Cuba's agricultural wealth is due to the fer tility and depth of the soil that covers the pre Tertiary sedimentary rocks forming the base of the island's structure. Above the diorites, basalts and serpentines, the granitoid rocks, the primary and secondary sandstones, limestones and conglomerates, is a great sheet of late Teritary limestone. This white sheet or crust, of remarkable thickness, was formed as a de posit of *organically derived oceanic material,' says Dr. Robert T. Hill; and he adds: *The island was reclaimed from the sea by a great mountain-making movement in late Tertiary time, succeeding the deposition of these lime stones. In later epochs, Pliocene and Pleisto-4 cene, the island underwent a series of epeiro genic subsidences and elevations which affected the coastal borders, producing the wave-cut cliffs and a margin of elevated reef rock which bor ders the coast in many places." About two-thirds of the entire area of Cuba is covered with soils derived from this organic limestone soilsr whose colors, red and black, are not at all sug-. Festive of their origin. In quality, in depth and in the proportion they sustain to less productive districts of the island, these calcareous soils are probably unrivaled. It is quite certain that they have no rival in any land whose situation is equally favorable for easy and cheap transpor tation of produce to foreign markets. A differ ent type of soil, also valuable in agriculture, is the clay and gravel resulting from the decom position of Tertiary igenous rocks. This occurs in parts of the provinces of Oriente, Santa Clara and Matanzas. Approximately one-half of the island has been cleared, but between 13, 000,000 and 15000,000 acres are still covered with forests. The climate also favors vegeta tion, for the air is moist and injurious extremes of temperature are unknown. At Havana the thermometer averages 77° F. for the year, OF an 82° F. in the months of July d August, d, an 72° F. in December and f anuary. At Santiago the average temperature or a year is somewhat higher about 80° F.; on the other hand, towns located in the interior at an elevation of 200 or 300 fees above sea-level have an agreeable cli mate, the temperature averaging not more than 74° F. Rain falls most abundantly between the end of April and the beginning of November, The largest river is the Cauto, which flows westward through Oriente province and empties into the. Gulf of Guacanayabo. Many smaller streams make their way from the mountains to both the southern and northern coasts; not a few have carved out subterranean passages through the white limestone, and thus, in ages long past, caverns of remarkable beauty have been formed. Even to-day in the western provinces, a number of streams disappear from view in some underground channel long before the sea is reached.
Population and Political Divisions.— The number of inhabitants, according to the census taken in 1907, was 2,048,980. In 1913 it was given as 2,382,990; in 1916 as 2627,536.
The area and population of the six provinces of Cuba are (1916) as follows: Natural Resources,— In the mountainous eastern province deposits of copper, iron, man ganese, mercury, zinc, silver, antimony, lead, etc., exist, and some of the mines have been worked on an extensive scale. ,The copper mines at Cobre, near the city of Santiago, were opened in 1524, and ranked as the greatest copper mines in the world until the deposits of this metal in the United States were developed. Iron ore of excellent quality outcrops on the slopes of the Sierra Maestra Range. Especially worthy of mention, in the province of Oriente, are the hematite and magnetite mines at Dai quiri and other points farther toward the east and north. Large deposits of silver have been found in the provinces of Camaguey, Oriente and Santa Clara, and every province contains mines of asphaltum. Cedar, mahogany, pine, lignum-vitm, ebony, rosewood, logwood, and other dyewoods, are valuable products of the forests for export. For the use of the Cubans themselves the royal palm stands unrivaled. There are many less familiar trees, not only the characteristic flora of the other West Indian islands of Central America and Florida, but plant-forms that have developed quite dis tinctive characteristics in the depths of these forests whose borders have only been touched by the inexpert native lumber man. More than 3,350 native plants were catalogued before an exhaustive study of the subject could be undertaken. All kinds of tropi cal fruits grow luxuriantly, many of them with out cultivation. In point of value the banana heads the list. Cocoanuts, oranges, lemons, limes and pineapples are grown for shipment in larger qr smaller quantities to correspond with the demand in foreign markets, the supply being practically unlimited. The anon, mango,, rose-apple,. pomegranate, sapote, tamarimi,.:fig; citron, guava, aguacate (alligator pear), mamey and guanabana are abundant. The cultivation of grapes was forbidden by the Spaniards in the interest of the 'wine merchants of' the Peninsula. Coffee culture was at one time a flourishing industry; and since the compara tively sihall amount. still grown in the' eastern end of the island is of 'excellent quality coffee may prove one 'of the minor sources of Cuban wealth' in the future. freely in Cuba. Its cultivation on a commercial scale, abandoned after the liberation' of was resumed 'experimentally in the province of Oriente in 1902-03. In all .parts of the island grasses grow rankly, and forage is , abundant throughout the year. Other conditions' able to cattle-raising are the mildnesi 'of the winters,- the :streatas : of water 'sod °the ready access to important on' the Atlantic coast. Before the. insurrection there were two and one-half: millions of cattle '.in Cuba;• at its conclusion not more :than 75,000. The promotion of this by the Palma administration in 1902-03, and undertaken largely by American capitalists.
