigious numbers, and some of them of
extraordinary size, inhabit the many caves of the island; more than
twenty species are known. Rats and mice, especially the guayabita
(_Mus musculus_), an extremely destructive rodent, are very abundant.
The manatee, or sea-cow, frequents the mouths of rivers, the sargasso
drifts, and the regions of submarine fresh-water springs off the
coast. Horses, asses, cows, deer, sheep, goats, swine, cats and dogs
were introduced by the early Spaniards. The last three are common in a
wild state. Deer are not native, and are very rare; a few live in the
swamps.

Of birds there are more than 200 indigenous species, it is said, and
migratory species are also numerous. Waders are represented by more
than fifty species. Vultures are represented by only one species, the
turkey buzzard, which is the universal scavenger of the fields, and
until recent years even of the cities, and has always been protected
by custom and the Laws of the Indies. Falcons are represented by a
score of species, at least, several of them nocturnal. Kestrels are
common. The gallinaceous order is rich in _Columbidae_. Trumpeters are
notably represented, and climbers still more so. Among the latter are
species of curious habits and remarkable colouring. Woodpeckers
(_Coloptes auratus_), macaws, parrakeets and other small parrots, and
trogons, these last of beautifully resplendent plumage, deserve
particular mention. The Cuban mocking-bird is a wonderful songster. Of
humming-birds there are said to be sixty species, probably only one
indigenous. Of the other birds mere mention may be made of the wild
pigeon, raven, indigo-bird, English lady-bird and linnet.

Reptiles are numerous. Many tortoises are notable. The crocodile and
cayman occur in the swampy littoral of the south. Of lizards the
iguana (_Cyclura caudata_) is noteworthy. Chameleons are common.
Snakes are not numerous, and it is said that none is poisonous or
vicious. There is one enormous boa, the maja (_Epicrates angulifer_),
which feeds on pigs, goats and the like, but does not molest man.

Fishes are present in even greater variety than birds. Felipa Poey, in
his _Ictiologia Cubana_, listed 782 species of fish and crustaceans,
of which 105 were doubtful; but more than one-half of the remainder
were first described by Poey. The fish of Cuban waters are remarkable
for their metallic colourings. The largest species are found off the
northern coast. Food fishes are relatively not abundant, presumably
because the deep sea escarpments of the N. are unfavourable to their
life. Shell fish are unimportant. Two species of blind fish, of
extreme scientific interest, are found in the caves of the island. Of
the "percoideos" there are many genera. Among the most important are
the robalo (_Labrax_), an exquisite food fish, the tunny, eel, Spanish
sardine and mangua. Of the sharks the genus _Squalus_ is represented
by individuals that grow to a length of 26 to 30 ft. The hammer-head
attains a weight at times of 600 lb. The saw-fish is common. Of
fresh-water fish the lisa, dogro, guayacon and viajocos (_Chromis
fuscomaculatus_) are possibly the most noteworthy.

Molluscs are extraordinarily numerous; and many, both of water and
land, are rarities among their kind for size and richness of colour.
Of crustaceans, land-crabs are remarkable for size and number.
Arachnids are prodigiously numerous. Insect life is abundant and
beautiful. The bite of the scorpion and of the numerous spiders
produces no serious effects. The nigua, the Cuban jigger, is a pest of
serious consequence, and the mal de nigua (jigger sickness) sometimes
causes the death of lower animals and men. Sand-flies and biting gnats
are lesser nuisances. Lepidoptera are very brilliant in colouring. The
cucujo or Cuban firefly (_Pyrophorus noctilucus_) gives out so strong
a light that a few of them serve effectively as a lantern. The
_Stegomyia_ mosquito is the agent of yellow fever inoculation. Sponges
grow in great variety.

_Climate._--The climate of Cuba is tropical and distinctively insular in characteristics of humidity, equability and high mean temperature. There are two distinct seasons: a "dry" season from November to April, and a hotter, "wet" season. About two-thirds of the total precipitation falls in the latter. Droughts, extensive in area and in duration, are by no means uncommon. At Havana the mean temperature is about 76 deg. F., with extreme monthly oscillations ranging on the average from 6 deg. to 12 deg. F. for different months, and with a range between the means of the coldest and warmest months of 10 deg. (70 deg. to 80 deg.); temperatures below 50 deg. or above 90 deg. being rare. The mean rainfall at Havana is about 40.6 in. (sometimes over 80), and the mean absolute humidity of different months ranges from 70 to 80%. These figures represent fairly well the conditions of much of the northern coast. In the N.E. the rainfall is much greater. The equability of heat throughout the day is masked and relieved by the afternoon sea breezes. The trades are steady through the year, and in the dry season the western part of the island enjoys cool "northers." Despite this the interior is somewhat cooler than the coast, and in the uplands frost is not uncommon. The southern littoral is also (except in sheltered points such as Santiago, which is one of the hottest cities of the island) somewhat cooler than the northern.

More than eight or ten years rarely pass without tornadoes or hurricanes of local severity at least. Notably destructive ones occurred in 1768, 1774, 1842, 1844, 1846, 1865, 1870, 1876, 1885 and 1894. Those of 1842 and 1844 caused extreme distress in the island. In 1846, 300 vessels and 2000 houses were destroyed at Havana; in 1896 the banana groves of the N.E. coast were ruined and the banana industry prostrated; and in 1906 Havana suffered damage. The autumn months, particularly October and November, are those in which such storms most frequently occur.

