YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Cuban Cane Sugai

CANE CRUSHING IN CUBA

Cuban Cane Sugar
— a sketch of the industry, from
soil to sack, together with a
survey of the circumstances
which combine to make
Cuba the Sugar Bowl
of the World

By
ROBERT WILES

ILLUSTRATED BY
SIX PHOTOGRAPHS

INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS 1916

Copyright, iqi6
The Bobbs-Merrill Company

Contents
Pnge
I. Our Sweet Tooth Growing
Sweeter — and Why  1
II. Sugar Making — from the Soil
to the Sack  17
III. Cane vs. Beet — the Struggle
for Supremacy  37
IV. Cuba — the Sugar Bowl of the
World  53
V. Cuban Cane Sugar — America's
Opportunity  69

A MODEL
CANE SUGAR
PLANTATIONIN CUBA

I. Our Sweet Tooth
Growing Sweeter —
And Why
OUR grandfathers, in the early
'50s, got along well enough
with a family sugar consumption of
two pounds a week.
Our fathers' families in the '80s
ate about five pounds a week.
Twenty years later, in 1900, we
were eating more than six pounds
a week. Today every American family con
sumes between eight and nine pounds
of sugar from Saturday till Satur
day. Not the sugar in fruits, or the
sugars which we digest from the
potatoes or beans we eat, or other
natural sugars and sweets, but of
commercial, store-bought, refined
sugar we eat more than eight pounds.
Eight pounds, plus, of sugar a
[1]

Cuban Cane Sugar
week to the family — 421 pounds a
year — some of us eat less, and some
of us eat more. The figures repre
sent our actual national average.
In two short generations we have
developed a national sweet tooth
which calls for more than four times
the sugar it formerly got.
Why? * * * *
If we look for a moment at the
sugar consumption of some of our
less fortunate neighbors we may be
able to see the reason, and to read
the curious relation which seems to
exist between sugar and prosperity.
While we are eating more than
eight pounds of sugar a week, for
example, the average Serbian family
of five (in normal times) consumes
but a bare fifteen ounces; and in
Bulgaria, Roumania, and Italy, the
family consumption amounts only
to about a pound per week.
[2]

Our Sweet Tooth
^The world over, we will find —
with exceptions, here and there, to
prove the rule — that the poorer a
people the less sugar it eats, while
the more spending money it has the
more it uses — though, as we shall
see later, sugar is one of the cheapest
of foods.
The use of sugar might well depend
upon many other things than pros
perity. It might well depend upon
the propinquity of a people to the
sugar market (and consequently
price); upon the character of other
foods consumed — for obviously those
whose principal diet is figs require
but little store-bought sugar; upon
the quantities of beer or other sugar-
producing drinks a people uses; or
even, on national tradition. But, it
is interesting to note, from a table
such as follows, how closely sugar
and spending-money seem to go hand
in hand: [3]

Cuban Cane Sugar

Per Capita

Per Capita

Circulation

Annual Sugar

of Money

Consumption

United States (1914)

$35.18

84. 29 lbs.

Germany (1913)

19.29

45.13 -

Austria (1913)

12.08

29.17

Italy (1913)

8.82

11.68

Serbia (1913)

6.84

10.03

England, with a per capita circula
tion of money less than five-sevenths
of our own, has an apparent statis
tical consumption of 93.37 pounds of
sugar per capita as against our 84.29.
These figures for consumption in
clude, however, the sugar used in
the. manufacture of jams, marma
lades and other preserves, much of
which products are exported. If the
amount of sugar so used and sent
out of the country in manufactured
form were deducted, and if our own
consumption of England's manu
factured sweets added to our quota,
it would, no doubt, appear that
England's per capita consumption
was not so high as our own.
[4]

Our Sweet Tooth
France, with a per capita money
circulation larger than ours, con
sumes less sugar — but the high cost
of sugar in France, and the cheapness
of wine, may in a measure account
for this.
Australia, with $47.18 of money
per capita as against our $35.18,
might reasonably be expected to
consume more sugar — and she does
— 100 pounds per capita per annum
as against our 84.29.
The comparison is not only true
as between nations. It is true as
between sections of the same nation,
as could easily be shown; and it is
true as between different periods of
a nation's prosperity.
Taking our own case, the com
parative figures read: Per Capita Per Capita
Circulation Annual Sugar
of Money Consumption
1850 $19.41 39.46
1880 26.93 58.91
1914 35.18 84.29
[5]

Cuban Cane Sugar
It would seem, if prosperity sweet
ens our sweet tooth, that adversity
should have the opposite effect.
But such is not the case. It is as if,
in times of adversity, we were saying
to ourselves, "We cannot afford
more sugar — but we cannot get along
with less" and so, as always, in
such circumstances, we limit our
expenditures, but spend, really, a
little more than we can afford.
The figures show this. The de
cade, for example, between 1890
and 1900 was a period of protracted
and general financial depression in
the United States. At the beginning
of this decade the per capita sugar
consumption was 60.7 pounds, while
at the end of the decade the con
sumption was 61.8 pounds. In other
words, instead of cutting our sugar
d6wn to a point where it had for
merly been, we kept it at just about
a constant level. [6]

Our Sweet Tooth
And during the following ten
years — 1900 and 1910 — a period rec
ognized as one of unprecedented,
general prosperity, we abandoned
restraint, and our sugar consumption
jumped from 66.6 pounds to 81.6
pounds per capita per annum.
* * * *
It would be putting the cart before
the horse, however, to say that we
use more sugar because we are
more prosperous.
The simple fact is that we have
come more and more to realize that
sugar is a good food; as our pros
perity has increased we have been
better able to buy the foods we
wanted or needed; in times of ad
versity we have merely cut down on
those foods which cost more and
gave us less value.
Where formerly we were told that
sugar exercised an injurious physical
effect, we know now that it is pos-
[7]

Cuban Cane Sugar
sible for us to assimilate only so
much as is good for us — no more;
and that if we eat too much sugar, the
pangs of indigestion warn us of our
error before any harm can come — if
we pay attention to the warning.
Where, formerly, we thought that
sugar must be bad for us because we
liked the taste of it, we now know
that sugar is demanded for the
balanced ration, that it has a heat
and energy producing value as great
as lean meat, and that the nitrogen
retention of proteid food, such as
meat, fish, eggs and milk, is increased
25% when consumed with sugar.
A tabulation of the principal items
of diet may be of interest:
Available Energy When Consumed As Food
Meat and Fish 87%
Eggs 89%
Fruits 90%
Cereals 91%
Dairy Products 93%
Vegetables 95%
Sugar 98%
[8]

Our Sweet Tooth
When we realize that sugar costs
only in the neighborhood of five or
six cents per pound and that the
other items listed run upward in
price as high as forty cents per
pound, most of them ranging be
tween twenty and thirty cents, it
will be seen why economy impels us
to eat as much sugar as we can in
connection with the other foods
necessary to make a perfectly bal
anced ration.
That sugar is no longer considered
a luxury can be convincingly read,
also, from the statistics of candy
consumption. Our national candy bill runs well
in excess of $500,000,000 a year.
It amounts to more in a single
twelve-month than the entire recent
Anglo-French loan. It represents a
per capita expenditure of more than
five dollars a year. For many years
we have been not only unapproached
[9]

Cuban Cane Sugar
by any other country in the con
sumption of candy, but have con
sumed more than all other countries
reporting candy manufacture.
New York City is our largest candy
consuming centre — the largest con
suming centre in the world — both as
to total consumption and per capita
consumption. At first thought we might say that
New York is a city of wealth and
prosperity and that its enormous
candy consumption represents the
gratification of a desire for a luxury.
But New York's candy is not sold
to New York's rich — it is sold to sat
isfy the hunger of New York's poor.
Where New York consumes one
pound of high priced candies it
consumes at least ten pounds of the
cheaper grades such as are sold on
the push-carts of Delancey Street.
From this we can only judge that
there must be an economic reason
[10]

