CUBA— THE SUGAR MILL OF THE ANTILLES 



2M 



Cuba's sugar industry 



As stated in the beginning of this arti- 

 cle, sugar is king in Cuba. Even in nor- 

 mal years it is the principal source of 

 wealth. But with the restraints of "price- 

 fixing"' regulations removed, 1920 is des- 

 tined to outdo any other year in the his- 

 tory of the industry. 



Sugar-cane is grown by three classes 

 of planters in Cuba. Perhaps the major 

 part of the crop is grown by share farm- 

 ers, or "colonas," as they are called. The 

 owners of the sugar-mills furnish them 

 with a given number of acres of land to 

 plant and give them an agreed share of 

 the sugar they produce. 



The next class is composed of the land- 

 owning farmers, who grow their own 

 cane and have it ground on shares, after 

 the fashion of the rural grist-mill. The 

 remainder of the cane is grown by the 

 owners of the mills themselves. At some 

 centrals the "administration" cane, as 

 that grown under "central" management 

 is known, amounts to only 4 per cent of 

 the total ; at others it amounts to 90 per 

 cent. 



THE PROFITS OF THE PLANTERS 



Even the share farmer, at pre-war 

 prices, made money. According to "Cuba 

 Before the World," the official handbook 

 of the Republic at the Panama-Pacific 

 Exposition, when sugar was selling at 

 2.62 cents a pound, his share of the sugar 

 brought him, on the basis of twelve sacks 

 to the acre, a return of from $46 to $51 

 per acre. The return of the planter own- 

 ing his land was from $56 to $61 per 

 acre. When one remembers that the sell- 

 ing price of sugar is from four to six 

 times as high in 1920 as it was then, the 

 size of the per-acre income today is ap- 

 parent. 



How much net profit the cane-grower 

 reaps at 1920 prices is hard to estimate, 

 but that it is large will appear when the 

 methods of cane-growing are stated. To 

 begin with, after the first crop the planter 

 does not have to bother with seed-time 

 for about ten years. The soil is so deep 

 and so fertile that one planting produces 

 ten harvests. Neither does cultivation 

 bother him after the first season, for the 

 blades stripped from one crop form a 

 mulch that keeps the weeds from com- 

 peting with the next one. 



Think of the profits that the American 

 farmer would make out of corn if he 

 could get ten crops from one planting, 

 and did not have to plow nine of them at 

 all to keep down the weeds ! 



THE WORLD'S CHEAPEST MOTIVE POWER 



Another item in the low cost of produc- 

 ing sugar is the cheapness of the motive 

 power. The cane is hauled in ox-carts. 

 The oxen live from six to ten months a 

 year on the blades stripped from the 

 harvested stalks, and the remainder of 

 the year on succulent guinea-grass. 

 Think how prosperous would be the 

 American farmer if he could have animal 

 motive power requiring not a pound of 

 grain to feed it ! 



A great deal of the cane land produces 

 much more sugar to the acre than the 

 modest twelve bags that formed the basis 

 of the calculations cited from "Cuba Be- 

 fore the World.'' According to figures 

 furnished the writer by the Cuban De- 

 partment of Agriculture, much land pro- 

 duces 22 bags to the acre. This, at 15 

 cents a pound, brings a gross return of 

 more than $1,000 an acre. 



These conditions have brought about 

 an unprecedented boom in sugar lands. 

 One sugar estate, which was bought some 

 three years ago for $3,000,000, sold last 

 January for $9,500,000. Another, which 

 was valued at about $6,000,000 a few 

 years ago, changed hands at $15,000,000. 



Numerous new "centrals" are being 

 built and others projected, all being capi- 

 talized on the basis of this year's earn- 

 ings. Thousands of American capitalists 

 are investing in these flourishing enter- 

 prises. 



That the famine scale of prices of this 

 year will not continue is the opinion of 

 those who are in a position to know. 

 Just as soon as the European sugar beet 

 conies back into cultivation, price levels 

 are bound to fall. 



Many warnings have been sounded 

 about the singularity of the source of 

 Cuba's fortune. Economic safety is op- 

 posed to having too many of one's eggs 

 in a single basket. But Cuba believes in 

 making hay while the sun shines, though 

 that hay be sugar and that sun the su- 

 crose hunger of the world. 



How her receipts from sugar have ex- 

 panded is shown by the fact that the 1915 



