by feeding them on a liberal
allowance of cornstalks, given in the green state, before the corn has
begun to form on the cob. The Cubans will tell you that the nourishing
principle which forms the grain is in the stalk and leaves, and if fed
in that state before ripening further, the animals obtain all the
sustaining properties which they require. The climate is particularly
adapted to the raising of oranges, but there is very little attention
given to propagating this universally popular fruit, more especially
since the increased production which has taken place on the other side
of the Gulf Stream in Florida. Three years after the seed of this
fruit is deposited in suitable soil in Cuba the tree becomes ten or
twelve feet in height, and in the fourth year rarely produces less
than a hundred oranges, while at ten years of age it commonly bears
three and four thousand, thus proving, with proper care, extremely
profitable. It will be remembered that it is the longest lived of
succulent fruit trees. There are specimens still extant in Cuba known
to be one hundred years old. The oranges produced in Florida are of
equally good quality, and bring a better price in the market, but the
crop is subject to more contingencies and liability to loss than in
Cuba. The frost not infrequently ruins a whole season's yield in the
peninsula in one or two severe nights, while frost is never
experienced upon the island.

It seems unreasonable that when the generous, fruitful soil of Cuba is
capable of producing two or three crops of vegetables annually, the
agricultural wealth of the island should be so poorly developed.
Thousands upon thousands of acres of fertile soil are still in their
virgin condition. It is capable of supporting a population of almost
any density,--certainly from eight to ten millions of people might
find goodly homes here, and yet the largest estimate at the present
time gives only a million and a half of inhabitants. When one treads
the fertile soil and beholds the clustering fruits in such abundance,
the citron, the star-apple, the perfumed pineapple, the luscious
banana, and other fruits for which our language has no name, not
forgetting the various noble woods which caused Columbus to exclaim
with pleasure, and to mention the palm and the pine growing together,
characteristic types of Arctic and equatorial vegetation, we are
struck with the thought of how much Providence and how little man has
done for this Eden