RAILWAYS: (PUBLIC ONLY)

NARROW-GAUGE

************** STANDARD-GAUGE HIGHWAYS:

CENTRAL HIGHWAY

I ST. CLASS ROADS

2 ND. AND 3 RD. CLASS ROADS

FIGURE 5.-Principal railways and highways in Cuba, 1940.

generally organized on an extensive basis because of the relatively small domestic consumption and the intense competition in the export field compared with the tremendous productive capacity. An abundance of good soil, a year-round growing season, and an ample supply of labor at reasonable wages make it generally more profitable to expand onto new land than to apply commercial fertilizer or expensive equipment on a smaller land area.

LAND USE AND TYPES OF FARMS

Little more than one-half of Cuba's total land area is in farms. Of the total area in farms, it is estimated that nearly 60 percent is

FIGURE 6.-A section of the central highway, bordered by royal palms. (Courtesy of the Pan American Union.)

tillable, but considerably less than one-half of this is actually under cultivation (table 1). Table 2 shows the estimated acreage in the various crops and that used otherwise in 1940.11

Most of Cuba's farms are highly specialized, as for example, sugar centrals, producers of bananas for export, mountain coffee plantations, and cattle ranches. Sugar-mill lands are scattered in fertile areas throughout the island, but particularly in the central and eastern

11 Data for 1940 acreage of sugar, tobacco, and a few minor crops are actual but for other crops are estimated. There has been no census of land use since those of 1929 and 1930, which were not very accurate. Dr. I. Resillez Nieves (15) in 1939 estimated the total area in farms as high as 18.5 million acres. The difference between this and the data in the table is apparently due to his inclusion of additional grazing and mountainous coffee areas. This author estimated the area of sugar centrals at 6.3 million acres; cattle and coffee, at 8.2; and small farms, at about 4 million acres.

part. Most mill lands are devoted almost exclusively to the production of cane, as are also most of the medium and small farms surrounding the sugar mills. These farms have little livestock, and their other crops are principally to supply family food, although some also produce such crops as beans and corn for sale.

TABLE 1.-Land in farms in Cuba, by Provinces, 1930

Censo de Población, 1931-Estadísticas Industrial y Agrícola de Cuba.

Tobacco is the principal cash crop in certain areas in the central and western parts. In these regions are also many farms specializing in the production of pineapples and winter vegetables for export, such as tomatoes, eggplant, lima beans, and peppers. Contrasted sharply with these types are the large cattle ranches in Camagüey and Oriente similar to the ranches in western United States. Coffee plantations,

and to a smaller extent cacao plantations, are almost entirely in eastern Oriente, with a few coffee plantations near Cienfuegos. These are essentially mountain industries, unlike any other major type of agriculture except that some grazing areas in the mountains are used for cattle. Banana production for export has been confined almost entirely to the valleys in the mountainous areas in the extreme eastern end of the island near Baracoa, where it constitutes a sizable industry and the most important type of farming in that region.

The principal crops grown on general farms are the food crops for direct consumption, either for use on the farm or for sale to the cities. Sometimes these crops are combined with cash crops, such as sugar and tobacco. Principal among the general crops are corn, black and red beans, sweetpotatoes, potatoes, yams, yuca, malanga, rice, and bananas and plantains for local consumption. Peanuts for sale to oil crushers recently have also become an important cash crop for general farming.

Most farmers do not keep much livestock, the main production of cattle being on the large cattle ranches in east-central Cuba. As a rule, farmers keep one or two horses for riding, several oxen to do all the draft work, in some cases a few mules for pack work, a few hogs fed largely on palmiche nuts, and a few chickens. The occasional sale of hogs and eggs constitutes the major portion of most farmers' income from livestock.

SIZE AND OWNERSHIP OF FARMS

According to the census of 1930 Cuba had 87,396 farms, including all types of farms, plantations, and ranches. Of this number nearly one-third were smaller than 34 acres (1 caballería). (See table 3.) About 40 percent had from 34 to 99 acres, 13 percent from 100 to 199 acres, and only 15 percent had 200 acres or more. There were only about 2,000 farms with more than 1,000 acres each. The average size for the country was 188 acres, but this figure is not at all representative, since the small farms are by far the most important. La Habana Province had the smallest farms, and Camagüey, with its cattle ranches and sugar centrals, the largest.

TABLE 3.-Size of farms in Cuba, by size groups, 1930

Censo de Población, 1931-Estadísticas Industrial y Agrícola de Cuba.

According to the 1930 census, about 37 percent of the total number of farms and 40 percent of the acreage were operated directly by the owners of the land. An additional 20 percent of the land, particularly the larger holdings, was operated by administration, that is, by hired managers and laborers (table 4). About one-half of all the farmers

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rented their land, usually on a cash basis, but this accounted for less than 40 percent of the total acreage and less than 30 percent of the cropland.

TABLE 4.-Method of operation of farms in Cuba, 1930

1 Largely absentee ownership, with operation by managers and hired labor. Includes sugar mills and some cattle ranches.

Censo de Población, 1931-Estadísticas Industrial y Agrícola de Cuba.

There were roughly 16 million acres of land in farms in 1940. Of this acreage the sugar companies alone owned about 5.6 million acres and in addition rented about 2 million acres more from other owners, thus controlling about 47 percent of the total acreage in farms. However, by far the most of the sugarcane even that grown on the millowned lands-is actually produced by colonos who rent the land from the mills. A considerable number of the large farms operated directly by the owners or hired managers are cattle ranches in east-central Cuba. Although these are generally on poorer land and operated extensively, their total acreage is estimated to be nearly as great as that owned by the sugar companies.

LAND VALUES, BUILDINGS, AND EQUIPMENT

Land values in Cuba are relatively low. The value of most agricultural land is estimated at between $10 and $25 an acre. Poorer grazing land, of course, may be purchased for considerably less than $10 an acre. According to the 1930 census, the average value of land alone was $24.35 an acre.

Cuban farmers have very little in the way of farm buildings or equipment. Because of the warm, even temperature there is little need for heavily constructed houses or farm buildings to protect occupants against cold weather, as there is in most of the United States. Houses are only one story high, commonly constructed of very light material, with thatched roofs of palm leaves and frequently palm-leaf sheaths for siding. The few livestock on most farms do not require housing, and consequently the buildings are small and used largely for storage. According to the 1930 census, the average value of buildings on farms was about $3.35 per acre of farm land, accounting for little more than 10 percent of the total real-estate valuation.

The equipment on most small farms consists of a two-wheeled oxcart, a plow, a harrow, hoes, an axe, and a machete. Practically all

the draft work is done by oxen (fig. 7). Although there are numerous moldboard and disk plows, the usual type is the old pointed plow without moldboard, which simply loosens the soil and does not turn it