LEVELING GROUND BY STEAM, PERU
The year 1860 marked an important change in the industry, which up to that time had been carried on in a very primitive manner. A large amount of fresh capital was put into sugar enterprises, new mills were built, the most approved machinery was installed and the factories were equipped with the best appliances that money could buy. The apparatus for some of the plants was brought from the United States, while that for others was supplied by European countries, so that the methods and workmanship of various nationalities are found in the Peruvian factories. No expense was spared in any department and all went well so long as the price of sugar kept up; what was easily made was liberally administered, but when in 1875 the market dropped, severe competition drove many operators into difficulties and a number of them went under entirely. The war with Chile in 1878 and the subsequent revolutionary disturbances impeded the progress of the industry, but a restoration of tranquillity came in 1895, and since then the sugar business of Peru has prospered and increased in volume.
An experiment station was established near Lima in 1906 for the study of cane cultivation, irrigation problems and the improvement of yield and quality by the introduction of new varieties of cane. The manufacturing side of the question has also been gone into with great care, and much is being done to increase efficiency in that direction.
Today there are 47 modern factories in Peru and 125,000 acres planted in sugar cane. Outside of these modern plants, crushing is also done in a crude manner in wooden-roller mills on small plantations that are scattered throughout the interior. The juice obtained in this way is worked up to chancaca[74] or panela or made into an alcoholic beverage called cañaso or chacta.
As the plantations do not depend upon any special season of rainy or dry weather, planting and harvesting may be done at any time. In Peru the land upon which sugar cane is grown is generally gently sloping. On the large haciendas, when preparing virgin soil for planting, the brush is first cleared away and the holes filled. The ground is then ploughed and cross-ploughed by steam-ploughs and broken fine by clod-crushers; roadways and drainage ditches are laid out, forming squares or rectangles, and furrows are made at intervals of three to four feet. This done, the ground is ready for planting. The cane tops used for seed are cut during harvesting, loaded on cars and sent to the field that is to be planted. The seed cane is placed horizontally in the furrow and covered with a few inches of earth, and as soon as the whole field is planted in this manner, water from the irrigation ditch is turned in and the cane left to grow. The first weeding is done when the cane shoots are a foot high, and it is continued at intervals until the cane leaves become large enough to shade the ground and prevent weed growth. The cane matures in from eighteen to twenty-four months, according to location, soil and weather conditions. Some weeks before harvesting, irrigation is discontinued in order to allow the cane to ripen.
In cultivating the first ratoons, when the cane gets to be a few feet high the crest of the furrow is thrown down into the furrow so that the irrigation water passes between the rows of cane instead of along the furrows, as in the case of plant cane.
Ratooning is kept up until it ceases to be profitable. At the Hacienda Cartavio, four ratoon crops have been grown in some places, and as many as seven in others, with good results.
PLANTING CANE, PERU
