28 



THE CUBA R E \' I 1/ W 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



DR. DESVERNINE S SUGAR VIEWS 



According to Dr. Desvernine, who is the 

 Cuban Minister to Washington, Cuban 

 sugar planters under the provisions of the 

 Underwood tariff can capture the trade of 

 the United States if his country will make 

 special effort to meet the new conditions. 

 He addressed the Havana Board of Trade 

 on November 7th last and told them that 

 Cuban manufacturers must reduce the cost 

 of production to a minimum. If that is 

 done, he thinks it will be impossible for 

 any country to produce sugar more cheaply, 

 Cuba having the advantage of a low sea 

 freight rate to New York, which is less 

 than the railroad rates from the interior of 

 the United States to the coast, and also 

 less than the maritime freight rates from 

 Java, Europe, and South America. 



The suppression of the Dutch standard, 

 he said, gives Cuban sugar producers more 

 freedom, inasmuch as their stock is not 

 limited to a color which only refiners could 

 purchase. Cuban planters can make white 

 sugar of 98 and 99 degrees or more purity 

 for direct consumers, so that it need not 

 pass through the refiners' hands before 

 reaching the purchasers. 



But before enjoying these advantages, 

 the Minister says, it will be necessary for 

 Cuban producers to organize along the 

 lines followed by the California fruit 

 growers, so as to have no difficulty in plac- 

 ing their sugar. The chief trouble of the 

 Cuban growers in the past has been their 

 inability to hold their sugar for the proper 

 prices, this inability enabling New York- 

 buyers to obtain it at extremely low 

 figures. He thinks Cuba should sell her 

 sugar at the world's parity, thereby pre- 

 venting American buyers from purchasing 

 the Cuban supply every year for $30,000,000 

 or $40,000,000 less than if they had bought 

 in London or Hamburg. 



He estimates that upward of 300,000 tons 

 of Cuban sugar were exported to England 

 and Canada last season, while many large 

 contracts are pending for future delivery 

 in January and February. 



Forty-two thousand bags were sold to 

 Japan alone. 



NO INTENSIVE CULTIVATION FOR CUBA 



"The present condition of the British 

 West Indian sugar industry is critical. The 

 average production of the weight of cane 

 to the acre of land cultivated is low, con- 

 sidering that an advanced system of cul- 

 tivation is applied. The quantity of re- 

 coverable sugar present in the cane is from 

 year to year very unsatisfactory. The 



quality of the extracted juice is generally 

 poor, and shows a retrogressive tendency. 

 The losses caused by insect and fungoid 

 pests attacking this crop are very increas- 

 ing. The Bourbon cane has in many lo- 

 calities entirely deteriorated, and the new 

 seedling varieties which were introduced to 

 take its place, not only do not quite fill the 

 vacancy but have in their turn to be re- 

 placed by other seedlings because of their 

 rapid deterioration." 



So writes J. J. A. Carlee in the West 

 India Committee Circular of August 26th 

 and the remedy for these discouraging con- 

 ditions is the establishment of nurseries on 

 sugar estates, of which "there is not one 

 in the West Indies," although in universal 

 use in Java, and more exactly described by 

 ]\Ir. Carlee as "recuperating grounds for 

 the cane grown on the estates." In this 

 way a sound foundation is laid not only for 

 the crop of the next year, but for coming 

 years. 



If all cane cuttings used come from these 

 nurseries a continuous supply of sure dis- 

 ease resistant plants is secured, and a better 

 type of cane is sure to follow. 



There are no such nurseries in Cuba and 

 the writer says : "We have heard it sug- 

 gested, and a certain profound truth under- 

 lies this suggestion : How is it, if there be 

 this urgent necessity for cane nurseries, 

 that Cuba, the greatest producer of cane 

 sugar, manages to do entirely without 

 them ? 



"The reply is that in Cuba intensive cul- 

 tivation of the sugar cane cannot be prac- 

 tised. This is due to the lack of labor, 

 which disadvantage in that island is met 

 by an abundance of fertile land, so that 

 extensive cultivation can there be a success. 

 The cane is treated as a weed and is left 

 to take care of itself, and the average yield 

 of cane per acre is therefore very low. So 

 axiomatic is the statement that the sugar 

 cane if left to struggle for itself is hardier, 

 as compared with that which has been at- 

 tended to with all the available resources 

 of modern agriculture that, given an ac- 

 count of a general and very low prbduction 

 of cane to the unit of area cultivated in any 

 tropical country, it will be perfectly safe to 

 infer the comparative freedom., of, that cane 

 from organic deterioration and also from 

 serious pests and diseases, and given a 

 statement of a very high production of 

 cane, to the unit of area cultivated in any 

 tropical country, it will be safe to infer 

 that this high production can only be se- 

 cured at the expense of the hardiness of 

 the cane, and that it will not be maintained. 



