Vol. XIII. No. 312. 



THE AGRICULTUEAL NEWS. 



115 



and slightly larger installation is just completed for Don 

 Arturo Lluvera.s on his hacienda in Guayanilla. 



(2) In the Adjuntas district we tind three new sugar 

 producers, Eduardo Abreu, who has been too modest to give 

 his mill a name, but nevertheless added 3'75 tons to the 

 island's production, while the new Ingenios ■' Recurso' and 

 ' Esperanza' produced 10 ton.s and 20 tons, respectively. 



(3) In the .Juana Diaz district we find two new mills 

 with a total output of 5'75 tons, and in San Sebastian one 

 with 75. 



One of the latest new factories, Central Camuy, which 

 has made but two crops, of 2,2.57 and 1,977 tons, 

 respectivel}', has now closed up, and many rumours have been 

 afloat of its having been sold to partie.s in Venezuela. 



At least two other Centrals are for sale, and several 

 parties from Venezuela and elsewhere have been in the island 

 looking them over, and there is really no reason why these 

 factories, which cannot be made to pay in Porto Ilico, where 

 cane costs anywhere from $3 to 85 per ton, when sugar is 

 being sold in New York at from $3 to 85 per 100 lb. 

 should not pay well in countries like ^ enezuela. where cane 

 costs about 81 per ton and sugar sells for 810 or more 

 per 100 ft. 



In Venezuela, and also in most of the other South 

 American countries, sugar is sold locally at from 8 to 10 

 cents per pound, so that small mills with even the most 

 antiquated machinery pay well, and there will be handsome 

 profits for the first modern central which will be established. 

 It is, however, a great pity to see sugar mills being 

 dismantled in Porto Uico for removal to foreign countries, as 

 it is significant of a serious check to the island's wonderful 

 progress, and it will only be a question of time until 

 conditions become as bad as they are, and have been for 

 thirty years or more, in the neighbouring British and French 

 sugar producing islands. 



Already most of the public works have been stopped, 

 new roads have been left unfinished, and finished ones are not 

 being kept in proper repair, and, as taxes will have to be 

 reduced, it is probable that even some of the schools will 

 have to be closed. There already has been one serious 

 strike con.sequent to an attempted reduction of wages, and 

 labour only requires to be better organized to become a very 

 serious menace to the existence of the sugar industry. 



With very few exceptions, the sugar mills of Porto Rico 

 are modern in every way, and under competent, scientific 

 management ; all have at least nine-roller mills with crushers, 

 some have twelve rollers and a few have fifteen, with full 

 complements of other machinery, such as quadruple etlects, 

 vacuum pans, crystallizers, filter presses, etc. 



A few attempts have been made to produce white sugar 

 direct from the cane by means of sulfi'.ation and filtration, 

 and very pretty sugar has been the result. But while this 

 sugar is white enough for all practical purposes, it cannot 

 stand comparison with the snow white granulated sugar 

 which results when bone charcoal filtration is employed, as 

 in the refineries, and it would be a long and expensive cam- 

 paign to introduce it to the American consumer. This 

 whole question, of course, has been thoroughly threshed out 

 in the other islands years ago, and one may be sure that it 

 was not without a big struggle that sugar estates were 

 abandoned where it was found impossible to compete in the 

 open markets of the world. One of the first moves in the 

 Briti.sh colonies wa<< the combination of small estate.^ under 

 one management to grind their cane at central factories, but 

 this already has been done in Porto Rico. Another move was 

 the introduction of East Indian coolies from India and .Java, 

 hut the immigration laws of the Ignited States would not 



allow of such action in Porto Rico, nor would the govern- 

 ments of India or Java permit them to leave. 



Of course it is quite possible that even after the duty 

 on sugar has been reduced or removed entirely in the United 

 States that the price may remain at 3Jc. or more, in 

 which case there will always be a margin of profit for the 

 producer sufficient to keep him alive, and those who are 

 favourably situated financially and otherwise will weather the 

 bad times till the natural increase in consumption will cause 

 a shortage in the world's supply and the price will again go 

 up to 4c. or more. 



In the meantime what we want in Porto Rico is an 

 immediate reduction of our property taxes to correspond 

 with the new conditions, and if new roads, new schools, new 

 harbour works, etc , have to be su.spended meanwhile, we had 

 better face the new conditions now than later. (Sugar, 

 February 191-1.) 



DETERIORATION OF SEEDLING CANES 



IN HAWAII. 



The tendency of varieties of sugar- cane to 'ruii 

 out' as a consequence of continuous cultivation is now 

 generally recognized. Considerable attention has been 

 given to this phenomenon in British Guiana (see 

 West Indian Bulletin, Vol. XIII, No. 2). It now 

 appears that the subject is receiving definite notice 

 in Hawaii. 



Considerable interest has been attracted to the question 

 of cane varieties in the Hawaiian Islands, on account of the 

 fact that one of the staple varieties, Lahaina, is reported 

 from many sections as deteriorating, thus bringing to the 

 attention of the planters the fact that a substitute will have 

 to be found within the not distant future. 



The so-called running out of this cane variety is especi* 

 ally noticeable on Hawaii, and of late has been showing quite 

 extensively on Oahu at the Ewa plantation, and also, on the 

 Oahu Sugar Company's property. This condition has been 

 known to the Experiment Station Staff of the Hawaiian 

 Sugar Planters' Association for some time, but as yet nothing 

 has been discovered that would cause the running out to 

 cease. For a number of years the main cane varieties 

 planted in these islands have been the Ro.se Bamboo, the 

 Yellow Caledonia and the Lahaina. But of late the D. 1135 

 has been planted quite extensively, and the Rose Bamboo 

 gradually discontinued. 



The yellow Caledonia is the most popular, the 1914 

 and 1915 crops will show an acreage of approximately 

 116,000 sown to this variety, the next in line being Lahaina 

 with a total acreage of perhaps 75,000 for the two crops 

 above mentioned, both of which are already in the ground. 

 As an instance of the decrease in the cultivation of Lahaina 

 might be mentioned the acreage of this variety on Oahu. 

 In 1913, 16,568 acres of this cane were harvested, while the 

 1915 crop has only 12,664 acres, a falling off of about 

 4,000 acres. On the other hand Yellow Caledonia gained 

 2,200 acres. 



The variety that is probably attracting the most 

 attention is the Demerara 1135 or D.1135, while only 

 2,709 acres all tnld are planted to this variety for the 1915 

 crop, this is an increase of 1,300 acres over 1914 and 2,000 

 over the 1913 acreage of this variety. This kind seems 

 to do well on all the Islands, and at present is more widely 

 distributed than any other variety grown in the group. 



