THE CUBA REVIEW 23 



Why? 



A Problem of Sugar Cane Cultivation in Cuba 



By F. X. Downing 



An intricate and interesting problem in the sugar cane industry, both from an 

 agricultural and a business point of view, is presented in the north-central section 

 of the province of Santa Clara, Cuba. 



The district is very congested, completely dotted with small mills; the lands 

 are of a most variable character and have been worked since the old days of slavery, 

 for a century or so, practically without rotation of crops, renovation, amehoration 

 or amendment. The local ideas and practices are antiquated, the people are in a rut, 

 and to install progressive methods, imperative though they are for the future of the 

 district, is a herculean feat in the face of ignorance and antagonism to their introduction. 

 In fact, considering the conditions and contingencies met with, such opposition to 

 sane, productive, practical methods is incomprehensible; and a study of the exposition 

 of the conditions surrounding the cane industry m this section of the island will 

 reveal the truth of these assertions. 



The largest mill has a crop grinding capacity of some 200,000 bags (of 325 

 pounds each); few exceed 100,000 bags, and the majority are considerably below, 

 some not grinding over 15,000 to 25,000 bags. There are many points of elevation 

 on these centrals from which can be seen three and four other mills despite the hilly 

 nature of the country, so closely are they together. Unlike the newer districts of Oriente 

 and Camaguey Provinces, there is no possibility of expansion, that is, of opening 

 up new lands — there are no virgin lands that can be cleared and planted profitably. 



But to convey an accurate idea of the intricate problems encountered in this 

 region, and the same are to be found in others of the "older" parts of Cuba, a concrete 

 case may be analyzed, and for present purposes the estate in question, illustrative 

 of many, may be designated as the Central "Highview." 



This mill has a maximum crop grinding capacity of some 100,000 bags of 325 

 pounds each, or say 16,250 tons of 2,000 pounds (the "arroba," 25 pounds, being 

 the standard unit of weight in Cuba, this may be expressed as 1,300,000 arrobas), 

 but its largest output was 81,000 bags, and a maximum of 75,000 bags (12,187 tons), 

 or 975,000 arrobas of sugar may be considered, for which, in general terms, about 

 nine million arrobas net of cane, with a high juice extraction, and a sugar content 

 of 13 per cent, would be required. 



The Central "Highview" owns 30 caballerias of land (1,000 acres; the standard 

 measurement of land in Cuba is the caballeria, equal to H 1/3 acres), and this tract 

 of thirty caballerias is characteristic of the entire zone. At least one-fourth is waste, 

 hills, "seboruco" (boulders of basic coral formation), stony land, etc., leaving say 

 22 caballerias (about 750 acres) available for planting. Then, of these 22 caballerias 

 about one-half is land suitable for intensive cultivation and the other half is mixed, 

 that is to say, there are parts that can be plowed with a single share plow and harrowed 

 with the native harrow, but that are too stony to admit of the use of gang plows, 

 subsoil plows, disc harrows, cultipackers, etc., and there are other parts where only 

 the old method of the hoe can b)e employed, there are parts that are marshy and 

 require drainage, and so on. 



Under present conditions and methods these twenty-two caballerias owned by 

 the central and available for cane planting cannot possibly produce over 30,000 arrobas 

 of cane per caballeria on an average, or a total of some 660,000 arrobas, and the cane 

 grown on this land will not yield a high juice extraction and a sugar content of more 

 than from 9 per cent to 11 per cent, and the history of the place substantiates this 

 statement. In other words, the land actually owned by the Central '"Highview" will, 

 at a maximum supply it with approximately one-fourteenth of the cane necessary 



