1 88 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



The sugar-cane plantations occupied the relatively level 

 plateau out of which the deep caiion of the Reventazon 

 and the crater of Juan Vifias station have been cut. They 

 extended to the edge of this caiion, the sloping sides of which 

 were covered with forest and dense undergrowth or, on the 

 crater sides, with coflFee and some maize. The sugar-cane 

 was planted in rows five to six feet apart, the plants in each 

 row being only six inches to two feet apart. On June 29 

 the cane was higher than a man's head. In appearance 

 sugar-cane is not unlike maize but the main stem is shorter 

 and the leaves are given off much nearer the ground. A so- 

 called wild cane also grows in Costa Rica, reaching a height 

 of ten feet, and is used in the construction of native huts 

 and houses. This is possibly the "caha blanca" (Gynerium 

 saccharoides). It is easily distinguished from sugar-cane 

 because its leaves are definitely two-ranked so that in "end" 

 view the plant looks very flat, while in sugar-cane the leaves 

 are several-ranked, the bases forming a spiral around the 

 main stem, and in no view does the plant appear flat. 



A small narrow gauge track ran from the sugar-mill 

 through the plantation, so graded that the loaded cars went 

 down by gravity to the mill but were hauled up by mules 

 when empty. On September 30 we saw the cane brought 

 in these cars to the mill, dumped at the head of wide slow- 

 moving belts and fed to the crushers, where the juice ran 

 down into vats while the almost perfectly dry fiber was re- 

 moved to serve as fuel in the preparation of the sugar. The 

 juice was boiled with a little sulphur vapor to purify it and 

 the brown molasses was run into the centrifugal refiners, 

 where we watched it turn paler and paler. First, second 

 and third class sugars were made here — and none of it was 

 beet sugar. All the sugar was used in Costa Rica, freight 

 charges being so heavy and excess production so slight 

 that it did not pay the producers to ship outside. The molas- 