Our Sweet Tooth
why our poor are the great candy
consumers; their standard of living
is so low, and the food available to
them so inferior, that they feel,
constantly, a natural hunger which
they are most easily able to satisfy
through buying the cheaper and
more tempting sweets.
From the figures, the story of sugar
is plain: As we learn 7 more and more the
value of sugar as a food we buy more
and more as our pocket-books per
mit us. Then, in times of depression
like those we have just gone through,
we eat slightly more sugar than
usual, unconsciously, perhaps, be
cause we reduce our consumption of
the higher priced, less nourishing
food-stuffs. And, finally, with meats and grains
mounting higher and higher, while
sugar, because of improvement in
methods of production, has steadily
[H]

Cuban Cane Sugar
gone lower, we turn more and more
toward the consumption of sweets.
* * * *
There is still another factor which
may loom large, in the future, in
influencing the consumption of sugar,
and which cannot be overlooked in
a general survey such as this.
This factor is the prohibition
movement. A large percentage of all intoxi
cating liquors are made from the
syrup which comes as a by-product
in the manufacture of sugar; and
all intoxicating liquors, whiskies,
brandies, wines, beers, and ales rep
resent only a chemical re-arrange
ment of sugar.
When the drinker stops taking
alcoholic beverages, or even cuts
down on them, he must and does use
more sugar in his tea or coffee and
his general dietary.
Although prohibition has been
[12]

Our Sweet Tooth
definitely and steadily growing for
more than thirty years, the fact has
not as yet been reflected in the
statistics of liquor consumption;
during the decade 1904-1914 the
consumption of liquors of all kinds
increased nearly forty per cent., while
the population increased only slightly
over twenty per cent.
Nevertheless, state-wide prohibi
tion has already been enacted in
eighteen of the forty-eight States
while local option prevails in sixteen,
with several states soon to vote on
the question. Moreover, when the
Hobson resolution, to submit to the
States the prohibition amendment
to the Constitution, was laid before
the House, 197 members voted for
it, 169 against it.
So we see that the prohibition
wave is a thing of fact, not of fancy.
Whether or not it will effectively
stop the consumption of liquor, it
[13]

Cuban Cane Sugar
must, if only by reducing it, increase
the consumption of sugar.
S|C SfS >|! tp
We see, thus, that the advance
of sugar goes hand in hand with the
advance of intelligence and pros
perity; that adversity only slightly
checks the advance; that the high
cost of living and the prohibition
movement, both of which promise
to be with us for many years to
come, tend to increase consumption.
As a result of the operation of
these factors, our national sweet
tooth has been growing sweeter and
sweeter — not only ours, but that of
our neighbors.
And the sum of this increase in the
use of sugar is indelibly written in
the statistics of world sugar pro
duction, as follows:
In 1870 the total production of
cane and beet sugar in the whole
world was 2,750,000 tons.
[14]

Our Sweet Tooth
In 1914 this total had risen to
18,773,486 tons — a jump, in a single
generation, of more than 600 per
cent. As matters stand today we are
digging out of the ground, the world
over, only about one-third enough
gold to pay our annual billion-and-a-
quarter dollar raw sugar bill.
All of the petroleum produced in
the world in a year equals hardly
more than one-quarter the value of
the year's raw sugar crop.
All of the ever increasing quan
tities of tobacco used amount in
value to barely a third of what we
pay for our raw sugar.
And coffee, too, growing apace
with tobacco, would have to multi
ply its annual crop by more than
four in order to be abreast of sugar,
while rubber, with more than two
million motor cars consuming it at
an astounding rate, must be multi-
[15]

Cuban Cane Sugar
plied by almost six before it equals
in value the crystals which our
canes and beets are producing an
nually to satisfy our sweet tooth.
The world's sugar crop is bigger
than her cotton crop — much bigger.
It is exceeded, in fact, only by the
grain crops and the production of
live stock. * * * *
If the demand for sugar increases
during the next fifty years as it has
during the past fifteen, we must
increase our facilities for producing
it to at least seven times their pre
sent capacity.
But if the demand should not
increase at all, if sugar should come
to a sudden standstill, the import
ance of this crop among the world's
basic productions has, during the
past hundred years, been established
beyond question or doubt.
[16]

MODERN
SUGAR-MAKINGMACHINERY

II. Sugar Making —
From the Soil to
the Sack
Those of us who have known the
boyhood joy of a maple sugar camp
in full swing, may think that the
granulated sugar of commerce is
made by the same process — boiling,
boiling, boiling, and draining.
It is not. It is not even made
from molasses as our geographies
used to state. The molasses is, in
fact, a by-product of sugar manu
facture — not, as many suppose, its
starting point.
There is an important difference,
in fact, between syrup and molasses.
The former is the juice or sap of a
sugar producing plant, boiled and
clarified, and containing its entire
original sugar content; the latter is
the residue after the sugar crystals
have been extracted from the syrup.
[17]

Cuban Cane Sugar
Before going into the details of
the interesting process of sugar mak
ing itself, it may be said that all of
our commercial sugar is cane sugar.
No matter whether it comes from
the juice of the beet, or the sap of the
bamboo or maple, or from cane
itself, chemically and technically it
is known as cane sugar.
* * * *
There are two classes of sugar in
nature — which, avoiding long Latin
names, may be called single sugars
and double sugars. Cane sugar,
milk sugar, malt sugar, are some of
the double sugars. Grape sugar and
fruit sugar are common single sugars.
If we take a double sugar and
submit it either to heat, acid or
ferment, we turn it into single or
invert sugar.
The double sugars are of no use
as food while they remain double —
they cannot be assimilated in the
[18]

From Soil to Sack
body for the formation of organic
tissue or the production of heat and
energy. Only the single sugars are
available. But, practically, this is of no con
sequence since the acidity of our
digestive juices, the heat of our
bodies and our digestive ferments
combine to form ideal conditions for
inversion, and accomplish this chem
ical change shortly after we have
eaten the double sugar.
Cane sugar has two and one-half
times the sweetening power of fruit
sugar and more than two and one-
half times the sweetening power of
grape sugar — which is one of the
reasons why all of our commercial
sugar is cane sugar instead of the
more easily assimilable single sugars.
* * * *
There are countless plants in nature
which may be made to yield us cane
sugar. All fruits contain two or
[19]

Cuban Cane Sugar
more sugars, of which cane sugar,
fruit sugar and grape sugar, are the
most important.
For centuries sugar has been man
ufactured from different species of
palms by the natives of India. The
bamboo is a sugar-producing plant
which was utilized by the ancient
peoples of Asia and is supposed to
be the first plant from which sugar
was extracted. Sugar is manu
factured from raisins in practically
all the countries of southern Europe
and western Asia. Indian corn has
been used experimentally in the
manufacture of sugar, while Sorghum
or Chinese cane, with a high sugar
content, yields a large syrup crop,
but for chemical and manufacturing
reasons little or no actual sugar.
The saps of many trees besides the
maple contain sweets. Sugar and
syrup have even been manufactured
in the United States from water-
[20]

From Soil to Sack
melons — an industry which was
nipped in the bud by the intro
duction of refrigerator cars and cold
storage, which made a wider and
more profitable market for the
melons themselves.
But for practical purposes the
commercial sugar of the world can be
considered as coming from the juice
of the cane or the beet. The con
sumption of all other sugars amounts
to but, a small fraction of a per cent.
* * * *
Whether our sugar is to be pro
duced from beets or cane, the first
step is the production of the syrup —
the separation of the sweet watery
content of the plant from the pulp
or woody portions.
In the case of cane, the operation
is simplicity itself. All that is needed
is crushing.
The pioneer methods of milling
and crushing in the cane growing
[21]

