THE CUBA REVIEW 23 



CUBAN CANE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



By MR. P. K. REYNOLDS 



PLANTATION, FACTORY AND REFINERY 



The Island of Cuba is the chief source of the world's supply of cane sugar, and 

 is often termed the "World's Sugar Bowl". 



The United Fruit Company is one of the largest and best rounded out sugar 

 propositions in the world. This fact is not generally known by the public, who are 

 apt to consider this Company as chiefly a banana and steamship enterprise. The 

 United Fruit Company owns some 75,000 acres of growing cane, together with avail- 

 able lands sufficient for nearly doubling this cane acreage, and two large sugar mills 

 in Cuba at the seaboard — "Central Boston" and "Central Preston" — having a com- 

 bined annual output of 1,000,000 bags of raw sugar. In connection with its sugar 

 mills, the United Fruit Company also owns and operates more than 230 miles of rail- 

 way in Cuba. It also owns the Revere Sugar Refinery, just completed, at the port 

 of Boston, which is probably the most modern refinery in the world. This refinery 

 has a daily output of 3,500 barrels of refined sugar and is so constructed as to permit 

 of further expansion. 



I.— PLANTATION 



A stalk of sugar cane somewhat resembles a bamboo stick. The section (inter- 

 node), or distance between the joints or nodes, is generally from four to eight inches 

 and extends the whole length of the cane from the root to the top, where there is a 

 mass of long, ribbonlike leaves. Unlike the remainder of the cane, the top sections 

 are not sweet, containing glucose and being unfit for sugar making. 



The height attained by cane varies considerably, depending upon the richness 

 of the soil, the degree of cultivation received, the rainfall during the growing season, 

 and the number of crops previously gathered from the same roots. A period of 

 drought or heavy rains will leave its imprint unmistakably upon those sections of 

 the cane which are being formed at that time, drought causing them to remain short 

 and stunted, while heavy rains result in their growing long and rank. Fully matured 

 cane in Cuba, grown under normal conditions, stands in the fields at an average 

 height of from eight to twelve feet, although canes are sometimes seen growing to 

 a height of twenty feet and over. A field of sugar cane, especially when the cane is 

 still young, resembles a corn field. Later when the cane is fully grown and the 

 leaves have attained their normal size, the resemblance is much less. 



The principal seasons for planting cane in Cuba are spring and fall, the former 

 extending from March to June and the latter from September to January. The cane 

 takes from twelve to fifteen months to mature. After it has been cut down, new 

 cane comes up from the same roots, and the field has to be weeded and cultivated as 

 it was for the first crop. The second crop can be cut after twelve months and the 

 operation repeated a year later. The number of crops which can be harvested from 

 one planting differs according to the quality of the soil, varying from six to eight 

 crops on medium lands to considerably more on the best lands, some areas having 

 been known to produce profitably for twenty years or more. Virgin lands from 

 which the forests have been cut, produce the heaviest cane, although it is not usually 

 as rich in sucrose as is the case in the older lands. A yield of from thirty-three to 

 forty-five tons (2,240 pounds each) of cane per acre may be obtained from virgin 

 lands, sometimes even more, whereas the average yield in the Island probably does 

 not exceed eighteen or twenty tons per acre. 



In preparing virgin land for planting, the trees and underbrush are first cut 

 down, and all good, hard timber is taken out and saved for building purposes. A 

 certain portion of the other wood is cut up and delivered to the mill to be used later 

 on as fuel. The remaining timber and bush which cannot be utilized in any way is 



