28 THECUBAREVIEW 



These three divisions of Banes, Nipe Bay, and Saetia are not contiguous plantation.-^ owned 

 by the two companies which possess and operate the mills. Reaching out for miles in three 

 directions from the Boston Central are fields of cane planted years ago by the Boston Fruit 

 Company, but intersecting and interlacing these fields are others owned by individual pro- 

 ducers, and still other fields which are untilled and are the property of outsiders who dechne 

 to sell or cultivate. 



The detailed maps of the Banes and Nipe Bay divisions, with the various land holdings, 

 l^ainted in colors, look hke a puzzle picture. In the subdivision of Cuban lands there is not 

 that uniformity and rectangular accuracy which distinguish our real estate holdings, especially 

 in the Middle and Western iStates. The Cuban heir to land traces his inheritance by following 

 winding creeks and long hnes with starthng angles. It thus comes about that there are 

 hundreds of independent cane gi-owers with their lands completely surrounded by the more 

 comprehensive development of American enterprises. 



These independents sell theii- cane to the mills. This cane is ground and a careful record 

 made of the amount of sugar extracted from it. The independent receives in pay the market 

 value of 5% of the sugar extracted from his cane. In other words, he becomes the owner 

 of 100 pounds out of every ton of 2,000 pounds extracted, and the mill takes this 100 off his 

 hands and pays him the quotation price of raw sugar on the day of the sale. This is the 

 system in vogue in all Cuba, and is one which is fair to the independent producer and to the 

 owner of the mill. 



Under favorable conditions of crop and prices, the independent will obtain from his cane 

 an amount which will yield him a net profit as high as $100 an acre, and even this figure has 

 been exceeded. I'nder the reverse conditions of poor crops and low j) rices — the latter due 

 to bumper crops of beet sugar abroad — the independent sugar grower is fairly \\ell assured 

 of returns which will range from $30 to $60 an acre annually, which figure is consideral)ly in 

 excess of that obtainable from standard crops grown in the United States. Ho\\e\-er, the 

 Cuban gi'ower runs more risks, has less comforts and not as congenial surroundings as his 

 brother agriculturalist in northern climes. 



Crossing the railroad hnes at frequent and regular intervals ai-e broad roads ^hicii serve 

 the double purpose of permitting cane-loaded wagons to arrive at the railroad switches and 

 also of checking the sweep of flames in the event that fires start in dry weather. These roads 

 are called "guarda rayas," which translates as "protective spaces" or "fire lines.'' A con- 

 siderable percentage of a plantation is occupied by these broad but necessary roads. 



Twelve years ago there were squalid httle native settlements at Banes, Antilla and Saetia. 

 There were a few cultivators of small cane plantations, and they extracted enough sugar 

 for their own needs by primitive processes. You could search the average map of Cuba in 

 vain and not locate Antilla, Preston, Banes or Saetia. There were no docks worthy of the 

 name at which steamships could land. 



No railroad then connected the Nipe Bay country with Havana or Santiago. 



They cut a wall tlirough the guinea grass and the jungles of Central Cuba and connected 

 the head of Nipe Bay by raih-oad with Havana and Santiago. They dredged a harbor beneath 

 the bluffs of Antilla and projected docks out into the clear waters of Nipe Bay. 



Square miles of fields, untouched since the island was heaved out of the sea, were reclaimed 

 from swamps and jungles. An army of men raised the massive steel spans of the sugar mill. 

 Ships from all parts of the world ploughed the waters of Nipe Bay and unloaded the materials 

 necessary in the prosecution of this giant undertaking. The cleared fields were plantetl and 

 bore a bounteous harvest of cane. The cane was cut and fed into the maws of the tearing 

 and grinding crushers — fifteen hundred tons of cane a day yielded up its juice under the 

 impact of this machinery. 



The first tlu-ee years showed a loss of about $60,000 and the prophets of disaster took great 

 credit for their forecasts, but the company did not deviate in the slightest from its original 

 plan to develop this section to sugar cane. In 1904 the tide turned, the Banes mill turning 

 out a product which netted a profit of $345,000, and there has been no year since that time 

 when Cuban sugar has not helped the United Fruit Company meet its dividend responsibiUties. 



To-day, all of this district is dotted with towns and villages which owe their inception and 

 progress to the extension of the sugar industry. Antilla has a growing j^opulation of 4,500, 

 and boasts of the best hotel in the east of Cuba. Saetia, out near the mouth of Nipe Bay, 

 has a population in the busy season which amounts to 2,000 or more. \Vhere a few 3-ears 

 ago was nothing but waste land and fever-breeding jungles there has arisen a flourishing and 

 attractive little city — Preston. It has 5,000 population. 



The Govermnent of Cuba has the official supervision of sanitation in the Nipe Bay section, 

 but the United Fruit Company provides medical attention for aU of its employees and most 

 of those who live in Banes, Preston, and elsewhere. The company maintains hospitals in 

 Saetia, Preston and Banes. Sanitary and protective measures are energetically promoted 

 and the general conditions of health are as good as in the United States. 



The medical department of the Nipe Bay Company has headquarters in Preston, and the 

 hospital service, sanitation and health measures are entirely under its supervision. This 

 service extends to the 5,000 inhabitants of Preston and to a total population in this district 

 of more than 12,000. 



The medical supervision of Banes and its surroundings is a model of efficiency-. Banes 

 is divided into two parts, one of which consists of the municipality of Banes, under the jurisdic- 



