The History of Cuba Volume V Part 17

COFFEE

To either Arabia or Abyssinia belongs the honor of having been the birth place of those previous shrubs that were the forerunners of all the great coffee plantations of two hemispheres. And from the seeds of this valued plant is made probably the most universally popular beverage of the world. The people of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia all drink coffee. The same is true in most countries of South and Central America, while in the United States and the West Indies no breakfast is complete without it.

Of all known nations, however, the people of Cuba consume the greatest amount of the beverage per capita. Both in the city and in the country, the fire under the coffee urn always burns, and neither invited guest nor pa.s.sing stranger crosses the threshold of a home without being offered a cup of coffee before leaving.

The introduction of coffee into Cuba, as before stated in this work, was due to the influx of refugees, flying from the revolution in Santo Domingo, in the first years of the nineteenth century. The majority of these immigrants, of French descent, and thoroughly familiar with the culture of coffee, settled first in the hills around Santiago de Cuba on the south coast, where they soon started coffee plantations that later became very profitable. Others located in the mountainous districts of Santa Clara around the charming little city of Trinidad, where fine estates were soon established and excellent coffee produced.

From these first settlements the culture of the plant rapidly spread to nearly all of the mountainous portions of the Island, where the soil was rich, and where forest trees of hard wood furnished partial shade, so essential to the production of first-cla.s.s coffee. In the mountains, parks and valleys that lie between Bahia Honda, San Cristobal and Candelaria, in the eastern part of Pinar del Rio, many excellent estates were established whose owners, residing in homes that were almost palatial in their appointments, spent their summers on their coffee plantations, returning to Havana for the winter.

Revolutions of the past century unfortunately destroyed all of these beautiful places, leaving only a pile of tumbled-down walls and cement floors to mark the spot where luxurious residences once stood. Cuba, during the first half of the 19th century, and even up to the abolition of slavery in 1878, was a coffee exporting country, but with the elimination of the cheap labor of slaves, and the larger profits that accrued from the cultivation of sugar cane, the coffee industry gradually dropped back to a minor position among the industries of the Island, and thousands of "cafetales" that once dotted the hills of Cuba were abandoned or left to the solitudes of the forests where they still yield their fragrant fruit "the gift of Heaven," as the wise men of the East declared.

Of all the varied agricultural industries of Cuba there is none, perhaps, that will appeal more than coffee growing to the home-seeker of moderate means, the man who really loves life in the mountains, hills and valleys beside running streams, where the air is pure and the shade grateful, and the climate ideal. The culture of coffee is not difficult, and by conforming to a few well-known requirements which the industry demands it can easily be carried on by the wife and children, while the head of the family attends to the harder work of the field, or to the care of livestock in adjacent lands.

The plant itself is an evergreen shrub with soft gray bark, and dark green laurel-like leaves. The white-petaled star-shaped flowers, with their yellow centers, are beautiful, and the bright red berries, growing in cl.u.s.ters close to the stem are not unlike in appearance the marmaduke cherries of the United States. The fragrance that fills the air from a grove of coffee trees can never be forgotten.

The shrub is seldom permitted to grow more than ten feet in height and begins to bear within three or four years from planting. The berries ripen in about six months from the time of flowering. Each contains two seeds or coffee beans, the surrounding pulp shriveling up as the time approaches for picking.

During the gathering of the crop women and children work usually in the shade of taller trees, such as the mango or aguacate, stripping the fruit from the branches into baskets or upon pieces of canvas laid on the ground, which may be gathered up at the corners and carried to the drying floors where the berries are spread out as evenly and thinly as possible and given all the air and sunlight available. Early in the morning these are raked over to insure rapid drying. When sufficiently dry the berries are run through hulling machines which remove the outer pulp, leaving the finished green bean of commerce.

Approximately 500 trees are planted to the acre in starting a coffee plantation, and these will yield under favorable conditions at the expiration of the fourth year about one half of a pound to a tree, or 250 pounds to the acre, the value of which would be $50. The sixth year these trees should produce one pound each, making the return from one acre $100. Two years later these same trees will yield $200 per acre, and the tenth year $300. Each succeeding year, if well cared for, the yield should increase until the trees reach maturity at twenty-five years.

On the western slopes of the great Cordilleras that sweep throughout the length of Mexico, several varieties of excellent coffee are found. Among these is one, that through some freak of nature, afterwards encouraged and developed by the natives of that district, has been induced to produce two crops a year. It is stated on reliable authority also that trees ten years old, in this restricted area of western Mexico, will yield five pounds of berries to the tree, or in the two periods of annual bearing a total of ten pounds to each plant. The Department of Agriculture is endeavoring to secure both seed and nursery stock from this district, which will be transplanted to the Experimental Station at Santiago de las Vegas, and definite data secured in regard to the success of this variety of coffee in Cuba.

