than one half of the remainder, consisting of fertile
plains, hill slopes, and valleys, was given up to
pasturage, supporting not a tenth of the cattle that
might be raised, and yielding not a hundredth of
the return that migljt be derived from it by cultivation.
L a ck of trustworthy statistics forbids positive
statement, but the area of the island is approximately
30,000,000 acres, and one authority puts the
cultivated land at one fourth of the whole, while
another says it does not exceed 2,000,000 acres in
all. What is actually known is that little had been
done to develop, or even to ascertain, the mineral resources
of the island or to utilise the known resources
of the forests in valuable timber, of which there are
said to be forty varieties; that there were vast areas
of rich land uncultivated and unoccupied; and that
the scale of production even for the great staples
was far below what it might be. While 1000 miles
of railroad have been built since the beginning of
construction in 1837, and the lines connect Havana
with inland points in the west and reach east as far
as Santa Clara and Remedios, and lo ca l lines penetrate
a short distance from all the principal seaports,
the system is very incomplete, and in all the eastern
half of the island merely rudimentary. There are a
few good waggon roads on what used to be the main
lines of travel, but for the most part the means of
internal communication are wretchedly deficient.
In spite of all drawbacks, the agricultural production
in 1892 is said to have amounted to $1,000,000,-
000 in value. The sugar plantations, which were
largely in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, and
Santa Clara, were said to cover an area of 2600 square
miles, and to yield one fourth of the world’s supply
of sugar, more than eighty per cent, of it going to
the United States. T h e land appurtenant to sugar
I ingenios ” generally ranged from five hundred to
10,000 acres in extent, and they were equipped with
the best machinery, much American and European
capital being invested in them. T he tobacco farms,
o r “ veg a s,” ranged from one hundred to 1000 acres,
the best being in Pinar del Rio and the southern part
of Santa Clara. T h e “ cafetales,” or coffee plantations,
were much reduced and rather languishing,
and the indigo culture, which was introduced by
Las Casas a century ago, had dwindled to small proportions.
Apart from what are regarded as the
three great staples of Cuba, there was some raising
of cotton for home use and the cultivation of cacao
and manioc on a moderate scale. Domestic animals,
except sheep and goats, thrive on the broad hill-
slopes of the interior, and cattle-raising is a considerable
industry in the eastern provinces. T h e
horse, originally brought from Andalusia, has become
smaller and tougher than his progenitors.
Fruits can be raised in great profusion and variety,
but their systematic cultivation is confined to a few
localities convenient to the seaports.
The annual product of the sugar crop before the
last insurrection was not far from 1,000,000 tons,
while the yield of tobacco was about 500*000 bales.
Not less than 250,000,000 cigars were manufactured,
mostly in the city of Havana. According to the