Manufactures-Rail-Roads-Currency-Education. EDUCATION. In the whole island of Cuba, education is at a very low ebb. According to the latest and most favorable accounts, the schools are as follows: 107 The Sociedad Patriotica was establish on real estate. Each director has one of the three keys of the strong box. ed in 1790, and its name is now changed There are also private banking-houses to that of the Real Sociedad Economica de at Havana, which discount bills, and la Habana, in which the term Royal deal in exchanges.* usurps the place of Patriotic. This Royal Society of Havana is divided into four principal sections-on Education, Agriculture, Commerce and Popular Industry, and the History of Cuba. There is attached to the institution a public library, kept in the old convent of San Domingo, and is open daily, except on Sundays and festivals. The society publishes monthly a memorial of its la Of white male children 66 female 66 Of colored male 66 . female Total Schools in Cuba........ .129 79 6 8 222 The pupils of these schools are divid- bors, which is more or less valuable ed as follows: From this, then, it appears, that out of the whole population of Cuba, which is about 1,000,000, there are only 9,082 children, of all grades, who attend school Of this number, only 3,757 are educated gratuitously. The remaining 5,325 attend school at their, own expense. Of the 3,757 pupils, 540 are educated by the once flourishing "Sociedad Patriotica," whose resources were derived from the personal subscriptions of the members, and the voluntary contributions of citizens; 2,111 by local subscriptions; and the remaining 1,106 gratuitously taught by the professors. means. The latest official returns show that the number of free children, in the isle of Cuba, between the ages of five and fifteen, is 99,599; of whom, as before stated, only 9,082 have the benefit of schools, and these chiefly by private No appropriations from the general treasury of Cuba are made for public instruction, although the revenue of the island is about $22,000,000. So far from receiving aid from the treasury, the schools have actually been deprived by it; for when the custom-houses have taken charge of collecting the local taxes established for public instruction, ten per cent. commission has been deducted for the service; and large sums imposed on commerce and trade for this purpose, have been, and are to this day, withheld and unaccounted for by the treasury. In Cuba only one free child in 63 attends school, * Trumbuil's Cuba, pp. 87-102. for statistics regarding the past and present condition of the island. It has branches in nine of the principal towns of Cuba, which are in correspondence with it. The parent society in Havana has numbered from its foundation 300 members. Its corresponding members are 63.† There is at Havana the Royal University, embracing a medical and law school, and chairs on all the natural sciences. The medical school was reorganized in 1842, and the present requisitions for graduation, among others, are a classical education, and six years study of medicine. The ordeal through which foreign candidates for licenses to practice are now compelled to pass, is rigid in the extreme, and the expenses amount to nearly $400. Several of the professors are French, and the school has a very respectable standing We take occasion here to observe, that it is with the greatest satisfaction that we find ourselves enabled to record so favorable an account of medical education in Cuba. With all her faults, she deserves the credit of duly appreciating the importance of making medicine truly what it professes to be a learned profession. She lays down, as the first requisite for a physician, a classical education; and to this she adds a six years' course of medical study. Our American schools will, many of them, be disposed to consider, as unnecessary, such a severe training; but it is just what it ought to be every where. Here in the United States we have disgraced—yes, 1 repeat it-we have disgraced the medical profession, by omitting the classical education altogether, and by reducing Under the eye of the Censorship. + Notes on Cuba, p. 213 14. Notes on Cuba, by a Physician, 1844, p. 215. the course of medical studies to two book-keeping, arithmetic, stenography, courses of lectures, of four months each! and the English and French languages. The consequences of this are notorious, Of the actual condition of any of the and the medical profession is disgraced. above-named institutions we have no A medical diploma, from an American positive knowledge. medical school, is now a piece of worthless lumber. The only way that this disgrace can be blotted out, is to return to those requisites of a learned profession-a thorough classical education, and a medical course embracing a term of years. Éducation in Cuba is in a lower state than in almost any other civilized country. Some idea can be formed of this dearth of education from the number of pupils in the schools of its principal towns and cities. At Guines, a town of 16,000 inhabitants, of whom 2,612 are whites, there are only 235 scholars in all the schools. Matanzas, with a population of 16,986, of whom 10,000 are whites, has only 815 pupils, and 16 schools. In very popular sections of the island, the dearth of schools is very remarkable. Nueva Filipina, with a population of more than 30,000, had, in 1844, but one school of forty boys. Guanabacoa, one of the oldest towns in Cuba, with a population of 10,000, had only one free school of thirty boys in 1844. Besides the Royal University at Havana, there are several other institutions of learning. Among these are the Royal Seminary of San Carlos y San Ambrosio, founded in 1773; a girl's seminary, founded in 1691; a free school of sculpture and painting, founded by the Sociedad Economica, in 1818; a mercantile school, also free, and many private institutions for instruction in the elementary branches of education. Among the private institutions of learning