Where several small coffee farms are located in the same vicinity, hulling machines may be purchased jointly, and serve the needs of other growers in the district. The crop when dried, cleaned and placed in hundred-pound sacks, is usually strapped to the backs of mountain ponies and thus conveyed to the nearest town or seaport for s.h.i.+pment to Havana.

A coffee planter can always store his crop in the bonded warehouses of Havana or other cities, and secure from the banks, if desired, advances equivalent to almost its entire value. The price of green coffee on the market at wholesale ranges from 20 to 25 per hundred weight.

It is a common sight either in Bahia Honda or Candelaria to see long trains of ponies bringing coffee in from the outlying foot hills, or mountain districts. It is usually sold direct to local merchants, who pay for the unselected unpolished beans, just as they come from the hands of the growers, $20 per hundred weight. This high price is paid owing to the fact that the Cuban product is considered, at least within the limits of the Republic, the best coffee in the world, and it will bring in the local markets a higher price than coffee imported from the foreign countries. The retailers after roasting coffee, get from 40 to 50 per pound for it.

In spite of its superiority and the demand for native coffee, less than 40% of the amount consumed is grown in Cuba. Most of it is imported from Porto Rico and other parts of the world, and this, regardless of the fact that nearly all of the mountain sides, valleys and foothills belonging to the range that extends through Pinar del Rio from Manatua in the west to Cubanas in the east, are admirably adapted to the cultivation of coffee, as also are the mountains of Trinidad and of Sancti Spiritus in the Province of Santa Clara, the Sierra de Cubitas and la Naja.s.sa in Camaguey, and the Sierra Maestra range that skirts the full length of the southern sh.o.r.e of Oriente.

The available lands for profitable coffee culture in Cuba are almost unlimited and are cheap, considering the fertility of the soil, the abundance of timber still standing, the groves of native fruit trees, the good gra.s.s found wherever the sun's rays can penetrate, the splendid drinking water gus.h.i.+ng from countless springs, and the many industries to which these lands lend themselves, waiting only the influx of capital, or the coming of the homeseeker.

The Government of Cuba is anxious to foster the coffee industry, which was once a very important factor in the prosperity of the Island. The first protective duty was imposed in 1900; $12.15 being collected for each 100 kilos (225 lbs.) of crude coffee, if not imported from Porto Rico, that country paying only $3.40. During the first years of the Cuban Republic this duty was increased to $18 per hundred kilos, and later, 30% was added, making a total duty paid of $23.40 on every 225 pounds of coffee imported. Porto Rico, however, is favored with a reduction of 20% on the above amount by a reciprocity treaty, which compels that country at present to pay only $18.20 per hundred kilos.

Coffee in Brazil has been sold at from four to five cents per pound and yet, we are told, with profit. On the supposition that it would cost 8 per pound to grow it in Cuba, with the average market for the green berries at 22, the profit derived from a coffee plantation properly located and cared for is well worth considering, and since the grade produced is one of the finest in the world, there is no reason why this Island should not in time, supply if not the entire amount, at least a large part of the high-grade coffee consumed in the United States.

With the resumption of industries that must follow the termination of the European War, the Government will do all in its power to persuade families from the mountainous district of Europe to settle and make their homes in Cuba. Some of them undoubtedly will be attracted to the forest covered hills that offer so much in the way of health, charming scenery and opportunities for the homeseeker with his family. It would be a most delightful example of agricultural renaissance, if the hundreds of "cafateles," abandoned for half a century, should again be brought to life, with the resurrection of the old-time coffee plantations, as an important Cuban industry.

CHAPTER XIX

THE MANGO

Of all Oriental fruits brought to the Occident, the golden mango of India is undoubtedly king. For thousands of years, horticulturists of the Far East, under the direction of native princes, have worked towards its perfection. Just when the seeds were introduced into Cuba, no one knows, but certain it is that so favorable were both soil and climate that the mango today, in the opinion of the natives at least, furnishes the Island its finest fruit. It has so multiplied and spread throughout all sections that it plays an important part in the decoration of the landscape.

Next to the royal palm, the mango is more frequently seen in traveling along railroads or automobile drives than any other tree. Its beautiful dark green foliage, tinged during spring with varying shades, from cocoanut yellow to magenta red, is not only attractive to the eye but gives promise of loads of luscious fruit during the months of June, July and August.