Cuban Cane Sugar
countries of the world were crude
almost beyond belief. The first
crushers consisted of wooden rollers
— two adze-hewn logs — usually ver
tical, operated by hand-power.
Twenty-five per cent, of the total
juice represented all that could be
extracted by this means.
The first improvement — and this
came not so many years ago — was
the substitution of vertical cast-iron
rollers, which, in construction and
manipulation, differed little from the
old wooden rollers, but added an
extra fifteen per cent, to the total
of the juice extraction. The next
advance was marked by the intro
duction of steam-power, which per
mitted an increase in the size of
rollers; and finally this improve
ment was followed by the introduc
tion of horizontal instead of vertical
rollers. These raised the efficiency
of extraction to sixty-five per cent.
[22]

From Soil to Sack
Steel rollers are now used almost
exclusively in the larger mills and
the number of rollers has increased
from one pair to three and from three
to nine. Many of the mills have
shredders or corrugated crushers,
through which the cane is passed
before conveying to the smooth
rollers. Cane prepared in this way
yields from eighty to ninety per cent.
of its total juice, while still higher
percentages are secured by saturating
the bagasse, as the crushed cane is
called, with water and passing it
through the mill several times.
The process, despite this lengthy
description, is simplicity itself. All
that is required is to extract the
juice from the cane by crushing —
and with the present advance of
engineering and invention in this
line, the day is in sight when prac
tically all of the available juice can
be separated and saved.
[23]

Cuban Cane Sugar
In the case of beet sugar, the
process is more difficult and expen
sive. First the beets must be thor
oughly washed to cleanse them of
the quantities of field earth which
adhere to them. In the early days
of the beet sugar industry it was the
custom after washing to pulp the
beets and effect the extraction of the
juice by pressing, much as cane is
pressed. But this method is so
wasteful and so inefficient, because
of the structure of the beet, that it
has been abandoned and a diffusion
process substituted.
The first operation in the diffusion
process is to slice the beets into the
thinnest possible individual pieces.
This is done by a machine which
cuts the beets with a multitude of
curved knife blades, revolving rap
idly. When the beets are cut into
thin, irregular slices on this machine,
they are placed, in water, in the first
[24]

From Soil to Sack
of a set of cylindrical vessels called
a diffusion battery. These vessels
communicate with each other by
pipes so arranged that the juice
issuing from the bottom of one dif-
fuser flows into the top of the next.
By this means the sugar content
is dissolved and the sweet, viscous
liquid or syrup which is the starting
point of both beet and cane sugar is
secured. ^ v ™ V
This viscous liquid as it comes
from the mill, whether from cane or
from beets, is subject to almost
immediate fermentation, since it
forms an ideal culture for the prop
agation of germs. If allowed to
stand, it will quickly sour and
invert into single sugar.
It is a curious point about the
sugars, well worth noting here, that
in weak solutions they are easily
fermented, while in concentrated
[25]

Cuban Cane Sugar
solutions they are able to preserve
themselves from the attacking germs.
The grape, for example, soon decays
after it is taken from the vine. But
if its sugar is concentrated, as in the
raisin, it will keep indefinitely. The
same is true of our other table
fruits. Fresh fruits soon spoil; those
which we protect by concentrating
their sweets we call preserves, and
these we can easily carry over one
or more winters.
The susceptibility of freshly milled
syrup to fermentation calls for im
mediate attention; if left a few
hours it may sour. So the first
operation is to boil it. At this stage
it is a turbid, dark-colored liquid,
full of woody and gummy constit
uents, wholly unfit to be worked up
into sugar without clarification.
Protection against micro-organ
isms, as stated, is accomplished
simply enough by boiling. The
[26]

From Soil to Sack
boiling kills the germs which are
present, the evaporation concen
trates the sugar solution and pre
vents further invasion, and the heat
coagulates the albuminous constitu
ents of the syrup, forming a froth,
which, when removed, has accom
plished much in the process of clar
ification. Besides heat, which coagulates
the albumen, another agent which
has been used for clarification from
the earliest times is lime. This pre
cipitates the gummy matters which
form into a muddy sediment at the
bottom and into a top layer of froth
between which the bulk of the juice
is clear and limpid.
Thus we see that the first step
after the juice leaves the mill is to
boil it and to add a measured quan
tity of milk of lime, or in plainer
English, whitewash. This white
wash, much as we should dislike to
[27]

Cuban Cane Sugar
drink it, has no effect whatever on
the sugar. It attacks only the
impurities, both dissolved and sus
pended, but does not combine with
or alter the sucrose itself.
When the syrup has been clarified
by boiling and liming, it may be said
to consist of two elements — sugar
and molasses. The sugar is repre
sented by that portion which can
be crystallized out, the molasses be
ing the residuum.
The sugar crystals are now sepa
rated from the molasses by whirling
it rapidly in a machine called a
centrifugal. This machine consists
essentially of a perforated basket,
revolving inside an iron casing. The
basket is lined with finely perforated
sheet bronze or with woven wire
cloth and may measure from four
teen to twenty-four inches in depth
and from thirty to forty inches in
diameter. Revolving at a speed of
[28]

From Soil to Sack
from 1,000 to 1,400 revolutions
per minute, the molasses is forced
out through the fine openings, caught
in the iron casing and carried off in
a conduit, while the sugar crystals
themselves are retained in the basket.
The basket is spun until the sugar is
practically free of molasses; such
sugar is then known as raw, or
centrifugal, sugar. It is definitely
crystalline in character, but still
moist and lumpy. Its color, due
to the impurities it still contains,
varies from a light tan to a dark
brown. * * * *
The molasses which has been
carried off in a conduit is now boiled
again, replaced in the centrifugal for
the extraction of still more crystals,
which are kept separate and called
"molasses sugar." When this pro
cess has been carried to its profitable
limit, the final molasses is sold for
[29]

Cuban Cane Sugar
the manufacture of rum, whiskey,
or other spirituous liquors, or for the
manufacture of alcohol. There are
many other markets for molasses,
including the manufacture of stock
foods, its use as a fertilizer, etc., but
its conversion into alcohol and spirits
represents its chief use.
* # * *
The raw sugar from the centrif
ugals is still unfit for use, and must
now be refined; in refining, it is
first dissolved in hot water, the
liquor thus formed being filtered
through cotton bags to remove all
insoluble impurities. It is next run
into iron cylinders packed with
charred bones, bone charcoal having
a peculiar affinity for the soluble
impurities and leaving the sugar,
after filtration, in a purified and
decolored condition. This purified,
colorless, liquid sugar is now boiled
in vacuum pans, refilled as evapora-
[30]

From Soil to Sack
tion sets in, until the crystals have
begun to re-form, when the mass is
again spun in centrifugals which
separate the crystals from the liquor
as before. These crystals, after
drying in horizontal cylinders, are
turned out as the granulated sugar
of commerce.
If soft white sugar is desired, the
process is stopped after passing
through the centrifugals . The granu
lated grades are obtained by control
ling the crystallization in a granu-
lator and by sieve grading.
Loaf sugar is made by running the
mass from the vacuum pans into
molds, where it drains; and then
placing the molds in ovens to be
solidified. Pressed cubes are made
from moistened granulated sugar.
The liquor taken from the centrif
ugal machines is reboiled and yields
the soft or brown sugars, and the
final residue is sold as molasses.
[31]