_Health._--Convincing evidence is offered by the qualities of the Spanish race in Cuba that white men of temperate lands can be perfectly acclimatized in this tropical island. As for diseases, some common to Cuba and Europe are more frequent or severe in the island, others rarer or milder. There are the usual malarial, bilious and intermittent fevers, and liver, stomach and intestinal complaints prevalent in tropical countries; but unhygienic living is, in Cuba as elsewhere, mainly responsible for their existence. Yellow fever (which first appeared in Cuba in 1647) was long the only epidemic disease, Havana being an endemic focus. Aside from the recurrent loss of life, the pecuniary loss from such epidemics was enormous, and the interference with commerce and social intercourse with other countries extremely vexatious. The Cuban coast was uninterruptedly full of infection, and the danger of an outbreak in each year was never absent, until the work of the United States army in 1901-1902 conclusively proved that this disease, though ineradicable by the most extreme sanitary measures, based on the accepted theory of its origin as a filth-disease, could be eradicated entirely by removing the possibility of inoculation by the _Stegomyia_ mosquito. Since then yellow fever has ceased to be a scourge in Cuba. Small-pox was the cause of a greater mortality than yellow fever even before the means of combating the latter had been ascertained. The remarkable sanitary work begun during the American occupation and continued by the republic of Cuba, has shown that the ravages of this and other diseases can be greatly diminished. Leprosy is rather common, but seemingly only slightly contagious. Consumption is very prevalent.

_Agriculture._--Soils are of four classes: calcareous-ferruginous, alluvial, argillous and silicious. Calcareous lands are predominant, especially in the uplands. Deep residual clay soils derived from underlying limestones, and coloured red or black according to the predominance of oxides of iron or vegetable detritus, characterize the plains. A red-black soil known as "mulatto" or tawny is perhaps the best fitted for general cultivation. Tobacco is most generally cultivated on loose red soils, which are rich in clays and silicates; and sugar-cane preferably on the black and mulatto soils; but in general, contrary to prevalent suppositions, colour is no test of quality and not a very valuable guide in the setting of crops. Almost without exception the lands throughout the island are of extreme fertility. The lowlands about Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Mariel and Matanzas are noted for their richness. The census of 1899 showed that farm lands occupied three-tenths of the total area; the cultivated area being one-tenth of the farms or 3% of the whole. At the end of 1905 it was officially estimated that 16% was in cultivation. In 1902 it was officially estimated that the public land available for permanent agrarian cultivation, including forest lands, was only 186,967 hectares (416,995 acres), almost wholly in the province of Oriente. The average size of a farm in 1899 was 143 acres. More than 85% of all cultivated lands were then occupied by whites; and somewhat more than one-half (56.6%) of all occupiers were renters. Holdings of more than 32 acres constituted only 7% of the total. As regards crops, 47% of the cultivated area was given over to sugar, 11% to sweet potatoes, 9% to tobacco and almost 9% to bananas. But owing to the disturbed conditions created by the war it is probable that these figures by no means represent normal conditions. The actual sugar crop of 1899-1900, for example, was not a quarter of that of 1894. With the establishment of peace in 1898 and the influx of American and other capital and of a heavy immigration, great changes took place in agriculture as in other industrial conditions.

Sugar.

Sugar has been the dominant crop since the end of the 18th century. Before the Civil War of 1895-1898 the capital invested in sugar estates was greater by half than that represented by tobacco and coffee plantations, live-stock ranches and other farms. Since that time fruit and live-stock interests have increased. The dependence of the island on one crop has been an artificial economic condition often of grave momentary danger to prosperity; but generally speaking, the progress of the industry has been steady. The competition of the sugar-beet has been felt severely. During and after the war of 1868-1878, when many Cuban estates were confiscated, many families emigrated, and many others were ruined, the ownership of plantations largely passed from the hands of Cubans to Spaniards. Under the conditions of free labour, the development of railways abroad, the improvement of machinery both in cane and beet producing countries, the general competition of the beet, and the fall of prices, it was impossible for the Cuban industry to survive without radical betterment of methods. About 1885 began an immense development of centralization (the tendency having been evident many years before this). Plantations have increased greatly in size (and also diminished in number), greater capital is involved, bagasse furnaces have been introduced, double grinding mills have increased by more than a half the yield of juice from a given weight of cane, and extractive operations instead of being carried on on all plantations have been (since 1880) concentrated in comparatively few "centrals" (168 in Feb. 1908). Three-fourths of all are in the jurisdictions of Cienfuegos, Cardenas, Havana, Matanzas and Sagua la Grande, which are the great sugar centres of the island (three-fourths of the crop coming from Matanzas and Santa Clara provinces). Caibarien, Guantanamo and Manzanillo are next in importance. A comparatively low cost of labour, the fact that labour is not, as in the days of slavery, that of unintelligent blacks but of intelligent free labourers, the centralized organization and modern methods that prevail on the plantations, the remarkable fertility of the soil (which yields 5 or 6 crops on good soil and with good management, without replanting), and the proximity of the United States, in whose markets Cuba disposes of almost all her crop, have long enabled her to distance her smaller West Indian rivals and to compete with the bounty-fed beet. The methods of cultivation, however, are still distinctly extensive, and the returns are much less than they would be (and in some other cane countries are) under more intensive and scientific methods of cultivation. Indeed, conditions were relatively primitive so late as 1880, if compared with those of other sugar-producing countries. More than four-fifths of the total area sown to cane in the island is in the three provinces of Santa Clara, Matanzas and Oriente (formerly Santiago), the former two representing two-thirds of the area and three-fourths of the crop. The majority of the sugar estates are of an area less than 3000 acres, and the most common area is between 1500 and 2000 acres; but the extremes range from a very small size to 60,000 acres. Only a part of the great estates is ever planted in any one season. The most profitable unit is calculated to be a daily consumption of 1500 tons of cane, or 150,000 in a grinding season of 100 days, which implies a feeding area not above 6000 acres. In the season of 1904-1905, which may be taken as typical, 179 estates, with a planted area of 431,056 acres, produced 11,576,137 tons of cane, and yielded--in addition to alcohol, brandy and molasses--1,089,814 tons of sugar. Of this amount 416,862 tons were produced by 24 estates yielding more than 11,000 tons each, including one (planting 28,050 acres) that yielded 33,609, and 4 others more than 22,000 tons each. The production of the island from 1850 to 1868 averaged 469,934 tons yearly, rising from 223,145 to 749,000; from 1869 to 1886 (continuing high during the period of the Ten Years' War), 632,003 tons; from 1887 to 1907--omitting the five years 1896-1900 when the industry was prostrated by war,--909,827 tons (and including the war period, 758,066); and in the six harvests of 1901-1906, 1,016,899 tons. Prior to 1902 the million mark, was reached only twice--in 1894 and 1895. Following the resuscitation of the industry after the last war, the island's crop rose steadily from one-sixth to a full quarter of the total cane sugar output of the world, its share in the world's product of sugar of all kinds ranging from a tenth to an eighth. Of this enormous output, from 98.3% upward went to the United States;[1] of whose total importation of all sugars and of cane sugar the proportion of Cuban cane--steadily rising--was respectively 49.8 and 53.7% in the seasons of 1900-1901 and 1904-1905.

