WITH the advent of the American colonists in 1900, truck gardening sprang rapidly into prominence in Cuba until today it forms an important part of the small farmer’s revenue. Most of the well-known vegetables of the United States are grown here, not only for local markets, but for shipment abroad. They are usually planted at the close of the rainy season in October or November, and are brought to maturity in time to reach the North during winter and early spring, when high prices prevail.

Those vegetables from which the best results have been obtained are early potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers, okra, white squash, and string beans. These may be grown in the rich soils of any part of the Island, but are only profitable when cultivated close to railroads or within easy reach of steamship lines having daily sailings from Havana. Profits depend on location, soil, water supply, intelligent cultivation and success in reaching markets in which there is a demand for the product.

The long belt of land lying just south of the Organ Mountains of Pinar del Rio, extending from east to west throughout the province, furnishes the largest tract for vegetable growing in Cuba. The conditions in this section are exceptionally favorable to that industry. Close to the base of the mountain range, the surface is rather rolling, but soon slopes away into the level prairies extending out toward the Caribbean. The soil as a rule is a dark grey sandy loam, easily worked at all seasons, and responds quickly to the use of fertilizers and to cultivation.

Numerous small streams that have their origin back in the mountains, furnish excellent natural drainage, and some of them can easily be used for irrigating purposes, if necessary, in the dry months of February and March. The Western Railway of Havana runs through the entire length of the vegetable belt, reinforced by a splendid automobile drive, more or less parallel, connecting the further extremity of Pinar del Rio with the markets and wharves of Havana.

These lands are very productive, and under intelligent management, especially when irrigation can be employed, may be rendered exceedingly profitable, through the cultivation of vegetables. In some sections, the semi-vuelta or Partido tobacco fields monopolize the use of the land during the fall months, but there are nevertheless hundreds of thousands of acres in this district that if properly cultivated, and conducted in connection with canning plants, would yield large revenues to the Island.

Nearly all seed is brought from the United States, fresh, each year, and the planting season for some crops begins in September, extending through the entire winter, especially where irrigation or fortunate rains furnish a sufficient amount of moisture to carry the crop through the dry months of early spring.

The methods employed in vegetable growing are identical with those of the United States, and the results are practically the same, aside from the one important fact that all fall grown vegetables, or those that may be placed on the markets of large cities in the United States between January and April, bring, as a rule, very high prices.

Later in the spring the vegetable gardens of Florida and the Gulf States come into competition, causing the growers of the Island gradually to yield to those of sections further north. It is at this time, or in the late spring, that the canning industry could take care of the great surplus of vegetables that for any reason might fail to find a profitable market abroad. Well equipped plants could handle this crop with great benefit both to the vegetable growers and the canners.

Irish potatoes, planted in the fall so that the crop may be brought to maturity in March, have proven very successful throughout this section, as well as in the beautiful Guines Valley, southeast of Havana. The potato growers of Cuba have experimented with nearly all of the standard varieties of the United States and it is rather difficult to determine which has given the best results.

The Early Rose variety of Irish potato is quite a favorite in Cuba, owing to its rapid growth and productivity. Later potatoes, while finding a sale perhaps in the local market, are not considered profitable, since, as a rule, one can procure during summer and fall excellent potatoes from Maine and Nova Scotia, with greater economy than by growing them in Cuba, at times when the land can be more profitably used for other purposes.

Potatoes, of course, need barn yard manures and fertilizers, the more the better; or rather, the greater is the return. The yield varies according to conditions anywhere from forty to one hundred barrels and more per acre. The Cuban product is almost invariably of good quality, and when placed in the eastern markets of the United States in the month of March, will bring anywhere from $6 to $10 per barrel. Under normal conditions $8 seems to be the ruling price for Cuban potatoes on the wharves at New York, where they are sold as exotics or new potatoes. Thus $500 may be considered a fair return per acre.

Green peppers, too, have been found to be one of the most satisfactory and profitable crops in Cuba. They are planted in rows three feet apart, spaced a foot or more in the row so that they can be kept clean with adjustable cultivators drawn by light ponies. Hand cultivation, although sometimes indulged in, with the present price of labor is practically impossible.

A well-known pepper grower of the Guayabal district, in the northwestern corner of Havana Province, on less than a hundred acres of land, grew 6,000 crates of green peppers in the winter of 1917-18, that netted him $6 per crate in the City of New York. Peppers are easily grown and handled, and the market or demand for them seems to be quite constant, hence they have become one of the favorite vegetables for the export trade.

Tomatoes, too, are grown very successfully in Cuba during the late fall and winter. The seed is secured from reliable houses in the United States each year, and is selected largely with reference to the firmness or shipping quality of the fruit. The methods of cultivation are similar to those employed in the United States. The weeds are usually killed out of the field in the early spring, and kept down with profitable cover crops, such as the carita and velvet bean. These, when turned under or harvested by hogs, place the soil in perfect condition.

The planting is done usually in October and November and the cultivation carried on either with native horses or mules, or gasoline-propelled cultivators. The yield where the water control and other conditions are favorable, is large, and the price secured in the northern markets varies from $2 to $5 per half bushel crate. It is true that when tomatoes from Florida and the Gulf States begin to go north in large quantities, there are frequently reports of glutted markets and falling prices. It is then that the canning factory comes to the rescue of the planter and contracts for the remainder of his stock at satisfactory prices.

Of all varieties, the Redfield Beauty is probably the tomato most in vogue among growers in Cuba. It grows luxuriantly and yields from two hundred to three hundred crates per acre.