Cuban Cane Sugar
In technical and trade descrip
tions of sugars we often find the
expression "96° centrifugal." The
"centrifugal," we now understand,
refers to the process by which the
sugar was made — that is, as against
boiling, evaporating and draining,
as is done in the case of maple sugar
and as was formerly the practice
before the days of improved ma
chinery in cane sugar.
The "96°" refers to the quality
of the sugar and brings up the
curious method in vogue for deter
mining sugar quality.
Sugar is not, as might be sup
posed, tested by taste for its sweet
ness or by any of the chemical means
which might be suggested, but is
judged by the way in which it re
fracts light.
We know that when we poke a
stick into a pond the part of the stick
below water seems bent and fore-
[32]

From Soil to Sack
shortened; and that when we pass
light through glass at an angle its
direction is changed.
Similarly, sugar in solution has
the property of bending the rays of
light which it refracts; different
sugars have different refractive prop
erties; and in actual practice sugar,
instead of being tasted or analyzed,
is examined by an instrument called
the polariscope, designed to measure
the character of this refraction.
Fruit sugar bends the ray of light
to the left. Its technical name is
Levulose, and is, in fact, called a left-
hand sugar; cane sugar (sucrose),
and grape sugar (dextrose), bend the
ray of light to the right, and are
known as right-hand sugars.
The polariscope readings of some
different commercial sugars are:
Black Strap 71°, Cuban Molasses
Sugar 77°, Cuban 1st Sugar 96°,
and Java White Sugar 99.6°.
[33]

Cuban Cane Sugar
We have before us, now, a general
survey of the methods by which our
sugar crop is commercialized. There
are many by-processes not necessary
to describe here — many ingenious
short cuts — and many efficient means
of utilizing the sugars in waste
products of manufacture, but the
process as a whole follows the lines
described here.
Thus we see that the essentials of
sugar making are:
1. A plant such as cane or the
sugar beet, which yields sugar
economically in crystallizable
form.
2. A means for separating the
juice from the woody and other
constituents of the plant.
3. A means for clarifying, purify
ing, and making germ-proof this
juice or syrup.
4. An apparatus for separating
the molasses from the sugar
[34]

From Soil to Sack
crystals — a centrifugal ma
chine.
5. A means for washing and filter
ing the raw sugar thus pro
duced and of reducing it to the
clean, pure, white crystals of
commerce.
In the manufacture of beet sugar,
these operations are frequently car
ried on under one roof; the beet
sugar factory may well be a com
plete institution, buying its beets
from the neighboring farmers (often
furnishing them the seed and super
vising their crops), and turning out
a complete commercial sugar.
This arrangement is possible, in
the case of beet sugar, because sugar
beets can be grown in climates and
localities suitable for manufacturing.
In the case of cane sugar, however,
the process is split in two. Cane is
a product of the tropics and semi-
tropics where sugar refining could be
[35]

Cuban Cane Sugar
carried on, for several reasons, to
poor advantage. The cane planter,
therefore, converts his crop of cane
immediately into raw sugar on his
own premises, or in the neighbor
hood, and this raw sugar is sent to
refiners in the country of consump
tion, where the after-processes are
carried out. * * * *
The making of sugar, from the soil
to the sack, is a simple process, and
an interesting one; considering that
it has only lately been rescued from
the primitive, considering the ad
vancements already wrought, and
considering its ever increasing im
portance among the world's produc
tions, one can but wonder what new
efficiencies and what further econo
mies inventive genius holds in store
for it.

[36]

CENTRIFUGALS IN WHICH THE
SUGARCRYSTALS ARE
SEPARATED FROM THE
MOLASSES

III. Cane vs. Beet— The
Struggle for Supremacy
We owe the discovery of cane sugar
to the Bengalese in India; as long
ago as the third or fourth century
A. D., travelers from India brought
back news of "Indian salt." From
the fifth century, we can trace its
spread into Arabia, Egypt, Spain,
Portugal, the Canary Islands, Brazil,
Cuba, and so on around the world.
But the making of sugar out of
beets we owe distinctly to Napoleon
Bonaparte. It is just 110 years
since Napoleon gave the beet its
impetus, and the circumstances were
these: In 1804-5 the business affairs of
Europe were in much the same
tangle as they are in the war times of
today. Napoleon was successful in bat-
[37]

Cuban Cane Sugar
tering down the continental fron
tiers and in increasing his possessions
amazingly — but he met failure in
his principal task — that of humilia
ting his chief enemy, Great Britain;
and, in 1805, he was forced to give
up his intention of attacking that
country when Nelson destroyed the
French fleet off Trafalgar, conse
quently preventing the landing of
the French in England.
When, in the end, Great Britain
established herself as mistress of the
seas, and succeeded in opening trade
relations with the continent, in spite
of Napoleon's strenuous efforts to
forbid them, the French Emperor
devised what was known as the
"Continental System" which dealt
a disastrous blow to the cane sugar
industry. Seeing that the struggle was not
to be brought to an end by fighting,
Napoleon tried to isolate his enemy
1*38]

Cane vs. Beet
by forbidding commercial communi
cation between England and the
entire continent of Europe.
When this decree was issued and
all British and Colonial goods were
confiscated, England sought reprisal
by prohibiting ships of any nation
ality from approaching French har
bors on the penalty of confiscation;
whereupon Napoleon, in turn, de
creed that any ship which had either
submitted to English examination or
had paid dues in English harbors be
confiscated. With both sides engineering bitter
blockades, shipping came to a stand
still and sugar prices on the conti
nent went up, and up, and up to
prohibitive figures.
Meanwhile, the lack of sugar be
came an important war-time problem
which demanded immediate and vig
orous action. Napoleon set about,
at once, to find substitutes for cane
[39]

Cuban Cane Sugar
sugar which might be grown in
France. In his search he learned
that sugar could be produced from
grapes and from beetroots, but he
did not confine himself to these,
experimenting meanwhile with ap
ples, pears, plums, quinces, mul
berries, chestnuts, figs, sorghum,
field corn, and the saps of several
trees. Nearly sixty years previously,
Marggraf, in Berlin, had shown that
various kinds of beetroot contained
sugar which could successfully be
crystallized out. Forty years later
Achard, a Frenchman, experimented
with different varieties of beetroot;
and, when his results became known,
Frederick Wilhelm III, King of
Prussia, started experimentation on
a large scale and contributed to
ward the erection of several sugar
factories, at the same time offering
bounties to farmers who produced
[40]

Cane vs. Beet
more than twenty tons of beetroot
a year. After a number of costly experi
ments had been directed toward the
production of grape sugar, with poor
results, Napoleon, in 1811, ordered
32,000 hectares — about 75,000 acres
— to be planted with beetroot — dis
tributed over the several provinces —
and established four schools in which
sugar manufacture was to be taught.
In the meantime, he stifled whatever
little competition cane sugar might
still be offering, by forbidding all
further importation from the East
and West Indies. In 1812 the num
ber of sugar schools was increased
and 100,000 hectares— 247,100 acres
— were planted and by that time
334 factories were in operation.
The news of the new sugar indus
try soon spread and Austria and
Germany vied with France in their
efforts to produce the crystals from
[41]

Cuban Cane Sugar
beets. In 1814 when Napoleon had
to abdicate, his "Continental Sys
tem" was abolished, and imported
sugar was again admitted on the
continent. This proved but a tem
porary set-back to the new industry,
however, so rapid had been its rise
and so great the enthusiasm which
attended the discovery. By 1830
the beet sugar industry was in full
swing once more.
* * * *
Cane, having always been con
sidered the natural source from which
to expect sugar, received little atten
tion or promotion. While the best
minds of Europe were studying the
beet, improving the varieties, in
venting new and more efficient means
of extraction, and generally giving
the subject serious consideration,
cane sugar continued to be produced
in the most primitive way.
It was not, in fact, until the early
[42]