Tobacco.

If sugar is the island's greatest crop, tobacco is her most renowned in the markets of the world. Three-fourths of the tobacco of Cuba comes from Pinar del Rio province; the rest mainly from the provinces of Havana and Santa Clara,--the description _de partido_ being applied to the leaf not produced in Havana and Pinar del Rio provinces, and sometimes to all produced outside the _vuelta abajo_. This district, including the finest land, is on the southern slope of the Organ Mountains between the Honda river and Mantua; bananas are cultivated with the tobacco. "Vegas" (tobacco fields) of especially good repute are also found near Trinidad, Remedios, Yara, Mayari and Vicana. The tobacco industry has been uniformly prosperous, except when crippled by the destruction of war in 1868-1878 and 1895-1898. Even in the time of slavery tobacco was generally a white-man's crop; for it requires intelligent labour and intensive care. In recent years the growth of the leaf under cloth tents has greatly increased, as it has been abundantly proved that the product thus secured is much more valuable--lighter in colour and weight, finer in texture, with an increased proportion of wrapper leaves, and more uniform qualities, and with lesser amounts of cellulose, nicotine, gums and resins. In these respects the finest Cuban tobacco crops, produced in the sun, hardly rival the finest Sumatra product; but produced under cheese-cloth they do. "Cuban tobacco" does not mean to-day, as a commercial fact, what the words imply; for the original _Nicotiana Tabacum_, variety _havanensis_, can probably be found pure to-day only in out-of-the-way corners of Pinar del Rio. After the Ten Year's War seed of Mexican and United States tobaccos was in great demand to re-seed the ruined vegas, and was introduced in great quantities; and although by a later law the destruction of these exotic species was ordered, that destruction was in fact quite impossible. "Lusty growers and coarser than the genuine old-time Cuban ... Mexican tobaccos (_Nicotiana Tabacum_, variety _macrophyllum_) are to-day predominant in a large part of Cuban vegas.... Ordinary commercial Cuban seed of to-day is largely, and often altogether, Mexican tobacco." Though improved in the Cuban environment, the foreign tobaccos introduced after the Ten Years' War did not lose their exotic character, but prevailed over the indigenous forms: "Tobaccos with exactly the character of the introduced types are now the prevalent forms" (quotation from Bulletin of the _Estacion Central Agronomica_, Feb. 1908). In the markets of the world Cuban tobacco has always suffered less competition than Cuban sugar, and still less has been done than in the case of sugar cane in the study of methods of cultivation, which in several respects are far behind those of other tobacco-growing countries. The crop of 1907 was 201,512 bales (109,562,400 lb. Sp.).

Coffee.

Coffee-raising was once a flourishing and very promising industry. It first attained prominence with the settlement in eastern Cuba, late in the 18th century, of French refugee immigrants from San Domingo. Some "cafetales" were established by the newcomers near Havana, but the industry has always been almost exclusively one of Oriente province; with Santa Clara as a much smaller producer. Before the war of 1868-1878 the production amounted to about 25,000,000 lb. yearly. The war of 1895-1898 still further diminished the vitality of the industry. In 1907 the crop was 6,595,700 lb. The berries are of fine quality, and despite the competition of Brazil there is no (agricultural) reason why the home market at least should not be supplied from Cuban estates.

