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THE CUBA REVIEW 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



Punta Alegre Mill and Buildings. 



THE "PUNTA ALEGRE" MILL 



The opening of this new central took place recently ind was attended with much ceremony 

 by a rei>resentative list of Boston financiers as well gs CLben dignitaries. 



This new mill is situated some forty miles ecst of Cr ibarien on the north capst. The factory 

 and batey site is beautifully placed at the waters' edge, and from the stamlpoint of the shipping 

 facilities afforded, the location is ideal. The heavy freight charges which the mills in the 

 interior of the isknd have to besr sre elininated since the sugrr made will be shipped from the 

 company's docks and in its lighters to shipside at Cayo Frances at a very low cost. 



The mill, erected by the West India Management and Consultation Com.pany, and em- 

 bodying all that sugar engineering experience of the past thirty years has proved to be best, is 

 undoubtedly what a sugar mill should be as a mechanical proposition. No expense has been 

 spared to obtain this end. The result is a m.echanical triumph. 



The mill is one of the two that have installed the double crusher process. This method 

 prepares the cane more thorough.ly than the single crusher, and makes possible a m.uch larger 

 tonnage with a better extraction of sugar. The entire plant, with the exception of the crushing 

 machinery, is driven by electricity. This has been found to be more efficient than steam, in 

 that it allows each unit to be controlled more easily than under the old steam process. In this 

 mill the grouping of the different units so that each process follows along the line of least resist- 

 ance was the subject of very careful study, with the result that the plant can be worked at a 

 minimum expense. 



Future expansions have also beenprovided for in such a way that they maybe effected with- 

 out disturbing in any particular the existing arrangements. The plantation from which the 

 company draws its supply of cane for the Punta San Juan (or Punta Alegre) mill consists of 

 35,000 acres of hea\\ black loam sugar land, drained by a system of .small ditches which 

 flow into a large ditch more than fifteen kilometers long. 