Cane vs. Be e t
'80s that the cane planter woke up
from his long sleep.
The typical owner of a sugar plan
tation lived in tropical style, well up
to his income and invested the least
possible money in improvements.
He was prone to spend all he made
without thinking of creating a re
serve fund, and consequently, when
the beet — all things considered, a
much inferior plant to the cane for
the purpose — began, by sheer dint of
scientific handling, to encroach upon
the cane, he was absolutely unpre
pared for the struggle for existence
which lay before him. This condi
tion, however, did not continue long,
and in the early '80s, capital, in
moderate amounts, began to be
available to sugar planters, and cane
sugar manufacture began to shake
off its primitive shackles.
In 1870 the production of cane
sugar was almost double that of beet
[43]

Cuban Cane Sugar

sugar. By 1880 beet sugar had
climbed up to a point of approxi
mate equality, and then, as stated,
the struggle began.
The story of the race is indelibly
written in the figures of World's
sugar production, (Mulhall and Wil-
lett & Gray), which are quoted here:

Years

Cane

Beet

Total

1870

1,850,000

900,000

2,750,000

1880

1,860,000

1,810,000

3,670,000

1890

2,580,000

2,780,000

5,360,000

1898

2,850,000

4,650,000

7,500,000

1900

3,056,294

5,590,992

8,647,286

1902

4,079,742

6,913,504

10,993,346

1903

4,163,941

5,756,720

9,920,661

1904

4,234,203

6,089,468

10,323,631

1905

4,594,782

4,918,480

9,513,262

1906

6,731,165

7,216,060

13,947,225

1907

7,329,317

7,143,818

14,473,135

1908

6,917,663

7,002,474

13,920,137

1909

7,625,639

6,927,875

14,553,514

1910

8,327,069

6,597,506

14,914,575

1911

8,422,447

8,560,346

16,982,793

1912

9,006,030

6,820,266

15,886,296

1913

9,232,543

8,976,271

18,208,814

1914

9,865,016

8,908,470

18,773,486

[44]

Cane vs. Beet
It will be seen that the race, as
thrilling a one as was ever run in
the sport of Kings — started neck and
neck; beet with its impetus was go
ing strong in the '90s, a length and
a half ahead; by the middle of the
nineteen-hundreds cane had regained
her wind and closed her decade in
the lead; since then beet has not
been alongside; and if the final fig
ures for 1915-16 were known, her
percentage showing, partially be
cause of the curtailment of beet-
growing in Germany, Austria, France,
and Russia, would quite likely be
the poorest in forty years. The esti
mates of Willett & Gray and F. O.
Licht are:
World's 1915-16 Sugar Crop:
Cane Beet
10,333,000 tons 6,306,102 tons
Let us look into the facts, then,
observing the fundamentals under
lying the struggle and see if we can
forecast the outcome. [45]

Cuban Cane Sugar
Let it be stated at the outset that
there is no difference between beet
sugar and cane sugar when refined.
In their chemical composition, in
their quality and taste, and in their
commercial value, they are identical.
The only question is which can pro
duce a pound of crystallized sugar,
delivered to the consumer, at the
least cost.
The climatic conditions required
for the profitable production of sugar
beets are entirely different from
those required for the production of
sugar cane.
Sugar cane started in the tropics
and has never been coaxed very far
from its native zone. It needs a nine
months' growing season of hot days
and nights, and it will not stand
severe winters. It requires both
moisture and sunshine, and unless
irrigation is resorted to, needs an
annual rainfall of from fifty to
[46]

Cane vs. Beet
sixty-five inches. Given favorable
growing conditions, such as the
cleared jungle of Cuba or Java, it re
quires a minimum of labor.
Sugar beets, on the other hand,
constitute a typical temperate zone
crop. They require rich soil, and
especially good drainage conditions.
If there is not abundant rainfall, the
beets must be irrigated. Unless the
soil is very rich in natural fertilizing
ingredients, it becomes necessary to
apply commercial fertilizer gener
ously. The beet is a crop which re
quires constant cultivation during
the early part of the growing season
and is subject to a number of ene
mies and diseases. It has been noted
that as the beet crop has increased,
its enemies have become more wide
spread and destructive each year.
We see, thus, that the beet requires
land which is worth from forty to
two-hundred dollars per acre for
[47]

Cuban Cane Sugar
other purposes, whereas, cane flour
ishes best in the tropics with land,
which, assuming that the Mahogany
and Cedar pays the cost of clearing,
costs from six to fifteen dollars per
acre and is good for little else.
The beet requires expensive irri
gation, cultivation and care, involv
ing high priced temperate zone labor;
whereas the cane, in equally suitable
surroundings requires no irrigation
and little or no cultivation — only
harvesting by cheap tropical help at
a few cents a week.
* * * *
To put the comparison in money,
it may be stated that the average pro
ducer of beets in the United States
realizes an annual profit of from fif
teen to forty dollars per acre, with
land costing from forty to two hun
dred dollars as his investment; while
the average producer of Cuba real
izes an annual profit of from thirty
[48]

Cane vs. Beet
to eighty dollars per acre from land
costing six to fifteen dollars per acre.
Looking at the situation in this
light, it would seem strange that
beet should have made the advance
it has. But there is another reason
for this; the stronghold of the beet
is in Germany, Austria, France, Hol
land, and other nations of Central
Europe. These nations have a four
fold reason for growing the beet;
first, they are far removed from the
jungles where cane sugar best grows;
second, they have the added incen
tive of a hundred years of develop
ment, improvement and investment
in the beet; third, their labor costs
are low; fourth, there are no "big-
money" crops competing with sugar
cane for the land.
As to labor, it will be readily un
derstood, that this is a most im
portant item of expense in beet sugar
production. [49]

Cuban Cane Sugar
Where we, in the United States,
pay one dollar to a dollar-and-a-half
a day for field labor, the average cost
in Germany and France is from fifty
to seventy cents per day; while in
Austria farm and unskilled factory
laborers receive only fifteen to thirty
cents per day.
If we add to these facts the further
fact that, because of duties, taxes,
bounties, and transportation, the re
tail price of cane sugar in Central
Europe is much higher than in
America, we will see the real under
lying cause of the rise of beet.
As to "big-money" crops which
wrest the land away from the beet,
this is a condition met generally in
the United States.
Whether or not the production of
beet sugar in any given section can
be made a permanent success has
been shown to depend largely upon
whether or not that section is adapt-
[50]

Cane vs. Be e t
ed to crops yielding a greater return.
For example, land which could for
merly be bought in Idaho for $75.00
to $100.00 per acre as beet land has
now risen in price from $150.00 to
$300.00 per acre because of its adapt
ability to fruit growing.
In Idaho, Colorado, and other
states the beet crop, thus, is rapidly
being supplanted by fruits and vege
tables with which the beet cannot be
expected to compete in earning power.
9fC •!• n* *l*
There are many other causes which
underlie the recession of the beet and
from which its further decline may
be forecast.
Among these is the fact that the
milling season is an extremely short
one, and because of this beet sugar
factories in many states import raw
cane sugar to carry their production
period over into what would other
wise be idle seasons. In almost every
[51]

Cuban Cane Sugar
case where this has been tried the
raw cane sugar has proven a better
profit earner for the mill than the
beets which lay close at hand.
* * * *
Summing up, we see that beet
stole a lead on cane because beet had
the best minds of Europe improving
it while cane suffered from tropical
sloth. Beet is at the maximum of its
efficiency, while cane has just begun
to take its first steps.
The same inventive genius is now
being applied to the improvement of
cane and when this improvement
reaches its maximum, as it will dur
ing the next few decades, it may con
fidently be expected that beet will
take but a minor part in the produc
tion of the world's sugar.