History.— A score of years after the dis covery or America, tne town or isaracoa 'was founded by Spaniards under the leadership of. Velasquez. Next, in rapid succession. came Trinidad, SanctiSpiritus, Puerto Principe and Santiago, dating from 1514 to 1515. In the year last mentioned. Velasquez founded the °rig mal town of Havana (San Cristobal de la Habana) on the south coast; Inn in- 1519-the present site on the north coast was chosen, and to it the settlers of the older town were trans-. ferred. So important did this new Havana ap pear to be that the, first governor of Cuba called it "The Key of, the New World." Burnt by the bucaneers in 1528, it was rebuilt and suf. rounded with fortifications by De Soto: Again captured and sacked by pirates .in 1556, it was again fortified, more strongly, by direction of the Spanish Crown. Morro Castle was begun before 1600. During the 16th century the value of Cuba in Spanish eyes was precisely what the words "Key of the New expressed.
At its ports expeditions were fitted out for. con quest and exploration of the mainland; but there was no thought of obtaining revenues from the island itself except by the discovery of the precious metals, the futile search for which was never quite abandoned. When the first plants of sugarcane were imported from the Canary Islands to start an industry more remunerative than mining, it became necessary to import slave-labor from Africa. The In-, dians had been nearly exterminated—not en tirely so, as is commonly asserted, for the. aboriginal strain can still be detected in the physiognomy of some Cubans. English,, French and Dutch pirates continued to .ravage the coasts during the next century. Cuban cities of that time, with their old-fashioned defen sive works, were like the walled towns of mediaeval Europe. An attack of the Dutch fleet upon the capital was repulsed in 1628; in 1762, however, a force of English and American co-, Ionia] troops, under Lord Albemarle, took Ha vana, which they held until, by the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1763; Spain regained pos session. A period of, moderate prosperity and exceptionally' good government followed. Las Casai, who came out as captain-general in 1790, worked earnestly and wisely to promote Cuba's interests; the Cubans, for their part, evinced their appreciation of such considerate treatment by a chivalrous display in time of need. Havana learned, in 1808, that the Spanish dy.; nasty had been overthrown by Napoleon; there upon her citizens declared war against Napo leon. And when Spain was losing one after another of her American colonies, Cuba re mained loyal. But prosperity brought long years of suffering to the 'ever faithful island," and the mother country as well The result was inevitable. When the long-sought treasures of Ctiba were at last brought forth, not from the gold mines but from fertile soil, Spain sought to make the treasure all her own, as she had monopolized the precious metals three centuries before. With a few exceptions, the high Span ids officials sent to Calla were simply belated twoquistadores, the personal valor, but possessing 'the acquisitive. talent of the adven turerk who first exploited Mexico and Peru. The decree of 1825 placed the lives and for of all Cubans at the disposal of the captains-general. Conspiracies, insurrections, fili bustering expeditions from' the United States, called forth by oppressive measures, and in torn furnishing a pool' justification of repressive measures, are the main incidents of the story of the following 70 years the con spiracy of 1829, the rising of the blacks hi 1844, the Loper expeditions in 1849, 1850 and 1851, the revolts in 1855, the Ten Yeats' War (1868 711) and the revolution of 1895. About 200 Americans took part in the ill-starred expedition of 1851, and of those who- stirrendered 'after Lopez's defeat many were shot. Captain-Gen eral Tac6 '(1836) set• native Cubans against resident Spaniards' by