According to the 1915 edition of the Century atlas, the population is 4,609,999. About 57 per cent of the inhabitants are Indians, 13 per cent whites, 2 per cent Asiatics, 2 per cent negroes, the remainder being mixed races.
The sugar plantations are found on the west or dry side in the coast region.
The valleys of this coast country have been upraised from the ocean at a comparatively recent geological period, and the fertile soils of these valleys are the result of erosion and deposit through the agency of mountain torrents.
The most important cane-growing districts lie seven or eight degrees south of the equator, and yet the climate of that section cannot be called really tropical. It is influenced by the cold antarctic currents and the steady winds that sweep northward. Observations on the Cartavio plantation during the period 1904-1907 showed the highest maximum temperature to be 95.5 degrees and the lowest minimum to be 52 degrees Fahrenheit. In the coast territory the rainfall is limited and the cane crops depend upon irrigation.
The soils of the coast valleys range from silt to an extremely fine sandy loam, and vary in thickness. As a rule they are deep, retentive of moisture, well drained, rich in plant food, easy to cultivate and, with intelligent treatment, very productive.
Ricardo Palma, in his work, “Tradiciónes Peruanas,” sets forth that sugar cane was not known in Peru when Francisco Pizarro and his followers first landed there in 1527, but that it was brought in a short time afterward. The first plantation was established in 1570 and the first factory was erected on an estate in the valley of Huanuco. Meanwhile, the sugar used in Lima came from Mexico, and the owner of the Huanuco mill, realizing that his product could not compete with Mexican sugar, had recourse to a clever stratagem. He loaded a vessel with sugar and sent her to Mexico. The ruse was successful, for the Mexican manufacturers at once concluded that if sugar could be shipped from Peru to Mexico, the production must be large and the cost very low. Consequently, they discontinued their shipments from Acapulco to Peru, much to the advantage of the astute factor of the Huanuco valley. In the beginning, the estates were worked by slaves, and, as happened in other sugar countries, after the abolition of slavery the plantation owners were compelled to look abroad for their laborers. As many as 90,000 Chinese were imported from Macao[73] between 1849 and 1874, but so many of them succumbed to the severe treatment they received that the Macao authorities put a stop to the labor traffic altogether. The Chinese living in Peru at the present time are tradespeople and the work on the sugar plantations and in the mills is done by the native Indians.
LEVELING A CANE FIELD, PERU