at Havana, at the present time, are the Real Colegio de Humanidades de Jesus y Jose, in the calle de Acosta; the Colegio de Ninas de Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, directed by Dona Ca ridad Santi, in which institution is taught the catechism, reading, writing, Spanish grammar, geography, French, English, Italian, drawing, music, dancing, politeness, (urbanidad,) needlework, etc. It has six professors. There is al so the High School of Professor Macsimo Dominguez de Gironella, an institution similar to our best high schools in New. Orleans. From the Havana papers it appears that there are also several mercantile academies, in which are taught A museum of natural history was established at Havana, in 1838, of which the learned naturalist, Don Felipe S. Poye, was appointed Director; without the walls of the city a botanical garden was also laid out, which, in 1844, was under the care of Professor Auber. It is agreed by all recent writers on Cuba, that there exists a lamentable dearth of schools in Cuba. Of the white Creoles no liberally educated persons are found except among the more wealthy portion, who send their sons to Europe and the United States for their education. The middle class has but an elementary education; and the lowest class, which is by far the most numerous, is without any education at all sunk into the grossest ignorance. Gen. O'Donnell, a former Captain-GeneThe suppression of infant schools by ral of Cuba, is well known. An order has recently been made, by the Cuban authorities, which, in effect prohibits parents from sending their children to the United States for purposes of education; and such parents, deprived of driven to the expedient of proving ill means of liberal education at home, are health, or feigning it, in their children, in order to obtain passports for them.* Such is the state of education in Cuba at the present time, according to the best authorities. Though the people are taxed beyond any other known community in the world, the white popula tion paying annually to the government ernment returns, but in reality it is more than $12,000,000, (so say the govnearly double that sum,) they are almost entirely destitute of schools. It was announced in the Diario de la Marina, of January 1, 1852, that the government free schools, distributed between Hawere about to establish nineteen primary vana, Matanzas, and Puerto Principe; also two normal schools at Havana; but we are not aware that the schools have as yet been established. AGRICULTURE. The chief agricultu-. ral products of Cuba are sugar, coffee, and tobacco. The cultivation of these "Cuba and the Cubans," p. 184. + Notes on Cuba, p. 251. Exports of Sugar, Molasses, Brandy, Coffee and Wax. 109 annual increase, during the 65 years, was 25 per cent. It is not known precisely at what time the cultivation of the sugar-cane (arundo products has advanced with extraordinary rapidity, especially since 1809, when the ports of the island were more freely opened to foreigners. The most complete account of the agricultural saccharifera) was commenced in Cuba. products of Cuba that has ever been published, appeared in a semi-official paper, entitled "Isla de Cuba en 1851," which occupied the entire columns of the Diario de la Marina for January 1, 1852. The tables are of official origin, and we shall give them entire. It was not until after the cultivation of sugar was commenced in St. Domingo, where it was introduced by Piedro de Atienza, about the year 1520. They used at that time, in the manufacture of sugar, cylindrical presses, moved by hydraulic wheels. The isle of Cuba was far behind St. Domingo, at first, in agriculture. As late as 1553 Spanish historians make no mention of sugar in Cuba, and only speak of sugar exported from Mexico to Spain and Peru.† The next products most immediately connected with sugar are brandy and molasses. Of these we have not the statistics as complete as those of sugar. We can only give the amount of those articles exported from the entire island since the year 1826, as follows: Molasses, 3d 5 years, 1795-1800 Average. 4th 5 years, 1800-1805. Average 5th 5 years, 1805-1810. .15,101,200 Average 6th 5 years, 1810-1815. .14,493.756 Average. 2.898,751 Brandy. hhds. .3,611,641 1827 4,905,316 9th 5 years, 1825-1830. .32,540,689 Average. .6,508,137 83,001 Average. .7,893,575 10,148,555 .18,690,460 1851....boxes.. .1,437,056 .136,447 From this table it will be seen that in the last 26 years, the production of coffee in Cuba has been declining at the rate of about 2 per cent. annually, while that of wax has increased about 3 per cent, annually. The coffee plant was first introduced into the New World from the east, by the way of Europe. Van Horn, the governor of Batavia, in 1690, sent some of the seeds to Amsterdam, some of which found their way to America. In 1718, coffee plantations were first made in Surinam, and in 1728, plantations were opened in Martinique and Jamaica. When the French were driven from St. Domingo to Cuba, between the years 1796 and 1798, they carried with them the coffee plant; and from that time coffee plantations multiplied rapidly in the island. (See De Bow's Industrial Resources, art. "Coffee.") A coffee plantation is one of the most beautiful objects in nature. It is a perfect garden, surpassing any thing that the ablest horticulturist can produce out of the tropics. "Imagine more than 300 acres of land," says the author of Notes on Cuba, "planted in regular squares, with evenly pruned shrubs, each containing about eight acres, intersected by broad alleys of palms, oranges, mangoes, and other beautiful trees; the interstices between which are planted with lemons, pomegranates, cape-jessamines, tuberoses, lilies, and various other gaudy and fragrant flowers; while a double strip of Guinea-grass, or of luscious pines, skirt the sides, presenting a pretty contrast to the smooth, red soil in the centre, scrupulously kept free from all verdure. Then the beauty of the