87 



cane, the exigencies of milling largely determine the time of cutting, 

 and therefore the time of planting. Xaturally, where the same fields 

 are cultiyated 3'^ear after year without rest or change of crops, the 

 average period of growth of the cane must be somewhat less than twelve 

 months. If fields are planted only on alternate years this period may 

 be somewhat lengthened. Sometimes an exceptionally long rainy season 

 delays grinding - for one or two months and correspondingly shortens 

 the growth of next year's crop. Wlien clear weather does come, every 

 energy is expended to keep the mill running full force and properly 

 supplied with cane, so that fields are often cut before they are fully 

 ripe, much to the detriment of the sugar produced. Again, especially 

 toward the end of the season, a prolonged dry period may occur, dur- 

 ing which cane which happened to be planted late on the previous 

 season and which had not yet attained maturity begins to succumb 

 to the heat and must be cut down at once to avoid a total loss. I 

 have seen fields of large cane of fine appearance, less than ten months 

 old, which needed to be sacrificed in this manner, in part too green 

 to produce good sugar and in part dead from heat and lack of moisture. 

 This condition is, of course, not so likely to occur on the heavy clay 

 soils as on the sandy or alluvial ones. 



COST OF CULTIVATION. 



This is a subject which has been so thoroughly and so energetically 

 discussed during the past few years, and one concerning which it is pos- 

 sible to obtain such widely varying estimates, according to the point 

 of view, that the seeker after truth enters upon it with considerable 

 trepidation. Especially when calculated to the picul, pound, or ton of 

 sugar produced does this cost of field operations show its widest varia- 

 tion, since, as has been shown previously, the ^deld in sugar from 1 

 hectare of land may be am^where from 20 to 200 piculs (1.26 to 12.6 

 metric tons), according to the soil, climatic conditions, care and in- 

 telligence in cultivation and in manufacture, and many other equally 

 important factors, whereas the actual labor expended on the land will 

 xsLTj within somewhat narrower limits. Still, it will generally be found 

 that the greater the cost of cultivation per hectare of land the more 

 sugar will be produced from it. In a few haciendas where the field 

 labor is paid for by contract, the price for plowing, cutting seed, plant- 

 ing the cane, and keeping it free from weeds .until ready to harvest 

 is from 50 centavos to 2 pesos for each picul of sugar produced, averag- 

 ing, as a rule, about 1 peso (15.80 pesos per metric ton), all work 

 animals, plows, carts, etc., being furnished by the hacienda. 



The following estimate, based upon the number of men required to 

 perform the previously described field operations and the cost of labor 