[52]

CANE CARS
ARE AS
COMMON IN
CUBA AS COKE
CARS ARE
AROUND PITTSBURGH

IV. Cuba — The Sugar
Bowl of the World
If our sugar crop is to be multi
plied by seven as prospective needs
seem to require, we must, in a survey
such as this, see where the increase
is to come from; and, assuming that
beet, under the double stress of ever
increasing competition from better-
paying temperate-zone crops and
improvement in the production of
cane, is to be less and less in evi
dence, we must see where cane, par
ticularly, can be extended.
After fourteen centuries of experi
ment with cane, two spots have
established themselves as pre-emi
nently suited to its culture — two
spots have been found where soil,
temperature, rainfall, and all of the
other necessary elements seem to
[53]

Cuban Cane Sugar
have conspired together to create
ideal conditions for cane.
These spots, both islands, one in
the West Indies, one in the East,
are Cuba and Java.
Cane is raised successfully in India,
in Australia, in South America, in
South Africa, in Formosa, in the
Philippines, in Hawaii, in the gulf
section of the United States, in
Mexico, in Porto Rico, and other
islands of the West Indies.
But of all these localities, Cuba
and Java seem, by nature, best fitted
for the production of this crop.
* * * *
Cuba and Java are both long, nar
row islands of about the same area,
one lying about as far north of the
equator as the other lies south; both
have about the same amount of heat,
moisture and wind; but in the ex
treme fertility of its soil Cuba shows
a marked superiority over Java.
[54]

World's Sugar Bowl
In our minds, quite likely, we pic
ture these islands as being smaller
than they really are.
Cuba, for example, if laid down
on the United States with its eastern
end at New York City, would extend
almost to Cincinnati. It varies in
width from twenty-two to 160 miles.
Its area is almost the same as that
of England; or to bring the com
parison nearer home, Cuba is larger
than Indiana, Pennsylvania, or Ohio
— not quite so large as New York,
Illinois, or Wisconsin. It is con
siderably larger than the combined
areas of Connecticut, Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and
Vermont. In population it is about the same
as California, Indiana, Iowa, or Wis
consin. * * * *
A glance at the figures showing
Cuba's present importance in the
[55]

Cuban Cane Sugar
production of cane sugar may be of
interest. Country Short Tons
Cuba 3,000,000
British India (consumed locally) 2,400,000
Java 1,264,000
Hawaii 585,000
Porto Rico 350,000
Philippines 300,000
Peru 200,000
Brazil 194,000
Argentina 175,000
State of Louisiana 150,000
State of Texas 1,000
The secret of Cuba's superiority
lies in both the quantity and quality
of her soil.
With a depth, in some places, of
as much as thirty feet of soil, the
richness is such that cane, with a
single planting, will bear its annual
crop for from seven to ten years;
while in the two next important cane
countries — Java and British India —
replanting is done every year.
In Cuba, too, the seasons are ideal
for the economical production both
[56]

World's Sugar Bowl
of cane and of raw sugar. The warm
est months are from May to October,
and these are the rainy months. The
distribution of the rain during this
hot spell is such that a much smaller
quantity of water is required than
would be the case in other regions
where the rainfall is less evenly
distributed. When the six months' rainfall is
at an end, and the cane is ready to
harvest, a six months' dry period sets
in; and with the resultant dry fields
and dry roads, the operations of
harvesting and grinding are accom
plished under the most favorable con
ditions. When the Cuban grinding season —
December 1st to May 1st — is fin
ished, the fields are green again and
the cane is well on its way toward
the next season's crop.
There are, in fact, cases on record
of fields which still yield satisfactory
[57]

Cuban Cane Sugar
crops, season after season, without
fresh planting, after having been cut
uninterruptedly for thirty years.
In Hawaii, on the other hand, long
famous for its sugar production, the
cane not only must be planted for
every second or third crop, but
eighteen months of continuous, in
tensive cultivation is required to
bring a crop to maturity.
t* *!* *I* *p
The history of cane sugar in Cuba
reads like a romance.
About twenty years elapsed after
the discovery of Cuba, by Chris
topher Columbus, in 1492, before
sugar cane was sent by Spain to
Cuba for planting. The experiment
showed the Spaniards the perfect
suitability of Cuba's fertile soil for
cane's growth and development; but
the Spanish government of the six
teenth and seventeenth centuries
was gold-mad and discouraged agri-
[58]

World's Sugar Bowl
cultural productions of all kinds in
favor of mining. Indeed, after a very
few years, the cultivation of sugar
cane in Cuba was forbidden, and
even after that prohibition was with
drawn, cane was permitted to be
grown only under governmental
monopolies and privileges which had
such a restrictive influence that no
real progress was made with cane on
the Island until about 1772.
After that year, however, any
Spaniard was free to produce sugar,
and this led to such an increased
production that the exportation more
than trebled in thirty years.
By 1800 Cuba had 870 sugar fac
tories and was exporting more than
40,000 tons a year. Owing to Napo
leon's "Continental System" which
took Europe out of Cuba's market
during the first years of the nine
teenth century, the industry suffered
heavily; but after Napoleon's fall,
[59]

Cuban Cane Sugar
with intercourse again established,
Cuba's sugar began to expand at
even more than its former rapid rate.
Although the production thus in
creased, the methods of cultivation
and manufacture remained crude and
primitive. During this period no
reliable statistics were recorded, but
it is known that in 1870 the yearly
output ran to 725,000 tons which
represented the product of no fewer
than 1,000 small factories. This
period of prosperity was brought to
an end by the abolition of slavery
and by the "Ten Years' War" with
Spain. This war, one of great bitter
ness on both sides, not only paralyzed
commerce but led to the devastation
of much sugar property.
It was during this period, too,
that the competition with beetroot
sugar first became noticeably threat
ening. After the war was over,
however, in 1878, the annual output
[60]

World's Sugar Bowl
rose again so that, in 1890, 625,000
tons were produced from about 470
factories. From this point, the pro
duction went steadily upward until
it reached a maximum of something
over a million tons in 1894.
In the following year, 1895, how
ever, the final rebellion against Spain
broke out, and after much devasta
tion, it ended in the Spanish-Ameri
can War, and ultimately in the
establishment of the Cuban Repub
lic. This period of strife was the
worst in the entire history of Cuba —
on both sides property was burned
and destroyed, cattle were killed,
and other reprisals put into effect
for the purpose of cutting off an
opponent's livelihood — for the Island
itself was far from being a unit on
the question of rebellion.
Owing to the demolition of fac
tories, the burning of cane fields and
the destruction of work-cattle, and
[61]

Cuban Cane Sugar
the enlistment of citizens in the
armies, it became almost an impos
sibility to carry on the sugar in
dustry at all. In spite of the strict
orders issued by the Spanish author
ities to continue grinding, the pro
duction, in 1897, went down nearly
to 200,000 tons.
As can be well imagined, the
industry recovered but slowly when
this period of misery and destruction
had come to an end; factories had
been destroyed; the working popu
lation had been reduced and made
more or less unfit for work; work-
cattle, representing the sole means of
cultivation and conveyance, had been
wantonly destroyed; the financial
situation was such that manufac
turers were unable to raise the funds
necessary for rebuilding factories or
equipping them; and a general period
of reconstruction and centralization
set in. [62]

World's Sugar Bowl
Notwithstanding this set-back,
production rose from 212,051 tons in
1897 to 612,775 in 1901, passing the
million ton mark in 1903, the million-
and-a-half ton mark in 1909, the
two-million ton mark in 1913 — and,
with the 1915-16 season, passed the
three-million ton mark.