iMpolitic discrimination, intensifying that antagonism between the two elements of 'the white population which to-day makes political' controversies rancorous. The cause of the revolutionary movements between 1849 and 1855 was the emelt* of a' military commission in 1848, more than 3,000 persons being tortured, imprisoned, banished or exe cuted at that time for real or supposed coin-, plicity in a The try ot•outraged patriot ism, the '"Gt'ito de Yara," was heard 10 Oct. 1868. During a part, at 'least, of the Ten Years' War, the aim of the Spaniards was, as Captain-General Valamaseda wrote, to con vert the island into a desert. Spain sent 257, 000 men against the insurgents and lost 208,000 of them, according to official reports. The cost of the war, excluding the valve of property de stroyed, was $300,000,000. Midway in this strug gle the Virginius, a vessel whose American register had been fraudulently obtained, was captured by a Spanish warship, taken into the harbor 'of Santiago and about 50 of her officers and men were shot without Civil trial. The Treaty of ZanjOn (1878)• restored the old :op pressive' conditions'; moreover the cost of the war had made a new burden for the island to bear, while vexatious restrictions hampered its commercial relations with other countries. °Underground Cuba' gathered force for a final effort. In February the flame of insur rection was kindled mid, in the course of three years, the yiliole islaod was again laid waste. Throughout the last century the government of the United States manifested an interest in Cuba's fate. In 1823, Monroe being President, a dispatch was sent by the Secretary of State to the American Minister at Madrid, in which the Secretary (Mr. Adams) called particular attention to the commanding position which Cuba occupies with reference to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and expressed the opinion that there was no other foreign ter ritory which could compare with it in the sum of the national interests of the United States. In 1825 and 1826 Colombia, being then at war with Spain and designing to invade Cuba and Porto Rico, refrained from this projected at tack on the strength of a protest from the Uni. ted States — a protest in the interests of the slave-power. The new Spanish-American states (always marched under the standard of universal emancipation.° Martin Van Buren said in 1829: is the interest of the south ern section of the Union that no attempt should be made in Cuba to throw off the yoke of Spanish dependence.° Webster, in 1848, de clared that Cuban emancipation (would strike a death blow at the existence of slavery in the ,United States.° Thus for 20 years the South ern slave-owners insisted that the status of Cuba and Porto Rico should not be changed. The annexation idea came to the front in 1848. A proposition for the purchase of the island was made by President Polk, through his Sec retary of State, Mr. Buchanan, who wrote to the American Minister authorizing the latter to offer $100,000,000 to Spain as compensation for the surrender of a colony which was, as we have seen, a particularly troublesome possession just then. The strategic value of Cuba was dwelt upon in this correspondence, and the fear was expressed that the island might fall into Great. Britain's hands, in which event that nation would exercise supreme control over the Gulf of Mexico. The offer was declined by Spain. Both England and France were warned in 1852 that the United States would not admit the claim of any other power to intervene in a, dispute of which Cuba was the subject. In Feb ruary 1854 the cargo of an American steamer, the Black Warrior, was seized unjustifiably in Havana. It seemed for a time that war, and the acquisition of Cuba by force; might ensue; but reparation was offered by Spain, and was accepted. President Grant intimated in 1875 that and intervention° might be come necessary to put an end to the long strug gle then in progress.