40 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



The accounts of profits from tropical agriculture are often 

 greatly exaggerated and are usually stated on a misleading 

 basis. As a matter of fact, most of the profits of tropical 

 agricultural corporations are profits on cheap labor, not profits 

 from agriculture. A corporation with 2,000 laborers receiv- 

 ing 50 cents a day but really earning $i a day makes a clear 

 profit of $250,000 a year over and above its legitimate agri- 

 cultural profit as a result of underpaying the labor. As al- 

 ready indicated, the laborer employed on tropical plantations 

 is nearly on the same basis as the mule, that is, working for 

 his board. 



As an example of the agricultural profits from the tropical 

 industries we may take the economics of sugar production. 

 The contract by which the small sugar planter disposes of his 

 cane to the sugar mill in Hawaii varies somewhat according 

 to the company. According to one scheme the small planter 

 receives 48 cents of every dollar obtained for the raw sugar 

 in San Francisco or New York. In other words, when sugar 

 brings $75 a ton the homesteader or small planter gets $36 a 

 ton and the sugar mill company gets $39 a ton. The sugar 

 mill is at an expense of $5 per ton for milling and $9 for 

 freight and the mill profit is, therefore, $25 a ton. On the 

 other hand, it costs the small planter $4 a ton to produce his 

 sugar cane and it requires at least 8 tons of cane to make one 

 ton of sugar. The total cost to the small planter, therefore, 

 of producing a ton of sugar is $32. The small planter, there- 

 fore, makes a profit of $4 a ton on his sugar when the sugar 

 sells for $75 a ton. Now an average yield of sugar in Hawaii 

 is about 4% tons per acre and the small planter's profit per 

 acre is therefore $18 on an 18 months' crop, or $12 per acre 

 per year. The average size of the sugar cane homestead in 

 Hawaii is about 10 acres. The homesteader's profit from his 

 whole homestead is therefore $120 per year. If, however, 

 sugar falls to $60 per ton the small planter actually loses. 

 Moreover, many of the plantations pay for cane according to 