There are other islands in the West
Indies and surroundings which, by
reason of location and climate,
might seem as well suited to sugar
production as Cuba.
There are several reasons why
they are not — but the chief of these
is that the United States Govern
ment has stamped out the old politi
cal unrest — the wars and revolutions
with their bloodshed — which, form
erly kept Cuba down, while all of
Cuba's neighbors, save Porto Rico
alone, are still living, politically, in
[63]

Cuban Cane Sugar
the tempestuous pirate-times of cen
turies ago.
If we look at Cuba's less fortunate
neighbors — and at the sugar belt
which girdles the earth — it would
seem as if the same tropical rains and
sunshine which are needed for the
production of cane also conspire to
form an ideal atmosphere for foment
ing political unrest. Hayti, Guate
mala, San Salvador, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Colombia
— all of these are sugar producing
countries on a limited scale, but so
subject to outbreaks are they, that
their sugar industries have never
presented an inviting appeal to the
capital necessary to bring them to
their maxima.
In Mexico, from which much might
otherwise be expected, there is chaos,
and the threat of continued chaos,
while Cuba, much better suited by
soil and climate to sugar production,
[64]

World's Sugar Bowl
with the United States Government
fostering her, and irrevocably bound
to continue safeguarding her, enjoys
a stability which may well be com
pared with the stability, for example,
of the State of New Jersey.
Cuba has always had her soil; she
has always had a market for more
sugar than she could produce. Yet
in her first century of sugar produc
tion she reached a bare million tons
of production; while in the seven
teen years since she has been a
Republic, in spite of the set-back of
a reconstruction period, her produc
tion has jumped to three million tons.
* * * *
The chief problem in sugar growing
(as in the manufacture of any com
modity) is the cost of production.
As to Cuba's cost of production,
Willett & Gray quoted in 1910 the
following figures: Cuba sugar, f.o.b.
Cuba, costs $.0185 per pound or
[65]

Cuban Cane Sugar
$.0195 per pound c.i.f. New York.
They fixed $.02 per pound as the
maximum f.o.b. Cuba cost price, and
$.015 per pound as the minimum.
Undoubtedly, in the six years
which have intervened, the cost of
production has been still further
reduced; and with American capital
and ingenuity going into Cuba as
they are, another decade or so must
see production costs brought down
still nearer the irreducible minimum.
But if no further reduction could
be wrought, Cuba stands and always
must stand in an enviable position
with relation to the largest buyer of
sugar in the world.
Spreading out over and around her,
within easy access, lies the United
States which buys and consumes
about four million tons of sugar a
year. Less than one-fourth of this
comes from Porto Rico, Hawaii, and
the Philippines; less than one-sixth
[66]

World's Sugar Bowl
is beet sugar grown within her own
borders; less than one-twentieth is
cane sugar of her own growing.
!* The figures of Willett & Gray show
that in 1914 the United States im
ported 2,066,912 tons of cane sugar
in addition to all the sugar produc
tion of her own states and territories.
Cuba, therefore, had at her very door
a ready market for practically four-
fifths of her 2,597,732 ton crop.
The United States, of course, is
not her only market; Cuba is nearer
to England than India; nearer to
Central Europe than Java. And the
recent past has shown that the
slightest strain in Europe pulls in
stantly on the Cuban sugar supply.
* * * *
Porto Rico cannot much increase
her output; her total area is con
siderably less than that of New
Jersey, and only a small portion of
this, on the coastal regions, is suited
[67]

Cuban Cane Sugar
to cane-growing. Hawaii cannot
compete with Cuba's natural ad
vantages to the point of much
further extension; the Philippines
have not shown much progress, their
sugar industry is still in its experi
mental stage; and Mexico is out of
the sugar race for many years to
come, even if ideal political condi
tions could prevail and continue.
* * * *
It would seem that nature had out
done herself to make Cuba the sugar
bowl of the world; and that civili
zation had done her part in settling
the world's largest market for sugar
right at her shores.
What further the future holds in
store for Cuba and her sugar, de
pends now on the skill and enter
prise of man.
Cuban Sugar can be as big as Mind
and Capital can make it — and there
in lies America's Opportunity.
[68]

A TYPICAL
CUBAN SUGAR
MILL— NOTE
THE OX-DRAWN
CANE CARTS

0&- 1»*

V. Cuban Cane Sugar —
America's Opportunity
An English physician living on
the little island of Trinidad observed
one day that grass-like plants were
coming up here and there in the cane
fields. The planters whom he asked about
it told him it was grass, and showed
no further curiosity. The physician,
however, unable to account for grass
seeds having fallen there, suspected
that these were really the shoots of
seedling sugar-canes.
It developed later that both the
planters and the physician were right.
The little shoots were young sugar
cane plants; but since sugar cane
itself is a giant grass, there was no
mistake. The importance of the physician's
observation lay in the fact that sugar-
[69]

Cuban Cane Sugar
cane had been believed, for ages, to
be sterile; no such thing as a seed
ling of sugar cane had ever been
heard of.
There is, be it known, a small
company of cultivated plants which
have almost altogether given up the
habit of seed-production. The horse
radish, for example, has so long been
seedless that offers of $50,000 have
been made for a thimbleful of its
seed. Similarly, the common potato
has almost abandoned the habit, and
the marked improvement in our
potatoes as against those of thirty
years ago is due wholly to the fact
that some seed-bearing potatoes were
accidentally discovered.
The cane, for ages, has been
propagated in the same way that the
potato has. When potatoes are
planted, one of the twenty-seven
eyes of a potato is merely placed in
the ground and left to sprout; when
[70]

Americas Opportunity
cane is planted, one of the short
segments of the stalk is placed in the
ground and soon throws out roots
of its own. When plants are prop
agated in this way, there is no
chance for variation and consequent
improvement. It is the same old
plant growing over and over again —
there are no new combinations of
heredity to combine in working the
wonders of variation.
The discovery of cane seedlings,
thus — although undoubtedly there
had been many such seedlings, un
noticed, before — was one, therefore,
of the utmost importance.
The Trinidad physician, full of
enthusiasm at uncovering one of
Nature's secrets, transplanted a num
ber of the cane-seedlings, brought
them to maturity, and found several
new and apparently superior vari
eties of the cane among them.
One of these was carried subse-
[71]

Cuban Cane Sugar
quently to the Hawaiian Islands
where it was propagated in the usual
way, so that, in due course, sufficient
plants were raised from it to be
tested as to their qualities of growth,
hardiness, and sugar-production. It
was soon discovered that the prog
eny of this seedling constituted
virtually a new race of sugar cane;
one that would grow on land so poor
that it had been allowed to remain
fallow. The new variety, indeed,
was found to produce more sugar on
even the poorest land than the
ordinary variety produces on good
land. The impetus which this discovery
gave to the study of improving the
cane may in a large measure account
for Hawaii's great superiority, in the
quality of cane raised, over other
cane-producing countries.
In Hawaii, today, not only is the
acreage output the highest of any
[72]

Americas Opportunity
cane-growing country, but the sugar
content of the cane itself is higher.
Hawaiian cane averages more than
sixteen parts of sugar to 100 parts of
cane, whereas Cuban cane averages
less than twelve parts of sugar to
100 parts of cane. Hawaii, with cer
tain natural disadvantages, could
not, in fact, market sugar profita
bly with less efficient production.
* * * *
This brings us to the first great
sugar opportunity of Cuba — im
provement in the kinds of cane
grown, and improvement in cane-
growing methods.
In spite of the fact that Cuban
cane-growers have long known of
better varieties which might easily
be procured for planting, yet these
innovations have not been welcome.
The planters are familiar with the
varieties now in use, while new kinds,
of course, must first be tried out.
[73]

