ANNIVERSARY NUMBER 1919 



61 



PLANTING SUGAR CANE 



The resulting lumps of sugar are called 

 "panochas" and are sold in the native mar- 

 kets. The weight is from 1 to 2 pounds. 



Nearly one-fifth of the sugar for local con- 

 sumption is sold in this form. 



tract of land on the island of Mindoro former- 

 ly belonging to the friars and the first large 

 sugar mill was erected there in 1910, the 

 company cultivating its own cane. 



It proved difficult to cultivate such great 

 stretches of land under administration and 

 gradually hacenderos where encouraged to 

 come to Mindoro and lease tracts of land 

 from the company and to cultivate cane, 

 which was bought by the company under 

 agreement with the planters. 



These planters generally brought their 

 own laborers with them from Luzon, Negros 

 and Panay, Cebu. 



This first mill which is capable of crush- 

 ing 800 tons of cane per day was followed by 

 another large mill on the island of Luzon 

 on a large track of land formerly belonging 

 to the clergy by an American corporation 

 and situated near Calamba. 



This mill crushed the first crop in' 1912. 

 having a great amount of cane under own 

 cultivation besides milling great quantities 

 of cane from individual planters. 



LUZON SUGAR CANE EIGHT MONTHS OLD 



TRANSPORTING CANE BY GASOLINE POWER 



This mill has extended considerably and 

 is at present the largest on the island and 

 capable of crushing 1,800 tons in 24 hours. 



The next large sugar mill to be erected 

 was the central at San Carlos. 



This factory was a central proper, having 

 no land, but crushing cane under an agree- 

 ment between the mil! owners and the plant- 

 ers. 



This factory, which, for the Philippines, 

 was an experiment, proved highly successful 

 from the point of view of the planters as well 

 as of the millowners and opened the eyes of 

 planters and of investors to the great ad- 

 vantages of such an arrangement. 



The planters of San Carlos found them- 

 selves in a few years not only out of debt 

 but men of substance. 



This example made the planters in other 

 districts look out for capitalists willing to 

 put up a central under an agreement like 

 San Carlos. 



This is shortly as follows: 



The planters bind themselves to cultivate 

 a certain acreage of their farms yearly with 

 cane and to deliver this on the railway wa- 

 gons supplied by the millowners. 



The millowner undertakes to transport 

 this cane to the mill over tramlines supplied 

 and operated by him, for which a right of 

 way is granted to him over the farms, and to 

 crush the cane, guaranteeing a minimum 

 extraction. 



The sugar manufactured from the cane 

 and the resulting molasses are divided be- 

 tween the millowner and planters, according 

 to the agreement made, but usually on a 

 50 50 basis. 



It is needless to say that these processes 

 are next to medieval and, except for India 

 and China, the Philippines is the onlv im- 

 portant sugar-producing country where they 

 have survived. 



American occupation did not improve the 

 position of the planters during its early years. 

 especially as the people distrusted new" ways 

 and were still dependent on their money lend- 

 ers for financial assistance. 



In 1902 the U. S. government made a re- 

 duction of duty of 25 per cent on all sugar 

 from the Philippines, imported into the 

 States. 



This however did not improve the situa- 

 tion very much as "muscovado" sugar is 

 difficult to refine and therefore most of the 

 Philippine sugar was still consumed by China. 



A greater "help was the Payne-Aldrich 

 bill of 1909 providing free entry 'for 300,000 

 tons of Philippine sugar annually into the 

 United States. 



The Underwood Bill has since admitted all 

 sugars produced in the Philippines free of 

 duty in the United States. 



The Americans were the first to realize 

 the opportunities which the Philippines 

 offered for the establishing of large sugar 

 centrals. 



The first large central was erected by 

 Americans who made a contract with the 

 Government for. the purchase of a large 



A PRIMITIVE MILL 



