34 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



SUGAR 

 Apart from contimiod firmness in low 

 brown oane the market show,s no cliange 

 «-itl> very little grocery sugar ofTering. The 

 demand, therefore, remains misatisficd, while 

 the official figures of the home consumption 

 show that little further progress has been 

 made in reducing it tluring the past month. 

 The total for the first nine months of the 

 year is, however, now more than 200,000 tons 

 short of 1915, and this at present prices repre- 

 sents the economizing of a considerable sum 

 of money. Other markets have been very 

 firm, particularly in New York, where prices 

 have risen smartly and stocks fallen rapidly, 

 meltings by refiners having continued on a 

 heavy scale. — Produce Markets Remeir, London. 



LARGE WAR ORDER 

 The Federal Sugar Refining Company has 

 recently clo.sed a contract for the sale of 

 :^0,000 tons of refined sugar to a foreign 

 government. This purchase involves about 

 S3,r)00,000 and stands as a record single 

 transaction with any one ration. Shipments 

 are to be made over January, I-'ebruary and 

 March. Various neutral countries in Europe, 

 it is thought, will receive the sugar, the trade 

 assuming that Scandinavia, Greece and Switz- 

 erland \nll be the principal paiticipants, as 

 they are likely to be short of supplies, now 

 that German}' and Austria are not exporting 

 as in former years. All the raw sugar re- 

 quired to fill the contract will be purchased 

 in Cuba, as the refiners obtain a drawback on 

 the exported product. 



SUGAR SHIPMENTS 



The Havana Post reports that twent}' 

 British steamers have been chartered bj- 

 the British Admiraltj' to carry sugar from 

 Cuba to Great Britain. 



Professor E. W. Kerr, recently resigned as 

 the head of the Department of Engineering 

 of Louisiana State University, will accept a 

 position as engineer in charge of the Experi- 

 mental Department of the Cuba Cane Sugar 

 Company. Prof. Kerr will have his head- 

 quarters in Havana and he will have exten- 

 sive laboratories at his command. He is 

 known in Louisiana and the tropics as an 

 expert on sugar-house machinerj'. 



CUBA SEEKING A SUGAR BAG SUPPLY 

 That Cuba is taking advantage of the op- 

 portunity created by her present prosperity' 

 to provide for the further strengthening of her 

 commercial and economic position is indicated 

 by the rejjorts ))ublishcd from time to time of 

 the encouragement which the Cuba Govern- 

 ment is extending to the develoi)ment of 

 transportation, agriculture and other forms of 

 business. An instance of this sort of con- 

 structive effort is found in the investigation 

 now going on, which has resulted in the dis- 

 covery that the cost of bags to contain the 

 Cuban sugar output has increased very rapidly 

 and amounted to ?4,r)00,000 in 191."), and the 

 Cuban authorities have decided to conduct 

 ex-periments in the growing of jute, with a 

 view to determining whether Cuba can 

 become independent of foreign nations for her 

 bag supply. 



In view of the importance which the bag 

 question has assumed in the past two years, 

 sugar producers in other countries will be 

 deeply interested in the result of these ex- 

 perimental efforts, which from present in- 

 dications i)romise success. 



SUGAR CROPS 



According to the figures of Mr. H. A. 

 Himeley, Havana, the sugar crop of Cuba for 

 the last seven seasons has been as follows: 



Tons 



Crop of 1909-1910 1,801,349 



Crop of 1910-1911 1,480,217 



Crop of 1911-1912 1,893,687 



Crop of 1912-1913 2,429,240 



Crop of 1913-1914 2,.596,.567 



Crop of 1914-1915 2,582,^.5 



Crop of 1915-1916 3,006,024 



Of the crop of 191.5-1916 Mr. Himeley's 

 estimates were as follows: 



Tons. 



December 6, 1915 3,173,429 



April 8, 1916 3,080,000 



August 3, 1916 3,005,000 



PERUVIAN CANE 



The sugar cane of Peru is brought to its 

 maximum growth by intensive farming in 

 thirteen months. Peruvian cane produces 

 about four tons to the acre, which is e.x- 

 tremeh' high when compared to Cuba's two 

 and one-half tons an acre. 



