124 



considerable capital invested in land, animals, and equipment, and in 

 addition to this requires no small outlay for special machinery, which, 

 crude though it may be, becomes decidedly expensive by the time it 

 has been brought to Iloilo, reshipped to Negros, and set up there on 

 the hacienda. A sufficient Avorking capital is also needed to pay ad- 

 vances to laborers, salaries and living expenses of the administrator and 

 his assistants, and to keep the farm going until the sugar is sold. 

 On all of this capital legitimate charges for interest and depreciation 

 must be made and the total calculated to the amount of . sugar made 

 during the season before the true cost of production can be determined. 

 This is a most difficult matter even roughly to approximate, and ab- 

 solutely impossible at present to state with certainty, because of the 

 enormous variations in the size, resources, and management of dif- 

 ferent haciendas. Unfortunately, those who are really well informed 

 on this subject, as is the case in almost any other business, are as a 

 rule the least anxious to give the general public the benefit of their 

 knowledge. A fairly good idea of the fixed expenses on an ordinary 

 sugar plantation may be obtained by assuming a typical hacienda of 

 about average size and figuring out in detail the capital tied up in 

 land, buildings, farm implements, machinery, work animals, etc., and 

 adding to the depreciation and interest on this sum a certain amount 

 for administration and household expenses. Such an ideal hacienda 

 has already been assumed in connection Avith the calculation of the 

 expenses for labor in the field. In that case it was found necessary 

 to assume a plantation a little better cared for than the average, 

 in order to obtain any reliable data, since the very poorest places, 

 which reduce the general average of yield, have as a rule, no fixed 

 system of cultivation which they follow, but expend a greater or less 

 amount each year according as they may possess the capital or the 

 credit to work with. For the same reason it is even more necessary 

 in calculating fixed expenses to consider a place somewhere nearly 

 adequately equipped for the work in hand, therefore the equipment 

 and general expenses set forth in the following estimate will, per hectare 

 of land, run somewhat higher than those of the average plantation 

 in Negros at the present time. At the same time the estimated yield 

 of 60 piculs (3.8 metric tons) of sugar per hectare of land is propor- 

 tionally higher than the average of 42.9 piculs (2.7 metric tons) now 

 secured, so that the amount of money expended will, when reduced 

 to the unit of sugar made, not differ greatly in each case. This departure 

 from strictly average conditions is an admitted defect in the calculation, 

 but is justified by the much greater accuracy of information obtainable. 



The hacienda about to be considered by no means represents the 

 best equipment, or most efficient management, at present existing in 

 Negros, but may be taken as a type of the average place not unduly 



