Something about sugar

by George M. Rolph

A. Moscioni, Photo.

UNLOADING SUGAR CANE AT A MILL, PORTO RICO

As soon as this became an accomplished fact, there was a marked improvement in conditions, especially from a sugar point of view. Up to this time much attention had been given to the cultivation of coffee, and sugar production had suffered to a certain extent in consequence. Spain had admitted Porto Rican coffee free while protecting it by duties levied on foreign coffee, but when the island passed into the hands of America, this advantage to the coffee raiser disappeared. Besides, the hurricane of 1899 had caused great damage to the coffee plantations and the combination of circumstances proved a severe setback to the coffee industry.

The sugar planters, on the other hand, benefited greatly by annexation. In 1889 the government allowed a reduction of 85 per cent on the duty assessed on Porto Rican sugars entering the United States. In 1901 they came in absolutely free and Porto Rico has enjoyed the full protection of the tariff ever since.

In 1900 Congress passed a law known as the Foraker act, which provided that no corporation should be allowed to acquire more than 500 acres of land in Porto Rico and that no stockholder in any agricultural company operating there should be permitted to hold shares in any other corporation of the kind. The object of the law was, of course, to prevent capitalists from buying up great tracts of land for the cultivation of sugar on a large scale to the detriment of the native land owner.

The act, however, did not serve the interests of the small Porto Rican farmer as its framers apparently intended it should. The owners of large holdings were non-resident and the small farmers lacked the money and enterprise to carry on the industry in a proper manner. The law excluded that which was most urgently needed, namely foreign capital, and when this fact became apparent, the provisions of the measure were construed liberally by the authorities, so that of late years extensive sugar estates have been started in Porto Rico with American, British and French backing, and the production has grown from 85,000 tons in 1902 to 378,509 tons in 1916.

Formerly the Porto Rican planters used to harvest cane from the same lands year after year, without using fertilizers of any kind. When they planted new cane, the soil was only partially prepared; the subsoil was never cleared of roots and rough grasses and cultivation was only indifferently done. The result is that many cane fields are now practically exhausted and some planters find that their lands are becoming spoiled by rapidly multiplying weeds.

Today the usual method is to plough the ground twice before putting in the seed. Deep ploughing is taking the place of scratching the surface and steam ploughs are being used on the larger estates. Where the soil is heavy and the rainfall abundant, the furrows are dug about eight feet apart and two feet deep and the cane planted in double rows at four-foot intervals. In dry, sandy soil the planting is in single rows and the distance between the furrows ranges from four to six feet, according to how rich the soil is. The fields are kept free from weeds and manure is used but seldom.

The greater part of the cane is planted during the last four months of the year and crushing is begun in the second January following, which gives the cane a growing period of fourteen months or more. Some planting is done in January, February and March and this cane is cut in twelve months. Then a certain amount is planted between March and June, and if the sugar content proves satisfactory, it is ground the following season; if not, it is allowed to remain standing for another year. Planting is done every four years and the best results are obtained from the first and second ratoon crops. The yield of cane per acre averages about 18 long tons, although this has been exceeded in good years. The cane is cut close to the ground with a machete and loaded on ox-carts to be taken to the mill or the railway station, according to the location of the field.

Almost all of the cane grown in Porto Rico is ground in the large central factories, but it is only during the last ten or twelve years that this has been done. The small mills have disappeared for the most part, although a few have been able to struggle along.