Cuban Cane Sugar
In countries where planting is done
every year, such trials entail little
risk; for should the crop be a partial
failure, it affects only that year and
involves no further loss. But in
Cuba, where planting is done but
once in from seven to ten years, the
selection of the wrong kind of cane
would bring ruin.
So Cuba's cane-growers, with
neither the land nor the resources,
nor the enterprise to experiment,
have sat idly back, planting, in most
cases, the same old varieties which
the Spaniards brought over decades
ago. Since there are varieties of cane
known which produce about twenty-
five per cent, more sugar than the
present Cuban cane, there is ob
viously incentive, a-plenty, for ex
perimentation with better varieties
of cane — if the experimenters operate
on a scale large enough to insure
[74]

America's Opportunity
constant earnings while the experi
mentation takes place.
Nor can it be doubted that the
scientific plant-breeder can work a
much greater increase, even, than is
represented by the best varieties now
in existence. By cross-breeding and
selection, if enough experiments be
tried, it will be possible to evolve a
variety of cane which will get the
utmost out of the wonderful soil
Cuba offers as a habitat.
To the hand-to-mouth owner of a
small plantation, such experiments
seem out of the question. But to a
company with a 100,000 to 500,000
ton production, experimentation up
on a scale bound to bring success
would cost a mere fraction of a per
cent, of its earnings.
The result, on the other hand, if,
for example, a twenty-five per cent.
increase of sugar per 100 parts of
cane were secured, would represent
[75]

Cuban Cane Sugar
not merely a twenty-five per cent.
increase in earnings, but might mean
even trebled or quadrupled earnings;
for — since it costs no more to plant,
or cultivate, or harvest, or crush the
cane — every additional per cent, of
sugar secured can be counted net
gain. * * * *
The development of better suited
varieties of cane, however, repre
sents but a small part of the oppor
tunity offered in improved sugar
production. Equally great advances
might also be attained through bet
ter methods of soil tillage, main
tenance of property and plantation
management. As matters now stand, deep plow
ing is almost unknown in Cuba —
scratching the soil has always
brought a crop, so surface scratching
is all the soil has had. Once the
same thorough methods that are the
[76]

Americas Opportunity
rule in Iowa, or the Dakotas, or Cal
ifornia, are introduced into Cuban
cane culture, amazing results may
reasonably be expected.
The truth is that the land is so
rich and the climate so well suited
to cane, that those simple methods
of making agriculture pay, which
every other farmer employs, have
been neglected and shunned; and
the cane crop has been left to the
graces of a too bounteous Nature.
*P T* T* T*
A story is told of an undertaking,
some years ago, to provide the
American Indian with better means
of earning his livelihood. The ques
tion was asked of a wise Indian
commissioner if, in his estimation,
the Indian could successfully engage
in raising sugar beets.
"Yes," was the reply, "if he
could do it on horseback."
Very similar, indeed, has been the
[77]

Cuban Cane Sugar
attitude of the Cuban cane-grower
toward his cane.
# * * *
Great as is the opportunity of
improving Cuban agriculture, greater
still is the opportunity of improving
Cuban manufacturing.
In Hawaii, for example, where
sugar efficiency, both in growing and
in manufacturing has always to be
at its best, as high as ninety-five per
cent, of the sugar in the cane is
extracted. In Java, Cuba's nearest
competitor, the extraction averages
well over ninety per cent. But in
Cuba, in spite of much modern ma
chinery, the extraction is materially
less. While the definite figures are
not available, there is good author
ity for the statement that the aver
age loss of sugar in Cuba exceeds
that of any other cane growing
country. One reason for this wastage is
[78]

Americas Opportunity
the Cuban climate. The same well
distributed rains which make the
cane grow as it does, serve also to
make the cane fields and the roads
impassable to the harvesters. The
grinding, therefore, is limited to the
six months' dry season. During
this season the sugar content varies,
from eight per cent, at the beginning
of the season up to twelve and fif
teen per cent., and even more, at
its end.
The same hand-to-mouth policy
which has been in evidence in Cuban
cane-growing here comes to the sur
face in Cuban raw sugar manu
facturing. Instead of properly
planning the grinding of the crop so
as to distribute it over the grinding
season, thus gaining the highest per
centage of extraction, growers have
been in the habit of holding their
crops as long as they dared for a
higher sugar content, while the mills
[ 79 ]

Cuban Cane Sugar
lay idle; much good cane has thus
been lost because in the final-mo
ment rush the mills were taxed far
beyond their capacity. It has be
come the practice of mills, thus, to
bend every effort toward handling
the largest quantity of cane, paying
little attention to the wastage which
such high pressure methods involve.
And the net result has been that
Cuba has wasted a considerable
percentage of her sugar which, sim
ply by efficient management, might
have been saved.
# * * *
Sugar-growing, and sugar-growing
in Cuba, particularly, must, essen
tially, be a large scale operation.
The small grower, today, finds
himself unable to compete with even
the few moderate-sized sugar under
takings which have sprung up in
Cuba; and with production be
coming better and better organized,
[80]

America's Opportunity
as it must, his position will become
more and more difficult.
Quite clearly the tendency toward
centralization in the business has
been written into the figures: in
1800, with a 24,000 ton production
of sugar, there were 870 factories in
Cuba; by 1870, with a 725,000 ton
production, there were 1,000 fac
tories — a 3200 per cent, increase in
production with only a sixteen per
cent, increase in the number of fac
tories — already centralization on a
small scale had begun to set in; in
1890, with a 625,000 ton production,
there were but 470 factories; while
in 1911, with nearly a 2,000,000 ton
production, there were but 168 fac
tories. Yet organization and centraliza
tion, which, as can be seen, have been
the tendency for more than a cen
tury, are really only at their be
ginning in Cuba — sugar operations
[ 81 ]

Cuban Cane Sugar
from this time forward must be
upon larger and larger scales, and
the trend of developments give prom
ise that they will be.
Cuba has much modern sugar
machinery and many modern sugar
mills; she needs all these, and more
like them; but Cuba's big opportu
nities are not alone for the machinery
salesman; the big opportunities she
presents are for enterprise and effici-
ciency; the same kind of enterprise
and efficiency that have placed Ameri
can steel, American automobiles,
American farm machinery and other
American products in the forefront
of the world's markets. And for
such enterprise and efficiency, her
sugar can afford to pay, as neither
steel nor automobiles nor farm ma
chinery have ever been able to^pay.
* * * * ¦
Just as Cuba has conducted her
cane-growing and her milling in a
[82]

Americas Opportunity
hand-to-mouth fashion, so too has
she conducted the marketing of this,
her most important crop.
Cuba's cane-growers have always
been at the mercy of the fluctuations
of the market — at the mercy, some
times, of artificial conditions created
for the purpose of making the mar
ket fluctuate. The growers, in times
of plenty, have been compelled to sell
at a low market, and have found
themselves, later, in times of scarcity
and with prices soaring, without a
product to deliver, The producer
thus has suffered, at no advantage
to the consumer. Nature has made
Cuba strong in sugar, but ineffi
ciency has made her weak in finance,
and she has been pinched and
squeezed in times when she might
as easily have dictated.
* * * *
Cuba's great opportunity, thus,
will belong to Capital— fearless capi-
[83 1

Cuban Cane Sugar
tal which shall lift her chief industry
out of its Spanish lethargy — capital
to provide improvements in agricul
ture and in manufacture — capital,
with confidence, to create marketing
conditions, instead of being the slave
of them.
Already American capital is work
ing wonders for Cuba in other lines —
already it has spanned her length
with a modern railroad and brought
the island within train and ferry
distance of New York; and already
American investment in transport
ation is beginning to reap its reward.
* * * *
Improved methods of cane-grow
ing — up to date agriculture; im
proved methods of sugar-making —
up to date manufacturing; improved
methods of marketing — up to date
merchandising; these are the definite
ways in which Cuban cane sugar can
be placed on a higher plane. These
[84]

Americas Opportunity
are the definite opportunities, there
fore, which are now opened up to
American industry, efficiency and
capital.

[ The End ]

[85