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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



crop brought a total return of less than 

 two hundred million dollars, while the 

 1920 crop will bring more than a billion 

 dollars. 



A ROMANCE OF MODERN INDUSTRY 



The story of cane and the production 

 of sugar from it is a romance of modern 

 industry. 



The first that the western world knew 

 about sugar was when traders from 

 India brought to England a substance of 

 amazing sweetness, which the Londoners 

 called "Indian salt." 



It was so pleasing to the occidental 

 palate that the plant from which it was 

 made was brought out of Bengal and cul- 

 tivated around the world. Today it belts 

 the earth wherever long summers reign 

 and plenty of moisture and soil fertility 

 are found. 



For many centuries it was propagated 

 by planting after the fashion of potatoes, 

 short pieces of the upper section of the 

 stalk being put into furrows and covered. 

 This was done so long that practically all 

 of its ability to set seed, like the Irish 

 potato and the horse-radish, was bred 

 out of it. 



One day an English physician living on 

 the little island of Trinidad, on the north 

 coast of South America, told a sugar- 

 planter that the grass-like plants coming 

 up here and there in the cane fields were 

 in reality survivals of the time when cane 

 set seed. The planter laughed at him and 

 said they were nothing but stalks of grass. 



Both were right, for cane is a grass, 

 and the plants in question did bear seed. 

 From that little observation has grown 

 the improvement of the cane of the world, 

 which has resulted, through the introduc- 

 tion of improved varieties, in billions of 

 pounds of sugar being supplied to man 

 that, under other conditions, could not 

 have been produced. 



Cuba has the advantage of every other 

 country in producing sugar cheaply. 

 Most countries have to plant every two 

 years and some of them every season, 

 but the average in Cuba is once in from 

 7 to 12 years. 



THE CUBAN SUGAR SEASON. 



In most parts of the island the harvest- 

 ing season is six months long — from 

 December to June ; but in some sections 