Of other agricultural crops those of fruits are of greatest
importance--bananas (which are planted about once in three years),
pine-apples (planted about once in five years), coco-nuts, oranges,
&c. The coco-nut industry has long been largely confined to the region
about Baracoa, owing to the ruin of the trees elsewhere by a disease
not yet thoroughly understood, which, appearing finally near Baracoa,
threatened by 1908 to destroy the industry there as well. Yams and
sweet-potatoes, yuccas, malangas, cacao, rice--which is one of the
most important foods of the people, but which is not yet widely
cultivated on a profitable basis--and Indian corn, which grows
everywhere and yields two crops yearly, may be mentioned also. In very
recent years gardening has become an interest of importance,
particularly in the province of Pinar del Rio. Save on the coffee,
tobacco and sugar plantations, where competition in large markets has
compelled the adoption of adequate modern methods, agriculture in Cuba
is still very primitive. The wooden ploughstick, for instance--taking
the country as a whole--has never been displaced. A central
agricultural experiment station (founded 1904) is maintained by the
government at Santiago de las Vegas; but there is no agricultural
college, nor any special school for the scientific teaching and
improvement of sugar and tobacco farming or manufacture.

Stock-breeding is a highly important interest. It was the
all-important one in the early history of the island, down to about
the latter part of the 18th century. Grasses grow luxuriantly, and the
savannahs of central Cuba are, in this respect, excellent cattle
ranges. The droughts to which the island is recurrently subject are,
however, a not unimportant drawback to the industry; and though the
best ranges, under favourable conditions, are luxuriant, nevertheless
the pastures of the island are in general mediocre. Practically
nothing has yet been done in the study of native grasses and the
introduction of exotic species. The possibilities of the stock
interest have as yet by no means been realized. The civil wars were
probably more disastrous to it than to any other agricultural interest
of the island. It has been authoritatively estimated, for example,
that from 90 to 95% of all horses, neat cattle and hogs in the entire
island were lost in the war years of 1895-1898. In the decade after
1898 particularly great progress was made in the raising of
live-stock. The fishing and sponge industries are important. Batabano
and Caibarien are centres of the sponge fisheries.

_Manufactures._--The manufacturing industries of Cuba have never been more than insignificant as compared with what they might be. In 1907 48.5% of all wage-earners were engaged in agriculture, fishing and mining, 16.3 in manufactures, and 17.7 in trade and transportation. Such manufactures as are of any consequence are mostly connected with the sugar and tobacco industries. Forest resources have been but slightly touched (more so since the end of Spanish rule) except mahogany, which goes to the United States, and cedar, which is used to box the tobacco products of the island, much going also to the United States. The value of forest products in 1901-1902 amounted to $320,528. There are some tanneries, some preparation of preserves and other fruit products, and some old handicraft industries like the making of hats; but these have been of comparatively scant importance. Despite natural advantages for all meat industries, canned meats have generally been imported. The leading manufactures are cigars and cigarettes, sugar, rum and whisky. The tobacco industries are very largely concentrated in Havana, and there are factories in Santiago de las Vegas and Bejucal. The yearly output of cigars was locally estimated in 1908 at about 500,000,000, but this is probably too high an estimate. In 1904-1906 the yearly average sent to the United States was 234,063,652 cigars, 29,776,429 lb. of leaf and 14,203,571 packages of cigarettes. The sugar industry is not similarly centralized. With the improvement of methods the old partially refined grades (moscobados) have disappeared.

_Mining._--Mining is of very considerable importance. The Cobre copper mines near Santiago were once the greatest producers of the world. They were worked from 1524 until about 1730, when they were abandoned for almost a century, after which they were reopened and greatly developed. In 1828-1840 about two million dollars' worth of ore was shipped yearly to the United States alone. After 1868 the mines were again abandoned and flooded, the mining property being ruined during the civil war. Finally, after 1900 they again became prosperous producers. The "Cobre" mine is only the most famous and productive of various copper properties. The copper output has not greatly increased since 1890, and is of slight importance in mineral exports. Iron and manganese have, on the contrary, been greatly developed in the same period. Iron is now the most important mineral product. The iron ores are even more accessible than the famous ones of the Lake Superior region in the United States. No shafts or tunnels are necessary except for exploration; the mining consists entirely in open-cut and terrace work. The cost of exploitation is accordingly slight. Daiquiri, near Santiago, and mines near Nipe, on the north coast, are the chief centres of production. Nearly the entire product goes to the United States. The first exports from the Daiquiri district were made by an American company in 1884; the Nipe (Cagimaya) mines became prominent in promise in 1906. The shipments from Oriente province from 1884 to 1901 aggregated 5,053,847 long tons, almost all going to the United States (which is true of other mineral products also). After 1900 production was greatly increased and by 1906 had come to exceed half a million tons annually. There are small mines in Santa Clara and Camaguey provinces. Manganese is mined mainly near La Maya and El Cristo in Oriente. The traditions as to gold and silver have already been referred to. Evidences of ancient workings remain near Holguin and Gibara, and it is possible that some of these workings are still exploitable. Mining for the precious metals ceased at a very early date, after rich discoveries were made on the continent. Bituminous products, though, as already stated, widely distributed, are not as yet much developed. The most promising deposits and the most important workings are in Matanzas and Santa Clara provinces. Petroleum has been used to some extent both as a fuel and as an illuminant. Small amounts of asphalt have been sent to the United States. Locally, asphalts are used as gas enrichers. Grahamite and glance-pitch are common, and are exported for use in varnish and paint manufactures. The commercial product of stones, brick and cement is of rapidly increasing importance. The foundation of the island is in many places almost pure carbonate of lime, and there are numerous small limekilns. The product is used to bleach sugar, as well as for construction and disinfection purposes. The number of small brick plants is legion, almost all very primitive.