Eggplants as a rule are successfully grown on all rich mellow soils. The methods of cultivation are almost identical with those employed in growing tomatoes. A small pear shaped variety is grown for the local markets in Havana and other cities, but for export purposes it would be unsatisfactory. The finest varieties known in the States are all found here. The yield under favorable conditions is large and the crop stands shipment for long distances without injury.

As a rule the prices obtained in the north have rendered the growing of egg plants very profitable. From $3 to $7 per crate are the usual limitations in price. The uncertainty of this price, however, in different seasons, has rendered the production of the eggplant rather an interesting gamble. This is true regardless of the quality of the fruit, in nearly all products sold in distant markets.

Okra, or quimbombo, as the vegetable is called in Cuba, while not as a rule commanding fancy prices, nevertheless brings satisfactory returns, both abroad and in the local market, where the demand is more or less steady. Like all others mentioned, it is strictly a late fall or winter vegetable, and its cultivation is identical with methods employed in the United States. Prices usually obtained are from two to three dollars a half bushel crate.

The growing of lima beans in Cuba has proved a gilt-edge undertaking for those who have been careful in the selection of seed and proper cultivation after planting. The price obtained in the United States has varied between $2 and $8 per hamper, or bean basket, with an average of perhaps $5. The crop is quickly grown and with sufficient labor to gather the beans at the proper time the grower is relieved of his only cause for worry. The labor problem can usually be overcome if the farm is located near any one of the small towns where help of women and children is available.

String beans, while readily grown in Cuba, do not always find a demand in the northern markets sufficient to justify the fancy prices frequently obtained for other vegetables. The local demand in Havana, while not large, is nevertheless satisfactory to the small farmer living within a short distance of the city, where he can deliver his crop without the expense of railroad transportation.

The summer squash, too, succeeds very well in Cuba, and if the crop does not encounter the competition of the growers in the Gulf States, it is, as a rule, fairly profitable. A variety of the native squash known as the Calabaza, always finds a ready sale in the local markets. This prolific Criolla production is almost always planted with corn by the native farmers, since its yield never fails and its market is constant and satisfactory.

Recent experiments have been made by an American grower who has imported the seed of the small pie-pumpkin into Cuba. To use his own words, “This variety grows even faster than weeds, and the pumpkins cover the ground so thick that you can hardly avoid walking on them.” They make a very fine fall and winter crop, with an average yield of five tons per acre. This delicate variety of pumpkin, when canned, will probably prove available for export purposes.

The great drawback to profitable vegetable growing in Cuba lies largely in the uncertainty of the northern markets, where prices fluctuate so rapidly, with the minimum and the maximum so far apart, that it is difficult for the vegetable grower, a thousand miles away, to count with any certainty on the returns from his crops when shipped abroad. The establishment of receiving agents, perhaps, under the control of men who were financially interested with the growers themselves, might remedy this difficulty. The canning industry, if established on a sufficiently broad scale, would also add stability to the price of all crops grown in Cuba, and place the cultivation of vegetables on a more certain foundation.

The introduction of irrigation, wherever possible, insures so generous a crop of almost any vegetable planted in this Island, that the returns to the grower, even where the price may not be fancy, will be decidedly remunerative. The incalculable advantages to be secured by irrigation, especially in the growing of vegetables, planted in the late fall and gathered during the winter and early spring, when rains are not always forthcoming, is a matter in which the Department of Agriculture is deeply interested.

One of the best irrigation engineers of the United States has been invited to go over the field of Cuba, and to advise the Government in regard to the various localities in which irrigation plants may be installed with success and profit to the growers. These plans when carried out will prove of marvellous benefit to the agricultural industry and will greatly increase the revenues derived from tobacco, as well as from vegetables.

The great advantage, however, enjoyed by all vegetable growers in Cuba, lies in the fact that stormy weather never interferes with the cultivation of crops; sunshine may be depended upon every day of the year, and the farmer is seldom if ever compelled to lay aside his implements, and wait for the weather to adjust itself to his needs. In other words, he can always work if he wants to, and the market abroad, if he “strikes it right,” may yield him a small fortune from a comparatively few acres in a very few months.

It would be misleading to the prospective farmer or stranger to quote the almost fabulous returns at times secured on some favored spot, but with irrigation, which insures absolute control of the growing crop, the profits from vegetable raising may run anywhere from $100 to $500 per acre, and more.

Among those “striking it rich” incidents that may be occasionally found, may be mentioned a little tract of ground consisting of only four acres of land, located along the railroad track, not 100 yards from a station on the Western Railway. Here two Spanish storekeepers placed under cultivation four acres of land that had been previously prepared with a carita bean crop, hog fed and turned under. These partners had a well sunk in the middle of the tract, and a little gasoline engine installed that enabled them to adjust the water supply each day to the requirements of the field.

Here they planted eggplants, tomatoes, green peppers and Irish potatoes. The cultivation was done by one man and a pony. During the gathering of the crops some additional help was required, although the two owners worked hard themselves during late afternoons and early mornings. The return from these crops during the four months in which they were in the ground, amounted to $6,430.

Incidents of this kind are not by any means common, but nevertheless they give some indication of what may be accomplished in growing vegetables in Cuba, when the work is conducted along modern lines and under intelligent management. Capital, of course, is necessary, as in all other industries, but the reward, even with the element of the gamble taken into consideration, is to say the least very tempting.