There are two distinct races or types of this family in Cuba, one known as the mango, and the other as the manga. The terminations would suggest male and female, although no such difference exists in s.e.x. Both in form and fruit, however, the types are quite different.

The mango is a tall, erect tree, reaching frequently a height of 60 or 70 feet, with open crown and strong, vigorous limbs. The fruit is compressed laterally, has a curved or beak-like apex, yellow or yellowish green in color, often blushed with crimson. It is rich in flavor but filled unfortunately with a peculiar fibre that impedes somewhat the removal of the juicy pulp.

Nearly all varieties of mangoes are prolific bearers. Their handsome golden yellow tinted fruit not infrequently bends limbs to the breaking point, so great is its weight. The fruit is from three to five inches in length, and will weigh from five to twelve ounces. The skin is smooth and often speckled with carmine or dark brown spots, and in most of the seedlings there is a slightly resinous odor, objectionable to strangers.

The manga, quite distinct from the mango both in form of tree and in appearance of fruit, is easily distinguished at a distance. It grows from 30 to 40 feet in height, is beautifully rounded or dome shaped, and has a closed crown or top. The panicles in early spring are from 12 to 24 inches in length, pale green in color, usually tinged with red, and in contrast with the deep green of its foliage produce rather a startling effect.

There are two types of the manga, one known as the Amarilla and the other as the Blanca. More of the latter are found in the neighborhood of Havana than in any other section of the island. Three of the most perfect samples of the manga blanca, both in tree and fruit, are found within a few rods of each other on the northern side of the automobile drive from Havana to Guanajay, between kilometers 35 and 36.

The mangas also are prolific bearers, whose fruit ripens in July and August, a month or so later than the mango. The fruit is roundish, very plump, and with the beak or point of the mango entirely missing. Its color is lemon yellow with a delicate reddish blush, the length about three inches and the weight from five to eight ounces. The skin, rather tough, peels readily, and in eating should be torn down from the stem towards the apex. The same fibre is present as in the mango, while the pulp is very juicy, sweet, slightly aromatic and pleasant in flavor.

The manga amarilla, closely allied to the blanca, is a very common form and quite a favorite in the markets of Havana, where it is found towards the end of July. The fruit is a deeper yellow than the blanca, very juicy, and also very fibrous, with a weight varying from four to eight ounces. These, with the mangoes above described, are seedling trees that have gradually spread throughout the Island, the seed being scattered along public highways and forest trails by men and animals. Horses, cattle, goats and hogs are very fond of the mango.

Since all mangoes give such delightful shade, and yield such an abundance of luscious fruit throughout spring and early summer, the seed has been planted around every home where s.p.a.ce offered in city, hamlet or country bohio. The center or "batey" of every sugar and coffee estate in Cuba is made comfortable by their grateful shade, while single trees coming from seeds dropped in the depths of the forest have gradually widened out into groves. During the years of the Cuban War for Independence, the fruit from these groves, from May until August, furnished the chief source of food for insurgent bands that varied anywhere from 200 to 2000 men.

During the middle of the last century, when large coffee estates nestled in the hills of Pinar del Rio, the mango, with its grateful shade and luscious fruit, indicated the home or summer residence of the owner.

Today, of the house only broken stones and vine-covered fallen walls remain, but the mangoes, old and gnarled, still stand, while around them have spread extensive groves of younger trees, bearing each year tons of fruit, with none to eat it save the occasional prospector, or the wild hog of the forest.

The Filipino mango, although not very common in Cuba, is occasionally found in the western part of the Island, especially in the province of Havana, where it was introduced many years ago, probably from Mexico, although coming originally from the Philippine Islands, where it is about the only mango known. The tree is rather erect, with a closed or dome-shaped top, something similar to the manga. Its fruit is unique in form--long, slender, sharply pointed at the apex, flattened on the sides, and of a greenish yellow to lemon color when ripe. The pulp is somewhat spicy and devoid of the objectionable fibre common to seedling mangoes. It is usually preferred by strangers, although not as sweet and delicious in flavor as other varieties of this family. The tree is comparatively small, seldom reaching more than 30 feet in height. The fruit is from four to six inches in length and will weigh from six to twelve ounces. The Filipino has suffered but very little change in its peregrinations throughout two hemispheres. It is not a prolific bearer, but its fruit commands a very good price in the market. The Biscochuelo mango is of the East Indian type, although the time and manner of its introduction into Cuba is somewhat obscure. French refugees from Santo Domingo may have brought it with them in 1800. It is found mostly in the hills near Santiago de Cuba, especially around El Caney, and is quite plentiful in the Santiago markets during the month of July. The fruit is broadly oval with a clear, orange colored skin and firm flesh, and is rather more fibrous than the Filipino. Its flavor is sweet and rich, while its weight varies from eight to fourteen ounces. This variety of the mango is not closely allied to any of the above mentioned types, but keeps well, and would seem to be worthy of propagation in other sections of the Island.

