THECUBAREVIEW 33 



The demand for Porto Rico sugars has also been active and qviotation has now 

 advanced to the basis of 12i/^c c. i. f. New York, at which figure there appears to be 

 a continued steady demand. Full duty sugars are also selling at full up prices, from 

 %c to %c below the Cuban cost and freight basis. 



According to advices from Louisiana regarding our domestic cane crop the' plant- 

 ing is very largely completed and things in general are reported as being in good 

 shape, the warm weather promoting the development of the planted and the stubble 

 cane. 



As regards our domestic beet crop for next year the agitation for high prices 

 among the farmers for their beets has now been largely dropped and the various 

 companies report a rapid increase in the signing up of acreage, most of the com- 

 panies intending to paj' $12.00 a ton flat for beets with bonvises reported in instances 

 providing the high level of refined sugar prices is maintained. 



Our correspondents in Trinidad report that grinding is making satisfactory 

 progress in the Island with good yields in most cases. The high prices being paid 

 the farmers for their cane has resulted in a good increase in the acreage, the grow- 

 ing of minor industrial products being more or less abandoned. 



Attention is now. being more or less directed to the probable sowings for the 

 coming beet root crops in Europe. The season now closed has proved, to be more or 

 less of a failure both in Germany and Czecho- Slovakia and the comparative failure 

 of these crops has had much to do with the maintenance of the existing high prices 

 for sugar. In Germany, however, it is expected that the sowings of beet roots will 

 be 20 to 30 per cent, larger this campaign and that with more available labor and a 

 sufficient supply of fertilizer greatly increased crops may be harvested in the coming 

 season. The same holds good for Czecho-Slovakia, but in France with her ruined 

 factories a great extension is for the present impossible. 



In the refined sugar markets of the United States there is little change to report, 

 a few refiners allocating sugars occasionally to their regular trade on the basis of 

 14 to 16c per pound. With the advance in raws it would seem that some adjustment 

 would have to be made by some of the large refiners for their refined product 

 to a higher level, on the basis of the present raw quotations there being a margin 

 of only .9.3c per pound, but, of course, the refiners' actual margins are much larger 

 than this, depending on the average value of the various raw sugars purchased by 

 them. The trade are filling out their requirements and will likely continue to do so 

 for some time to come with the various high grade Central and South Americian 

 washed sugars which continue to arrive and are offered at prices ranging from 16 to 17c 

 duty paid. 



It is interesting to note Java sugars are now selling for prompt delivery for 

 51 guilders per picol f. o. h. Java, Avhich is equal to nearly 15c per pound against 

 about l%c per pound two years ago at this time, when approximately 2,000,000 tons 

 of unsold sugars were in the Island because of a lack of shipping due to war condi- 

 tions. The stock in Java on March 1. 1920, amounted to only 153,121 tons. 

 New York, N. Y., March 26, 1920. 



SHIPMENTS OF SUGAR FROM ANTILLA MECHANICAL CANE CUTTER 



Shipments of sugar, amounting 1,855,- The invention of a mechanical cane cut- 



181 bags, valued at $28,710,239, in 1918, ter which will eliminate 90 per cent, of 



and 1,956,202 bags, valued at $37,345,087, the labor now required is claimed by V. 



in 1919, made up the greater part of the j^ Stevenson, a resident of Hilo. T. H. 

 total of the declared exports from Antilla, 



n,,K„ i-^ 4-r.^ TT -^ 1 cij- . T -, 4. ^Ir- Stevenson has applied for a patent 



Cuba, to the United States, valued at 



$81,304,091 and $38,823,531 in 191S and <^'" 1"^ invention, on which he has been 



1919, respectively. working for about twenty years. 



