29 



Statistics of crop* at A'u/ Lino. 



CENTRAL SUGAR-HOUSES. 



The manufacture of sugar in Cuba is gradually being consolidated 

 into large houses, the smaller estates furnishing the cane. 



The Cuban manufacturers are beginning to realize what the (iermans 

 long since learned, viz, that it is more profitable for the sugar-house 

 to attend to the manufacture only and leave the agriculture to tenants 

 or independent farmers. 



This system should be adopted by the planters of Louisiana. Our 

 houses are too small to be worked economically. One house making 

 10,000,000 pounds of sugar can manufacture for a far smaller proportion- 

 ate cost than three estates working three aid a third millions each. 



One of the owners of the largest houses in Cuba and probably the 

 largest cane-sugar house in the world, told me that on the scale in which 

 they manufacture (175,000 to 200,000 pounds per day) they make good 

 profits even with the present prices. This house purchases its caue 

 from tenants and independent farmers at a price dependent upon the 

 average market value of sugar for each month. Hence, if the price 

 of sugar rises, the cultivator profits by the rise; if it falls he divides 

 the loss with the manufacturer. In these contracts, which are made 

 for a term of years, it is specified that the density of the juice must 

 not fall below a certain degree, but if it should, the manufacturer pa\ s a 

 lower price for the cane. The time of harvesting and the price to be paid 

 for burnt cane in case of the fields being swept by thv also enter into 

 these contracts. 



THE ECONOMY OF STEAM. 



The cost of fuel is a very large expense ou Cuban estates, especialh 

 if this fuel is coal, which must be imported from other countries. Tin- 

 best houses employ every device for economy of combustible. 



The evaporation is conducted in multiple-effect pans. The juice is 

 pumped from the mill to a calorisator, consisting of a large number of 

 tubes about which the vapors from the last pan of the s\stem circulate, 



