THE CUBA REVIEW 



29 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



This central has au estimated capacity of 

 something like 250,000 bags. 



Various rumors as to the price paid for 

 the centrals referred to have been cur- 

 rent for some time, but the figures do 

 not seem to fit in all instances the esti- 

 mated value of the plants for which they 

 are quoted. While nothing definite is 

 available at this time as to the prices 

 paid and terms and manner of payments, 

 the whole transaction having been con- 

 ducted quietly, it would seem that the 

 properties mentioned above, estimated ac- 

 cording to their age and capacity, with 

 the addition of a roughly estimated 

 amount for the Barahona project, will 

 total pretty close to the $32,000,000 for 

 which the syndicate has been underwrit- 

 ten. 



Among the leading sugar men interest- 

 ed in the Cuban- Santo Domingo Sugar 

 Development Syndicate besides Mr. How- 

 ell, are J. B. Coombs, of L. W. and P. 

 Armstrong, and president of the Fajardo 

 Sugar Company ; R. B. Hawley, president 

 of the Cuban-American Sugar Company ; 

 and James H. Post, president of the Na- 

 tional Sugar Refining Company. 



APPROPRIATION FOR SUGAR RESEARCH 

 WORK 



The United States Bureau of Standards 

 has been granted an appropriation of 

 $30,000 for its special sugar research 

 work in the annual appropriation bill as 

 amended by both houses of Congress. The 

 Bureau of Standards supervises the scien- 

 tific M'ork of the customs laboratories of 

 the Treasury Department in the collec- 

 tion of the revenue on sugar, amounting 

 this year to about .$90,000,000. 



SUGAR CROP IN COLOMBIA 



It is estimated that the production of 

 sugar in Colombia will be 20 per cent, 

 greater than that for the past year, when 

 a production of 63,400 sacks of 125 pounds 

 each of white sugar and 10,000 sacks of 

 150 pounds each of brown sugar was re- 

 ported. A new central is under construc- 

 tion at Sautata, on the River Atrato. 



THE CULTIVATION OF SUGAR CANE IN 



THE FAMOUS VUELTA ABAJO 



TOBACCO REGION 



Pinar del Rio Province, in which is 

 situated the Vuelta Abajo, so long world 

 famous Hor its unapproachable cigar to- 

 bacco, has, with the rise in the price of 

 sugar, become more and more a cane 

 growing region, until now the hills, so 

 steep of acclivity that their plowing seems 

 incredible, are clothed in the bright green 

 that has always been the garment of 

 Matanzas. Moreover, extensive areas for- 

 merly devoted to tobacco and rich as the 

 result of heavy fertilizing for that greedy 

 plant are now flourishing cane fields, as 

 are still other areas so stony that they 

 had never been utilized agriculturally be- 

 fore, for a fine crop of cane can be made 

 where the grubbing hoe has to take the 

 place of the plow to make a hole in the 

 soft coral rock just large enough to stick 

 the joint of seed cane in. 



Recently a tract of land comprising 370 

 caballerias (12,333 1/3 acres) near Can- 

 delaria was sold to a syndicate of young 

 Cubans who are going to turn it into one 

 large colonia, and other large areas have 

 been acquired for the same purpose in the 

 vicinity of Consolacion del Norte. There 

 are now nine large sugar centrals operat- 

 ing in the province of Pinar del Rio, where 

 a few years ago the production of sugar 

 was negligible, and there are other cen- 

 trals projected. 



In former years after the tobacco crop 

 had been made there would always come 

 tales of distress from regions in the Vuel- 

 ta Abajo where it had not rained enough 

 or where too copious showers had made 

 the tobacco crop poor, and annually the 

 Government was called upon to inaug- 

 urate road building or other public works 

 to give employment to the starving coun- 

 try people. All that has been changed by 

 the planting of cane in Pinar del Rio dur- 

 ing the last few years, and without the 

 sacrifice of the tobacco industry, for this 

 year's tobacco crop will produce more 

 money than any preceding crop during 

 the last two decades. 



