30 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



Parte de las Trayectorias de los Huracanes que han pasado por la Isla de Cuba en este ano de 1909. 

 Path of the 1909 Hurricanes in Cuba. 



Proper Distance for Cane Planting. 



The experiments which were originally 

 planned to show what is the proper dis- 

 tance to plant cane have been continued 

 and have been very conclusive in their 

 character. So far as the old red land is 

 concerned, the tendency in Cuba has been 

 to plant too wide. In these lands the cane 

 does not send out many shoots and the 

 crop for the first year or two is not as 

 large as it is when the canes are planted 

 close. It is of importance that the first 

 few crops be as large as possible, since 

 the cane does not last long in such lands — 

 four or five years at most. Moreover, the 

 land should be shaded as soon as possible 

 in order to keep down weeds and grasses 

 and prevent the wasting effects of the 

 sun and rain on the available plant food in 

 the soil. 



A great many fertilizer 'tests have been 

 made, all of which show the value of fer- 

 tilizers in old lands where the cultivation 

 is attended to properly and there is either 

 a sufficiency of rainfall or where the cane 

 is irrigated. 



Some very conclusive experiments in ir- 

 rigation have been made which show en- 

 hanced yields following a liberal use of 

 water. E.xperiments are under way to test 

 the value of different quantities of water 

 and the value of fertilizers when applied 

 in connection with irrigation. 



E.xperiments have proved absolutely that 

 for the land of this station wide cane 

 planting is not profitable, and that in gen- 

 eral cane is planted too wide in Cuba. In 

 the case of virgin < r very rich land that 

 is planted once only in a great many j'ears 

 it might make little difference if the cane 

 is planted close or wide, as in a few years 

 the cane will fill up the intervening space 

 between the rows, but where the cane is 

 replanted every few years it should be 



planted close so as to give a large number 

 of stalks the first year. 



The reason why a field planted wide does 

 not yield as much sugar the first year as 

 one planted close is because there are not 

 enough cane stalks Per given area. — From 

 Report of the Results of Experiments be- 

 tween 1905 and 1909 at the Cuba Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station. 



Wax From Sugar Scums. 



r^Iuch interest is being taken at the 

 present time in the utilization of the waste 

 products from the sugar-cane industry. 

 Many of the ways of doing- this are, of 

 course, familiar. In a recent issue of the 

 Journal des Fabricants de Sucre, an ac- 

 count is given of an article in Die Deutsche 

 Zuckerindustrie. which deals with a re- 

 cent thesis on the sugar-cane wax and its 

 technical extraction. From this it appears 

 that the scums resulting from the defeca- 

 tion of the juice of the cane contain at least 

 10 or 12 per cent, of wax. reckoned on the 

 solid matter. When such scums are ex- 

 posed to the action of the air for some time, 

 changes take place in them by which the 

 greasy matters are destroyed, and the e.x- 

 traction of the wax is facilitated. This is 

 performed in the following way. The scums 

 are allowed to remain in heaps until the 

 changes which have just been indicated have 

 taken place. They arc then dried either 

 artificially or in sunlight, broken into small 

 pieces and the wax is extracted with ben- 

 zine. 



From estimates given, it is shown that 

 this wax can compete profitably with car- 

 nauba wax. which is olatained in commer- 

 cial quantities from the leaves of a palm 

 (Copcniicia cerifera) in Brazil. The re- 

 moval of the wax from the scum cake 

 would not. of course, affect its manurial 

 value. — Barbadoes News. 