_Commerce._--Commerce (resting largely upon specialized agriculture) is vastly more prominent as yet than manufacturing and mining in the island's economy. The leading articles of export are sugar, tobacco and fruit products; of import, textiles, foodstuffs, lumber and wood products, and machinery. Sugar and tobacco products together represent seven-eighths (in 1904-1907 respectively 60.3 and 27.3%) of the normal annual exports. In the quinquennial period 1890-1894 (immediately preceding the War of Independence) the average yearly commerce of the island in and out was $86,875,663 with the United States; and $28,161,726 with Spain.[2] During the American military occupation of the island in 1899-1902, of the total imports 45.9% were from the United States, 14 from other American countries, 15 from Spain, 14 from the United Kingdom, 6 from France and 4 from Germany; of the exports the corresponding percentages for the same countries were 70.7, 2, 3, 10, 4 and 7. No special favours were enjoyed by the United States in this period, and about the same percentages prevailed in the years following. The total commercial movement of the island in the five calendar years 1902-1906 averaged $177,882,640 (for the five fiscal years 1902-1903 to 1906-1907, $185,987,020) annually, and of this the share of the United States was $108,431,000 yearly, representing 45.8% of all imports and 81.9% of all exports. The proportion of imports taken from the United States is greatest in foodstuffs, metals and metal manufactures, timber and furniture, mineral oils and lard. The trade of the United States with the island was as great in 1900-1907 as with Mexico and all the other West Indies combined; as great as its trade with Spain, Portugal and Italy combined; and almost as great as its trade with China and Japan.

_Communications._--Poor means of communication have always been a great handicap to the industries of the island. The first railroad in Cuba (and the first in Spanish lands) was opened from Havana to Guines in 1837. In succeeding years a fairly ample system was built up between the cities of Pinar del Rio and Santa Clara, with a number of short spurs from the chief ports farther eastward into the interior. After the first American occupation a private company built a line from Santa Clara to Santiago, more than half the length of the island, finally connecting its two ends (1902). The policy of the railways was always one rather of extortion than of fairness or of any interest in the development of the country, but better conditions have begun. There was ostensible government regulation of rates after 1877, but the roads were guaranteed outright against any loss of revenue, and in fact practically nothing was ever done in the way of reform in the Spanish period. In 1900 the total length of railways was 2097 m., of which 1226 were of 17 public roads and 871 m. of 107 private roads. In August 1908 the mileage of all railways (including electric) in Cuba was 2329.8 m. The telegraph and telephone systems are owned by the government. Cables connect the island with Florida, Jamaica, Haiti and San Domingo, Porto Rico, the lesser Antilles, Panama, Venezuela and Brazil. Havana, Santiago and Cienfuegos are cable ports. Wagon roads are still of small extent and primitive character save in a very few localities. The peculiar two-wheeled carts of the country, carrying enormous loads of 4 to 6 tons, destroy even the finest road. Similar carts, slightly lighter, used in the cities, quickly destroy any paving but stone block. The only good highways of any considerable length in 1908 were in the two western provinces and in the vicinity of Santiago. During the second American occupation work was begun on a network of good rural highways.

_Population._--Various censuses were taken in Cuba beginning in 1774; but the results of those preceding the abolition of slavery, at least, are probably without exception extremely untrustworthy. The census of 1887 showed a population of 1,631,687, that of 1899 a population of 1,572,792 (the decrease of 3.6% is explained by the intervening war); and by the census of 1907 there were 2,048,980 inhabitants, 30.3% more than in 1899. The average of settlement per square mile varied from 169.7 in Havana province to 11.8 in Camaguey, and was 46.4 for all of Cuba; the percentage of urban population (in cities, that is, with more than 1000 inhabitants) in the different provinces varied from 18.2 in Pinar del Rio to 74.7 in Havana, and was 43.9 for the entire island. There were five cities having populations above 25,000--Havana, 297,159; Santiago, 45,470; Matanzas, 36,009; Cienfuegos, 30,100; Puerto Principe (or Camaguey), 29,616; and fourteen more above 8000--Cardenas, Manzanillo, Guanabacoa, Santa Clara, Sagua la Grande, Sancti Spiritus, Guantanamo, Trinidad, Pinar del Rio, San Antonio de los Banos, Jovellanos, Marianao, Caibarien and Guines. The proportion of the total population which in 1907 was in cities of 8000 or more was only 30.3%; and the proportion in cities of 25,000 or more was 21.4%. Mainly owing to the large element of transient foreign whites without families (long characteristic of Cuba), males outnumber females--in 1907 as 21 to 19. Native whites, almost everywhere in the majority, constituted 59.8% of all inhabitants; persons of negro and mixed blood, 29.7%; foreign-born whites, 9.9%; Chinese less than 0.6%. Foreigners constituted 25.6% of the population in the city of Havana; only 7% in Pinar del Rio province. Native blood is most predominant in the provinces of Oriente and Pinar del Rio. After the end of the war of 1895-1898 a large immigration from Spain began; the inflow from the United States was very small in comparison. The Republic strongly encourages immigration. In 1900-1906 there were 143,122 immigrants, of whom 124,863 were Spaniards, 4557 were from the United States, 2561 were Spanish Americans, and a few were Italian, Syrian, Chinese, French, English, &c. The Chinese element is a remnant of a former coolie population; their numbers in 1907 (11,217) were less than a fourth the number in 1887. Their introduction began in 1847 and ended in 1871. Conjugal conditions in Cuba are peculiar. In 1907 only 20.7% of the total population were legally married; an additional 8.6% were living in more or less permanent consensual unions, these being particularly common among the negroes. Including all unions the total is below the European proportion, but above that of Porto Rico or Jamaica in 1899.

