THE CUBA REVIEW 



29 



SUGAR NOTES 



SUGAR EXPORTS OF 1910 



Treasury department data which has just 

 been made public shows that out of a total 

 of $144,000,000 value of Cuba's total exports 

 in 1910, 70.28 per cent came from sugar 

 cane. Tobacco came next in line for a total 

 valuation of $30,000,000, or 20.94 per cent, 

 and the remaining $12,500,000 or thereabouts 

 equivalent to 8.78 per cent is represented by- 

 other exports. 



The raw sugar exportations in 1910 

 amounted to 1,631,905 tons valued at 

 $99,365,071 and 2,280 pounds of refined 

 sugar, valued at $111. 



The exportations were made through 

 eighteen of the twenty custom houses in the 

 republic. No shipments are made through 

 Batabano and Baracoa. 



The exportations by ports are as follows : 



Custom House Tons 



Cienfuegos 267,066 



Havana 211,823 



Matanzas 199,678 



Cardenas 191,798 



Sagua la Grande 116,999 



Caibarien 116,961 



Nipe 93,807 



Puerto Padre 82,906 



Guantanamo 73,494 



Manzanillo 65,895 



Banes 64,553 



Tucaro 45,477 



Nuevitas ' 33,616 



Gibara 25,959 



Santa Cruz 17,943 



Trinidad 11,778 



Santiago de Cuba ., . . . 9,361 



Tunas de Zaza 12,791 



The other by-products of sugar, included 

 in the exportations, are molasses, rum 

 (aguardiente), rum and alcohol. Of the 

 first-mentioned, 50,071,425 gallons of the 

 class known as "purga" were exported and 

 3,441 of the '"melado" kind. The value of 

 this molasses was $1,544,490 and $994, re- 

 spectively, at the average price of three 

 cents a gallon. 



Consumers of Cuba's molasses are the 

 following : 



Countries Gallons 



United States 31,643,236 



England 959,558 



Holland 1,480,215 



Germany and France 1,756 



The principal shipments of aguardientes 

 were made to Uruguay and the Canary 

 Islands. 



The exportations of Cuban rum, which 

 is world famous, dropped somewhat during 

 last year. The exportations of this liquor 

 amounted to 173,033, the greater portion 

 of which was taken by England. 



A PRACTICAL CANE HARVESTER 



The sugar cane harvester which was tried 

 out in the cane fields of the Central Luisa, 

 Jovellanos, Matanzas Province, last season 

 and again this season seems to have yielded 

 successful results. Mr. F. S. Earle, the 

 former director of the Cuban government's 

 agricultural experiment station, under 

 whose direction the cane harvester was op- 

 erated at the "Central Luisa," met a Cuba 

 Review representative at Cienfuegos in De- 

 cember last, and gave some details of the 

 new harvester. 



Rotating knives cut the cane at any dis- 

 tance above or just under the ground, strips 

 the stalk and cuts it into suitable lengths 

 for the mill. 



The machine also carries the cut cane to 

 waiting wagons, thus dispensing with the 

 present slow-hand process. The cover page 

 of the March issue of The Cuba Review 

 shows some of the handwork required in 

 cutting and stripping cane, and the illustra- 

 tion on page 30 shows further handwork 

 required to pile the cut cane neatly into 

 the huge carts now universally used in the 

 Cuban cane fields. "There is no necessity," 

 said Mr. Earle, "for all this orderly piling 

 of the cut cane into the carreteras, which 

 always enlists the labor of two or three 

 men and wastes much time. The machine, 

 of course, will not deliver the cane in such 

 orderly manner as if placed by hand, and 

 the carreteras will not hold so much; but 

 the load can be delivered at the mill just as 

 efficiently and can be raised and dropped 

 into the hoppers for the grinders just as 

 thoroughly, no matter which way the load- 

 ing is done. The only difficulty with the 

 machine was its failure in topping the cane, 

 and this defect has evidently been overcome 

 in this season's trials. 



TJie Modern Sugar Planter, in an article 

 on the same machine, says further that it 

 was found that there was little restriction 

 to its travel through the fields on account 

 of weight, for so long as the weather per- 

 mitted the wagons to be driven in the fields, 

 the harvester was likewise worked. 



About June next the present plant of the 

 San Manuel sugar mill, recently purchased 

 by the Chaparra Sugar Company, will be 

 demolished and the new mill constructed 

 on the site. The grinders to be placed are 

 larger than those of the Chaparra, and be- 

 sides there will be two more of these at the 

 San Manuel, which will conserve its old 

 name. 



Chaparra produced in the month of 

 March 102,146 sacks of sugar, polarization 

 96 degrees. 