whole while in flower-that of the coffee white, and so abundant that the fields seem covered with flakes of snow; the fringe-like blossoms of the rose-apple; the red of the pomegranate and Mexican rose; the large scarlet flowers of the piñon, which, when in bloom, covering the whole tree with a flaming coat, is the richest production of Flora's realms; the quaint lirio's trumpet-shaped flowers, painted yellow and red, and bursting into bunches from the blunt extremities of each leafless branch; the young pineapples, with blue flowrets projecting from the centres of their squares; the white tuberoses, and double cape-jessamines; the gaudy yellow flag, and a score of other flowers, known to us only as the sickly tenants of the hot-house. And when some of the flowers have given place to the ripened fruit; and the golden orange, the yellow mango, the lime, the lemon, the luscious caimito, and the sugared zapote; the mellow alligator pear, the custard-apple, and the rose-apple, giving to the palate the flavor of otto of roses;-when all these hang on the trees in oppressive abundance, and the ground is also covered with the over-ripe fruit, the owner of a coffee estate might safely challenge the world for a fairer garden. Nor must this be thought the appearance it presents for only a short period. The coffee has successive crops of blossoms five or six times in the winter and spring; and on the orange, the ripe fruit and the blossom, and the young green fruit, are of ten seen at the same time; while several of the shrubs and plants bloom nearly all the year."* "Nor is the rich fragrance," says Mr. Turnbull, "of the orange grove to be compared for a moment with the aromatic odors of a coffee plantation, when its hundred thousand trees have just thrown out their unrivaled display of jessamine-like flowers, reminding you of what you may have read in eastern fable of the perfumes of Araby the Blest."† *Notes on Cuba, 1844, p. 139. Coffee Plantations-Tobacco and other Agricultural Products. 111 The coffee tree, if left to nature, grows to the height of from 12 to 18 feet, giving off horizontal branches, knotted at every joint, which, like the trunk, are covered with a gray bark. The blossoms look like the white jasmine, and form thick circular clusters around the branches. They appear from December to June, and last only two or three days. The berries at first are green, but become white as they enlarge and ripen, then yellow, and finally bright red, closely resembling the cherry in size and appearance. The trees are of ten loaded with them in closely-wedged circles around each joint of the branches. On a single branch two feet long there are often seen as many as ninety of the berries, each containing two grains of coffee, with their flat sides together, imbedded in a soft mucilaginous pulp. The berries ripen from August to December, and are gathered by the hand; and as three or four different crops are often ripening at the same time on each tree, as many separate pickings are required. The berries, when perfectly dried, are passed through a mill, consisting of a large circular wooden trough, two feet deep, and in width, tapering from two feet at the top to one at the trees are often seen. One tree yields from a half to three-fourths of a pound of coffee. The trees are in rows, at right angles, about four yards apart. Between the rows are planted plantains, corn, and other vegetables. operation requires about four To bring a coffee plantation into full Turnbull estimates that a coffee plantyears. Mr. ation of 200,000 trees would require, for the first seven years, an outlay of $40,000; and that the net annual returns, after that time, from the sales of coffee, corn, and the other products, after deducting all expenses, would be about $5,300; which would be 13 per cent. on the capital invested. The author of "Notes on Cuba," who, we believe, was a physician of Charleston, now dead, estimates that a coffee plantation of 350,000 trees will yield annually a net balance of $10,000, after the payment of all expenses; but the cultivation of sugar is found to be immensely more profitable. The coffee tree bears well when it is forty years old. The wax of Cuba, now so extensively bees, but of bees brought from Europe. exported, is not the product of native The exportation of wax began in 1772. bottom. A heavy solid wooden wheel, mostly to Mexico for consumption in The wax of Cuba was formerly sent about six feet in diameter, and eight the churches. The honey of Cuba is inches thick at the circumference, plays in the trough, crushing the berries which justly celebrated for its fine rich flavor. pass between it and the bottom of the There is a native bee in Cuba, said to trough. The husks are then separated be stingless, which produces a black by means of a fanning mill, which also wax, and honey as limpid as water.t separates the larger grains from the smaller. The broken grains are picked out by the negroes for plantation use, while the whole ones are packed for market. The whole crop is generally in market by the first of February. The coffee tree, like the cotton plant, has a deadly enemy in the shape of a small worm, which often destroys it by girdling it beneath the bark. Another species of worm bores into the trunk, traversing it in every direction, causing it to fall by the first high wind. are also two species of moths which prey on the leaves; but the most destructive of all is a small fly which deposits its eggs on the leaf, from which spring caterpillars that speedily consume the entire leaves of the tree. The next agricultural product which we shall mention is tobacco, of which we have the complete statistics since 1826, as furnished by the Diario de la Marina, for Jan. 1, 1852. They are as follows: 1826 Leaf Tobacco. Manufactured, 1827 79,106. .167,362 1828 70,031. .210,335 1829 ..125,502.. .243,443 1830 160,358. .407,153 1831 .117,454. 331,438 76,430. .448,123 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839. 1840 |