The negro element is strongest in the province of Oriente and weakest in Camaguey; in the former it constituted 43.1% of the population, in the latter 18.3%, and in Havana City 25.5%. In Guantanamo, in Santiago de Cuba, and in seven other towns they exceeded the whites in number. Caibarien and San Antonio de los Banos had the largest proportion of white population. The position of the negroes in Cuba is exceptional. Despite the long period of slavery they are decidedly below the whites in number. The Spanish slave laws (although in practice often frightfully abused) were always comparatively generous to the slave, making relatively easy, among other things, the purchase of his freedom, the number of free blacks being always great. Since the abolition of slavery the status of the black has been made more definite, and his rights naturally much greater. The wars of 1868-1878 and 1895-1898 and the threatened war of 1906 all helped to give to the negro element its high position. There is no antagonism between the divisions of the coloured race. All hold their own with the white in industrial usefulness to the community, and though the blacks are more backward in education and various other tests of social advancement, still their outlook is full of promise. There is practically no colour caste in Cuba; politically the negro is the white man's equal; socially there is very little ostensible inequality and almost perfect toleration. The negro in Cuba shows promising though undeveloped traits of landlordship. Women labour habitually in the fields. Miscegenation of blacks and whites was extremely common before emancipation. It is sometimes said that since then there has been a counter-tendency, but it is impossible to prove such a statement conclusively except with the aid of future censuses. Few of the negroes are black; some of the blackest have the regular features of the Caucasian; and racial mixtures are everywhere evidenced by colour of skin and by physiognomy. Its seems certain that the African element has been holding its own in the population totals since emancipation.

Cuba is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic in religion, but under the new Republic there is a complete separation of church and state, and liberalism and indifference are increasing. Illiteracy is extremely widespread. In 1907 the census showed 56.6% (43.3 in 1899) of persons above ten years who could read. Of the voting population 53.2% of native white, and 37.3% of coloured Cuban citizens, and 71.6% of Spanish citizens could read. A revolution in education was begun the first year of the United States military occupation and continued under the Republic.

_Constitution._--The constitution upon which the government of Cuba rests was framed during the period of the United States military government; it was adopted the 21st of February 1901, and certain amendments or conditions required by the United States were accepted on the 12th of June 1901. The constitution is republican and modelled on the Constitution of the United States, with some marked differences of greater centralization, due to colonial experience under the rule of Spain, notably as regards federalism; the provinces of the island being less important than the states of the American Union. The president of the Republic, who is elected for four years by an electoral college, and cannot hold office for more than two successive terms, has a cabinet whose members he may appoint and remove freely, their number being determined by law. He sanctions, promulgates and executes the laws, and supplements them (partly co-ordinately with congress) by administrative regulations in harmony with their ends; holds a veto power and pardoning power; controls with the senate political appointments and removals; and conducts foreign relations, submitting treaties to the senate for ratification. Congress consists of two houses. The senate contains four members from each province, chosen for eight years by a provincial electoral board, which consists of the provincial councilmen plus a double number of electors (half of them paying high taxes) who are selected at a special election by their fellow citizens. Half of the senators retire every four years. The senate is the court of trial for the president, officers of the cabinet, and provincial governors when accused of political offences. It also acts jointly with the president in political appointments and treaty making. The house of representatives, whose members are chosen directly by the citizens for four years, one-half retiring every two years, has the special power of impeaching the president and cabinet officers. Congress meets twice annually, in April and November. Its powers are extensive, including, in addition to ordinary legislative powers, control of financial affairs, foreign affairs, the power to declare war and approve treaties of peace, amnesties, electoral legislation for the provinces and municipalities, control of the electoral vote for president and vice-president, and designation of an acting president in case of the death or incapacity of these officers. The subjects of legislative power are very similar to those of the United States congress; but control of railroads, canals and public roads is explicitly given to the federal government. Justice is administered by courts of various grades, with a supreme court at Havana as the head; the members of this being appointed by the president and senate. This court passes on the constitutionality of all laws, decrees and regulations.

There are six provinces--Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas, Santa Clara, Camaguey or Puerto Principe, and Oriente. Each has a provincial governor and assembly chosen directly by the people, generally charged with independent control of matters affecting the province; but the president may interfere against an abuse of power by either the governor or the assembly. Municipalities are administered by mayors (alcaldes) and assemblies elected by the people, and control strictly municipal affairs. The "termino municipal" is the chief political and administrative civil division. It is an urban district together with contiguous rural territory. Its divisions are "barrios." The president may interfere if necessary in the municipality as in the province; and so may the governor of the province. But all interference is subject to review of claims by the courts. Both provinces and municipalities are forbidden by the constitution to contract debts without a coincident provision of permanent revenue for their settlement.

The franchise is granted to every male Cuban twenty-one years of age, not mentally incapacitated, nor previously a convict of crime, nor serving in the army or navy of the state. Foreigners may become citizens in five years by naturalization. Church and state are completely separated, toleration being guaranteed for the profession and practice of all religious beliefs, and the government may not subsidize any religion.

Education.

