THE CUBA REVIEW 



29 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



SUGAR CANE S REQUIREMENTS 



Sugar cane is of the grass family. Its 

 stalks rise from 6 feet to 12 feet in height, 

 and are about an inch and a half thick. 

 It requires a rich soil. It calls for much 

 shining down of a hot sun and heavy 

 downpours of rain to bring it to maturity ; 

 it shivers to death in frost and it is a 

 greedy drinker. Hence it is of the greatest 

 consequence to the planter that the rainfall 

 be heavy enough and come at the right 

 time. After the rainy season it needs 

 months of burning sun, followed by dry 

 and cool weather. Then the juice be- 

 comes richer and richer in sugar, and the 

 cane is ready to cut and grind. If the 

 rainy season is too short or precipitation 

 too light the cane is poor in weight and 

 size and the sugar yield diminishes. If 

 there is too prolonged a rainy season there 

 will be great quantities of gummy juice 

 and a much low^er sugar yield. If the 

 cane cutting be done too early or if it 

 be too long delayed the quantity of sugar 

 in the juice will be low. The cane cutting 

 must be done within little over 100 days 

 for the best results. To sum up then, 

 in proportion as the climate is warm and 

 damp, and fairly constant in' keeping these 



conditions, so is cane growing likely to 

 thrive in a particular country. Cuba and 

 the West India Islands generally furnish 

 large areas of cane-growing soil ; Mexico, 

 Haw-aii, Java, Mauritius likewise meet the 

 conditions. In the United States : Louisiana 

 and latterly Texas, have cane areas, but 

 their cane has not the great luxuriance 

 or richness of tropical cane and requires 

 an annual sowing, while in Cuba the same 

 plants have produced richly for ten and 

 even fifteen years. Little has really been 

 done anywhere to improve the sugar cane. 

 Experience and science have done much in 

 dealing with the juice. Nature is so lavish 

 with the cane that man has seemed to lack 

 the incitement to better it, but the time 

 is at hand when it will be specialized as 

 fruit has been by the Burbanks and others. 

 — Manuel Rionda, president Czarnikow- 

 Rionda Co., in the Louisiana Planter. 



The first section of the branch railroad 

 line in Santa Clara Province of the Cuban 

 Central which joins Cifuentes and La Es- 

 peranza cutting through the San Diego 

 valley, and which now reaches San Diego 

 de Valle from Cifuentes, has been thrown 

 upon to the public service. 



Architecture in Cub.\. — Residence of the administrator of the Nueva Luisa Central, Jovellanos. 



