254 SUGAR MAKING MACHINERY. 



and the rise in the price of sugar which was the natural 

 consequence, the improvement in machines and ovens, 

 due in great part to the refugees of Cape Fra^ois, the 

 more intimate connection formed between the proprietors 

 of the sugar factories and the merchants of the Havan- 

 nah, the great capital employed by the latter in agricultural 

 establishments (sugar and coffee plantations), such have 

 been successively the causes of the increasing prosperity 

 of the island of Cuba, notwithstanding the conflict of the 

 authorities, which serves to embarrass the progress of 

 affairs. 



The greatest changes in the plantations of sugar-cane 

 and in the sugar factories, took place from 1796 to 1800. 

 First, inules were substituted (trapiches de mulas) for oxen 

 (trapiches de bueyes) ; and afterwards, hydraulic wheels 

 were introduced (trapiches de agua), which the first con- 

 quistadores had employed at Saint Domingo ; finally, the 

 action of steam-engines was tried at Ceibabo, at the expense 

 of Count Jaruco y Mopex. There are now twenty-five of 

 those machines in the different sugar mills of the island of 

 Cuba. The culture of the sugar-cane of Otaheite in the 

 meantime increased. Boilers of preparation (clarificadoras) 

 were introduced, and the reverberating furnaces better 

 arranged. It must be said, to the honour of wealthy pro- 

 prietors, that in a great number of plantations, a kind soli- 

 citude is manifested for sick slaves, for the introduction of 

 iiegresses, and for the education of children. 



The number of sugar factories (yngenios), in 1775, was 

 473 in the whole island; and in 1817 more than 780. 

 Among the former, none produced the fourth part of the 

 sugar now made in the yngenios of second rank ; it is con- 

 sequently not the number of factories that can afford an 

 accurate idea of the progress of that branch of agricultural 

 industry. 



The first sugar-canes carefully planted on virgin soil yield 

 a harvest during twenty to twenty-five years, after which 

 they must be replanted every three years. There existed in 

 1804, at the Hacienda de Matamoros, a square (Canaveral) 

 worked during forty-five years. The most fertile soil for 

 the production of sugar is now in the vicinity of Mariel and 

 Guanajay. That variety of sugar-cane known by the name 