Primary education is declared by the constitution to be free and compulsory; and its expenses are paid by the central government so far as it may be beyond the power of the province or municipality to bear them. Secondary and advanced education is controlled by the state. In the last days of Spanish rule (1894), there were 904 public and 704 private schools, and not more than 60,000 pupils enrolled; in 1000 there were 3550 public schools with an enrolment of 172,273 and an average attendance of 123,362. In the four school years from 1903-1904 to 1906-1907 the figures of enrolment and average attendance were: 201,824 and 110,531; 194,657 and 105,706; 186,571 and 98,329; and 189,289 and 93,865. In 1906-1907 the percentage (31.6) of attendants to children of school age was twice as large as in 1898-1899. Private schools, some of very high grade, draw many pupils. Almost all schools are primary. The university of Havana (founded 1728) was given greatly improved facilities, especially of material equipment, by the American military government, and seems to have begun an ambitious progress. In 1907 the number of students was 554. Below the university there are six provincial institutes, one in each province, in each of which there is a preparatory department, a department of secondary education, and (this due to peculiar local conditions) a school of surveying; and in that of Havana commercial departments in addition. In Havana, also, there is a school of painting and sculpture, a school of arts and trades, and a national library, all of which are supported or subventioned by the national government, as are also a public library in Matanzas, and the Agricultural Experiment Station at Santiago de las Vegas. In connexion with the university is a botanical garden; with the national sanitary service, a biological laboratory, and special services for small-pox, glanders and yellow fever. Independent of the government are various schools and learned societies in Havana (q.v.). A school was established by the government in Key West, Florida (U.S.A.), in 1905, for the benefit of the Cuban colony there. Finally, the government sustains about two score of penal establishments, reform schools, hospitals, dispensaries and asylums, which are scattered all over the island,--every town of any considerable size having one or more of these charities.

Former government.

Under the colonial rule of Spain the head of government was a supreme civil-military officer, the governor and captain-general. His control of the entire administrative life of the island was practically absolute. Originally residents at Santiago de Cuba, the captains-general resided after 1589 at Havana. Because of the isolation of the eastern part of the island, the dangers from pirates, and the important considerations which had caused Santiago de Cuba (q.v.) to be the first capital of the island, Cuba was divided in 1607 into two departments, and a governor, subordinate in military matters to the captain-general at Havana, was appointed to rule the territory east of Puerto Principe. In 1801, when the audiencia--of which the captain-general was _ex officio_ president--began its functions at that point, the governor of Santiago became subordinated in political matters as much as in military. Two chief courts of justice (audiencias) sat at Havana (after 1832) and Puerto Principe (1800-1853); appeals could go to Spain; below the audiencias were "alcaldes mayores" or district judges and ordinary "alcaldes" or local judges. The audiencias also held important political powers under the Laws of the Indies. The captaincy-general of Cuba was not originally, however, by any means so broad in powers as the viceroyalties of Mexico and Peru; and by the creation in 1765 of the office of intendant--the delegate of the national treasury--his faculties were very greatly curtailed. The great powers of the intendant were, however, merged in those of the governor-general in 1853; and the captain-general having been given by royal order in 1825 (several times later explicitly confirmed, and not revoked until 1870) the absolute powers (to be assumed at his initiative and discretion) of the governor of a besieged city, and by a royal order of 1834 the power to banish at will persons supposed to be inimical to the public peace; and being by virtue of his office the president and dominator of all the important administrative boards of the government, held the government of the island, and in any emergency the liberty and property of its inhabitants, in his hand. The royal orders following 1825 developed a system of extraordinary and extreme repression. In 1878, as the result of the Ten Years' War, various administrative reforms, of a decentralizing tendency, were introduced. The six provinces were created, and had governors and assemblies ("diputaciones"); and a municipal law was provided that in many ways was a sound basis for local government. But centralization remained very great. In the municipality the alcalde (mayor) was appointed by the governor-general, and the ayuntamiento (council) was controlled by the veto of the provincial governor and by the assembly of the province. The deputation was subject in turn to the same veto of the provincial governor, and he controlled by the governor-general. There was besides a provincial commission of five lawyers named by the governor-general from the members of the deputation, who settled election questions, and questions of eligibility in this body, gave advice as to laws, acted for the deputation when it was not sitting, and in general facilitated centralized control of the administrative system. The character of this body was altered in 1890, and in 1898, in which latter year its functions were reduced to the essentially judicial. Despite superficial decentralization after 1878 any real growth of local self-government was rendered impossible. Moreover, no great reforms were made in the abuses naturally incident to the old personal system. Exile and imprisonment at the will of the government and without trial were common. Personal liberty, liberty of conscience, speech, assembly, petition, association, press, liberty of movement and security of home, were without real guarantee even within the extremely small limits in which they nominally existed. Under the constitution of the Republic the sphere of individual liberty is large and constitutionally protected against the government.

