THE CUBA REVIEW 15 



the imperfect crushing of cane left a bagasse which was filled with moisture, making 

 it necessary to have a considerable force of laborers who would remove this material, 

 spread it out over a large area close to the mill, leaving it to dry in the sun, after 

 which it was again brought to the mouths of the furnaces to be used as fuel. Upon 

 indications of a shower, the whole mill force was hurried into the drying field to pile 

 this bagasso into ridges, thus permitting only a relatively small portion to become wet. 



During this period, lands in Cuba were, of course, plentiful. When a field be- 

 came exhausted or began to yield poor crops, there was very little necessity of plow- 

 ing it, han-owing it, and going through the various processes which are to-day 

 utilized for careful preparation of the land for planting, as it was easier to fell an- 

 other small stretch of forest in which the cane was planted and which would produce 

 for many seasons without other care than the keeping down with the cane knife and 

 crude hoe employed at this period, the vines and weeds that would appear. Hauling 

 of cane was done entirely by the two-wheel cart still much in evidence in Cuba, and 

 the process of loading and unloading was carried on entirely by hand. The mills 

 themselves were housed in low, rambling buildings of the most non-descript char- 

 acters, and the slaves lived in quarters little better than those which nature had 

 provided. The profits, however, which the utilization of slave labor had allowed the 

 planters to obtain, had made many of them wealthy, so that their living quarters 

 at the mills were comfortable, and, in many cases, luxurious. 



We regret that we have not been able to obtain any photographs of the very old 

 "bull mills", or even the smallest steam mills formerly operated in Cuba. We have, 

 however, photographs showing two of the smallest mills existing in Cuba at the time 

 of early American occupation, (Nos. 1 and 2). The general surroundings of such 

 mills are shown by photographs No. 3, in which the boiler house is shown; by No. 4 

 in which the method is shown by which cane is received at the mill and dumped 

 from the cane carts onto, the carriers, and in which also appears the engine used to 

 move the carrier, this system being now practically obsolete; by No. 5 showing the 

 Manager's and Owner's home; and by No. 6 showing the laborers' quarters and store 

 at which they obtained their supplies. 



The contrast between the surroundings and conditions shown in the photographs 

 just mentioned and the gradual change as evidenced by many of our Cuban mills from 

 these conditions to those found at our most up-to-date factories, are clearly shown by 

 photographs No. 7 showing the "San Ramon" mill in Pinar del Rio Province; No. 8 

 showing "El Pilar" also in Pinar del Rio Province; No. 9 showing Central "Artemisa", 

 now "Lincoln", also in Pinar del Rio Province, but built only in 1917 and grinding for 

 the first time in the 1917-1918 crop; by No. 10 showing Central "Agramonte", one of 

 the new and largest factories in Camagiiey Province; and by Nos. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 

 16 and 17, showing various views of Central Cunagua and its surroundings. We use 

 this mill as the highest type of Cuban sugar factory, not only on account of the 

 character of the buildings and machinery employed in the manufacture of sugar, but 

 also on account of the attention and care given to the housing of its employes, their 

 welfare and contentment. Nowhere else in the Island are such pleasant surroundings 

 found, and nowhere else is the eye greeted by the pleasing color of flowers and the 

 helpful influence of the knowledge that the wants and even pleasures of the employes 

 have been considered. That places of beauty were, however, not entirely lacking is 

 shown by photograph No. 18 showing the garden of the residence of the owner of 

 "Conchita", Sr. Baro, before this became one of the Cuba Cane properties. 



If great changes have come over the characters of the buildings in which our 

 sugar factories are housed and of those provided for their employes and in their 

 general surroundings, others fully as great and of tremendous importance to the 

 stability of the sugar industry have occurred within the mills themselves. The old 

 system of two or three rolls in which the cane was very imperfectly crushed, has 



