34 THECUBAREVIEW 



CUBAN SUGAR INDUSTRY MISTAKES 



UNSCIENTIFIC AND WASTEFUL METHODS CAUSE A YEARLY LOSS OF 

 ABOUT FIFTEEN MILLION DOLLARS 



C. J. Bourbakis of Havana, in a recent issne of the Li.nisuuia I'laiitcr, points out that 

 the Cuban sugar industry, after long years of especially favorable conditions, is now 

 confronted with a series of grave problems caused by impoverishment of soils, fast in- 

 creasing production, cane growers' demands for better pay, new market conditions leading 

 to radical changes in the systems of manufacture, low prices of sugar, and keen com- 

 mercial and professional competition. All these point to the need of thoughtful study, 

 he says, of prevailing conditions until they be adjusted, until the grower, one way or 

 another, secures reasonable profits out of a crop that, by places, due to exhausted soils 

 or to unscientific methods, or other causes, is hardly remunerative nay longer. 



As a solution of the problem of increased demands by the colonos Mr. Bourbakis 

 advises "the buying of cane by analysis, according to a scale of prices agreed upon, 

 keeping into account a number of relative factors. This system, which sooner or later, 

 will be imposed either by its merits or by the pressure of the circumstances, is the 

 established one in the beet producing States, and has been already tried in some progres- 

 sive cane-growing districts. 



"The merits of the plan are obvious ; none of the contracting parties would labor 

 under a disadvantage, or be exposed to suffer unequitaldy ; and a great, if not decisive 

 step, would be made towards the solution of such vexing problems as, intentional fires, 

 dirty or badly topped cane ; not to mention the stimuhis for ameliorating the quality 

 of the plant." 



Unscientific and wasteful methods are indicated in the statement that while the progress 

 of the sugar industry in Cuba has been gratifying the number of Cuban factories that 

 "at the present time, obtain in the marketable product, more than SO per cent of the 

 sugar contained in the cane is not great. The yearly factory loss of sugar, over and 

 above the percentage considered as normal and unavoidable at the present state of the 

 industry, can be figured for a crop like last year's at about fifteen million dollars, loss 

 due to deficient machinery or to wasteful methods of manufacture. 



"Thus a great number of factories use no imbibition due to the poor excuse of in- 

 sufficient evaporating or steam producing capacity; if not due to antiquated ideas as to 

 the effect of the imbibition, or to erroneous figures as to the corresponding consumption 

 of fuel. Some estates obtain a mill extraction so low, as not to be excusable nowadays, 

 factories there are that do not exhaust the defecation scums on the assertion that the 

 gain does not cover the cost of the filter cloths ; in other places again they go to the 

 other extreme, washing the scums with such an amount of water as to make the opera- 

 tion a financial loss ; or they allow no time to obtain final molasses properly exhausted, 

 due to great haste for grinding amounts of cane out of proportion with the existing 

 facilities. 



"Some factories have no laboratory or simply the illusion of one ; they do not know the 

 quantity of sugar that enters the house daily : they do not know what portion of it is 

 obtained in the bags; and they do not know where and why was the difference lost. 



"It is quite usual for estates to begin grinding so early, due to the amount of cane 

 contracted, out of proportion with their capacity, that for a time they do not obtain a 

 yield high enough to cover expenses. Some factories, paying dearly for their cane, grind 

 at a loss in the month of December and often also for a part of January, gaining from 

 that time on; they remain well pleased with the difference gained, and point with pride 

 to the number of bags filled. ' 



He says further : 



"Now, this can hardl}- last. The sugar industry is the very life of Cuba. A sugar 

 factory is, no doubt, a private enterprise ; still according to modern conception of business 

 morals, dite to the intimate interweaving of interests, due to its relation to the commu- 

 nit}"- and considering the great number of people that it affects, it can hardly be con- 

 sidered and managed as a private affair and nothing more. The inefficient methods that 

 reduce the rightful gains of the manufacturer and of the planter, and unfavorably affect 

 the prosperity of the country at large should not, and will not, last. 



"It is no business to buy cane at a cut rate, ignoring if it is worth the price ; it is no 

 business to grind cane so unripe or so altered as not to cover expenses ; it is no business 

 to handle by wasteful methods a crop that means so much to every man, woman and 

 child living in this country: the times do not allov.- it any longer.'" 



Commenting on the article the Planter says: 