_Finance._--There has been a great change in the budget of Cuba since the advent of the Republic. In 1891-1896 the average annual income was $20,738,930, the annual average expenditure $25,967,139. More than half of the revenue was derived from customs duties (two-thirds of the total being collected at Havana). Of the expenditure more than ten million dollars annually went for the public debt, 5.5 to 6 millions for the army and navy, as much more for civil administration (including more than two millions for purely Peninsular services with which the colony was burdened); and on an average probably one million more went for sinecures. Every Cuban paid about twice as heavy taxes as a Spaniard of the Peninsula. Very little was spent on sanitation, roads, other public works and education. The revenue receipts under the Republic have increased especially over those of the old regime in the item of customs duties; and the expenditure is very differently distributed. Lotteries which were an important source of revenue under Spain were abolished under the Republic. The debt resting on the colony in 1895 (a large part of it as a result of the war of 1868-1878, the entire cost of which was laid upon the island, but a part as the result of Spain's war adventures in Mexico and San Domingo, home loans, &c.) was officially stated at $168,500,000. The attainment of independence freed the island from this debt, and from enormous contemplated additions to cover the expense incurred by Spain during the last insurrection. The debt of the Republic in April 1908 was $48,146,585, including twenty-seven millions which were assumed in 1902 for the payment of the army of independence, four for agriculture, and four for the payment of revolutionary debts, and $2,196,585, representing obligations assumed by the revolution's representative in the United States during the War of Independence. United States and British investments, always important in the agriculture and manufactures of the island, greatly increased following 1898, and by 1908 those of each nation were supposed to exceed considerably $100,000,000.

_Archaeology._--Archaeological study in Cuba has been limited, and has not produced results of great importance. Almost nothing is actually known of prehistoric Cuba; and a few skulls and implements are the only basis existing for conjecture. Very little also is known as to the natives who inhabited the island at the time of the discovery. They were a tall race of copper hue; fairly intelligent, mild in temperament, who lived in poor huts and practised a limited and primitive agriculture. How numerous they were when the Spaniards first came among them cannot be said; undoubtedly tradition has greatly exaggerated their number. They are supposed to have been practically extinct by 1550. Even in the 19th century reports were spread of communities in which Indian blood was supposedly still plainly dominant; but the conclusion of the competent scientists who have investigated such rumours has been that at least absolutely nothing of the language and traditions of the aborigines has survived.

_History._--Cuba was discovered by Columbus in the course of his first voyage, on the 27th of October 1492. He died believing Cuba was part of a continent. In 1508 Sebastian de Ocampo circumnavigated it. In 1511 Diego Velazquez began the conquest of the island. Baracoa (the landing point), Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Puerto Principe, Sancti Spiritus, Trinidad and the original Havana were all founded by 1515. Velazquez's reputation and legends of wealth drew many immigrants to the island. From Cuba went the expeditions that discovered Yucatan (1517), and explored the shores of Mexico, Hernando Cortes's expedition for the invasion of Mexico, and de Soto's for the exploration of Florida. The last two had a pernicious effect on Cuba, draining it of horses, money and of men. At least as early as 1523 the African slave trade was begun. In 1544 the Indians, so far as they had not succumbed to the labour of the mines and fields to which they were put by the Spaniards, were proclaimed emancipated. The administration in the 16th century was loose and violent. The local authorities were divided among themselves by bitter feuds--the ecclesiastical against the civil, the _ayuntamiento_ against the governors, the administrative officers among themselves; brigandage, mutinies and intestinal struggles disturbed the peace. As a result of the transfer of Jamaica to England, the population of Cuba was greatly augmented by Jamaican immigrants to about 30,000 in the middle of the 17th century.

The activity of English and French pirates began in the 16th century, and reached its climax in the middle of the 17th century. So early also began dissatisfaction with the economic regulations of the colonial system, even grave resistance to their enforcement; and illicit trade with privateers and foreign colonies had begun long before, and in the 17th and 18th centuries was the basis of the island's wealth. In 1762 Havana was captured after a long resistance by a British force under Admiral Sir George Pocock and the earl of Albemarle, with heavy loss to the besiegers. It was returned to Spain the next year in exchange for the Floridas. From this date begins the modern history of the island. The British opened the port to commerce and the slave trade and revealed its possibilities. The government of Spain, beginning in 1764, made notable breaches in the old monopolistic system of colonial trade throughout America; and Cuba received special privileges, also, that were a basis for real prosperity. Spain paid increasing attention to the island, and in harmony with the policy of the Laws of the Indies many decrees intended to stimulate agriculture and commerce were issued by the crown, first in the form of monopolies, then with increased freedom and with bounties. Various colonial products and the slave trade were favoured in this way. After the cession of the Spanish portion of San Domingo to France hundreds of Spanish families emigrated to Cuba, and many thousand more immigrants, mainly French, followed them from the entire island during the revolution of the blacks. Most of them settled in Oriente province, where their names and blood are still apparent, and with their cafetales and sugar plantations converted that region from neglect and poverty to high prosperity.

Under a succession of liberal governors (especially Luis de las Casas, 1790-1796, and the marques de Someruelos, 1799-1813), at the end of the 18th century and the first part of the 19th, when the wars in Europe cut off Spain almost entirely from the colony, Cuba was practically independent. Trade was comparatively free, and worked a revolution in culture and material conditions. General Las Casas, in particular, left behind him in Cuba an undying memory of good efforts. Free commerce with foreigners--a fact after 1809--was definitely legalized in 1818 (confirmed in 1824). The state tobacco monopoly was abolished in 1817. The reported populations by the (untrustworthy) censuses of 1774, 1792 and 1817 were 161,670, 273,301 and 553,033. Something of political freedom was enjoyed during the two terms of Spanish constitutional government under the constitution of 1812. The sharp division between creoles and peninsulars (i.e. between those born in Cuba and those born in Spain), the question of annexation to the United States or possibly to some other power, the plotting for independence, all go back to the early years of the century.