Something over a half century ago, a wealthy old sea captain of Cienfuegos, returning from the East Indies, brought twelve mango seeds that were planted in his garden near Cienfuegos. One of the best of the fruits thus introduced is called the Chino or Chinese mango, and is probably the largest seedling fruit in the Island. On account of size it sells in Havana at from 20 to 40, although it is quite fibrous and rather lacking in flavor. This mango, through care and selection, has undergone considerable improvement, so that the Chino today is a very much better fruit than when brought to Cienfuegos sixty years ago.

During the early Napoleonic wars, a s.h.i.+pload of choice mangoes and other tropical fruit from India was sent by the French Government to be planted in the Island of Martinique. The vessel was captured, however, by an English man-of-war and carried into Jamaica. From this island and from Santo Domingo, the French refugees introduced a number of mangoes, including nearly all those that are now growing in Oriente, while the manga, so common in Havana Province and Pinar del Rio, is thought to have been brought from Mexico, although its original home, of course, was in India and the Malaysian Islands.

The fancy mangoes of Cuba today have all been imported within recent years at considerable expense from the Orient, and their superiority over the Cuba seedlings is due to the patient toil and care spent in developing and perpetuating choice varieties of the fruit in India. Of these fancy East Indian mangoes, the Mulgoba probably heads the list in size, quality and general excellence. The fruit is almost round, resembling in shape a small or medium sized grape fruit. Its average weight is about sixteen ounces, although it sometimes reaches twenty-four or more. When entirely ripe the Mulgoba is cut around the seed horizontally. The two halves are then twisted in opposite directions, separating them from the seed, after which they may be eaten in the inclosing skin, with a spoon.

The pulp is rich, sweet, of delightful flavor, and absolutely free from fibre of any kind, which is true of nearly all East Indian mangoes.

Budded trees begin to bear the third or fourth year, yielding perhaps 25 mangoes. The sixth or seventh year, dependent on soil and care bestowed, they should bear from three to five hundred. In the tenth year, mangoes of this variety should average at least a thousand fruit to the tree and will bring from $1 to $3 a dozen in the fancy fruit stores of the United States.

The Bombay is another excellent mango, devoid of fibre. Its weight is somewhat less than the Mulgoba, ten ounces being a fair average. Another East Indian variety known as the Alfonse has the size and weight of the Bombay, although differing in flavor and in its form, which is heart shaped. Its weight will average ten ounces.

A close companion of the Alfonse is known as the "Favorite," whose fruit will average about sixteen ounces. The Amani is another choice East Indian mango of much smaller size, since it weighs only about six ounces. The "Senora of Oriente" is one of the varieties of the Filipino introduced into that Province many years ago, and has proved very prolific. It is fibreless, of good commercial value, the weight of the fruit varying from ten to twelve ounces. It is long and carries a very thin seed; its color is greenish yellow.

The "Langra" is another importation from India, a large long mango weighing about two pounds, lemon yellow in color, of good qualities, with a sub-acid flavor.

The "Ameere" is similar to the Langra in color and quality, the fruit weighing only about one pound.

The "Maller" is very closely allied to both the above mentioned types, and bears a very excellent fruit with slightly different flavor and odor.

The "Sundershaw" is probably the largest of all mangoes, the fruit varying from two to four pounds in weight, fibreless, with small seed, but with a flavor not very agreeable.

All of the above mentioned varieties of mangoes have been introduced into Cuba at considerable expense and grafted on to seedling trees, producing the finest mangoes in the world. Owing to their scarcity at the present time in the western hemisphere, very remunerative prices are secured even in the markets of Havana. s.h.i.+pments consigned to the large hotels and fancy fruit houses in the United States have brought of course much higher prices.

In the hands of a culinary artist the mango has many possibilities, both in the green and the ripe state. From it are made delicious jams, jellies, pickles, marmalade, mango b.u.t.ter, etc. It is used also, as is the peach, in making pies, fillings for short cake, salads, chutneys, etc.