THE CUBA REVIEW 



AND BULLETIN 



"ALL ABOUT CUBA" 



Copyright. 1907, by the Munson Steamship Line. 



Volume V. MARCH, 1907 Number 4. 



THE SUGAR ESTATE AT PRESTON. 



A Marvelous Year's Work Which Transformed a Virgin Forest Into a Great Indus- 

 trial Center. 



As the steamer enters the noble harbor of Nipe. with its 2>7 miles of shore front, 

 a most beautiful oanorama of mountains and primeval forests crowding down to the 

 water's edge unfolds on either side. The bay widens in places into almost an ocean 

 in distance with the shore line but faintly visible and again the rugged beauty of the 

 surrounding land is brought close into the view. As the steamer nears Antilla, the 

 great mill of the Nipe Bay Company becomes visible almost directly opposite. The 

 mill, great though it is, is dwarfed by its environment of majestic hills and woods and 

 makes but a very small point in the vast landscape. It is only after one has landed 

 at the wharf, which reaches some hundreds of feet into the bay, and walks down to 

 the town proper of Preston, that the bigness of the structure which dominates every- 

 thing in sight, is realized. But what taxes one's credulity to theutmost is the fact 

 that on January i, 1906, the land now occupied by this great building was bare of 

 everything except hundreds of tree stumps, afterwards blown out with dynamite, and 

 that in March of the same year building was begun and that January 19, 1907, a little 

 over nine months afterwards, saw the huge mill grinding cane. 



The Nipe Bay Co. is the originator and creator of this new enterprise. Long before 

 the smoke came pouring from the chimneys of the mill, and while dense forests yet 

 covered the ground, they saw the potentialities of location and soil and began preparing 

 their plans for the erection of the mill, and its essentially modern equipment, one which 

 to-day is probably unrivaled anywhere. 



The same discernment caused the company to place ]\Ir. Jos. Rigney in charge of 

 the undertaking, who as General }^Ianager has faithfully carried out the Company's 

 plans with many important and unique labor saving devices. He supervised the construc- 

 tion of the mill, railroads, bridges, telephone lines, employees' houses and the plantmg 

 of the 16,000 acres of cane, which will keep the machinery going day and night for 

 about eight months every year. 



Construction work began with the building of two huge traveling cranes on a 

 platform mounted on wheels, which ran on a track 30 feet wide, a method common 

 in the construction of steel buildings in the United States. The platform on which 

 the derricks were placed was 85 feet from the ground and the derricks were 35 feet 

 high. It took 18 days to build thefe cranes, but in 11 days after they were in position, 

 with their help, the frames of the three mill houses were standing, and on July 16 the 

 entire buildings were up except the chimneys. _ _ , 



In the latter part of February a representative of the Cuba Review visited the 

 mill, and the following description is from notes taken at that time Mr. Rigney 

 kindly placed himself at the disposal of his visitor and accompanied hini over the en- 

 tire plant, and later, over the plantation, pointing out and explaining with unvarying 

 courtesy and patience, the special features of mill and field which came under attention. 

 The interior of the mill represented the busy scene common to all mills during the 

 grinding season. The huge hoppers which receive the tremendous loads of cane were 

 in evidence directly at the entrance. Overhead the great electric cranes slowly let 

 down their chains as the cane cars backed in, and quietly lifted up the carload of twenty 

 tons of cane. This in a moment was lowered into the hopper, and the crane swung oyer 

 to the other side to fill the other hopper in the same way. The process of handling 



