250 



hxjmboldt's cuba. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SUGAE CULTURE. 



Historical summary — Export of sugar from Havana to 1824 — 

 From Cuba to 1852 — Estimates of actual product — Wealth of 

 Cuba compared with the Antilles — St. Domingo — Brazil — Effect 

 of political disasters on prices — Relative position of Cuba — 

 Classes of sugar — Numerical elements of sugar planting — Value 

 of land — Number of hands to a plantation, and their food — Machi- 

 nery — Cost, product, and expense of a sugar plantation in 1825. 

 [Note — In 1855 — Compared — Causes of increased product.] — 

 Mean yield of land in sugar-cane, maple, and beet — Proportions of 

 crystal] izable sugar — Different results in manipulations of cane- 

 juice — Where improvements must be sought — Yield of cane in 

 new and old lands — Compared with wheat — Yield in Bengal — 

 Disproportion of results in agriculture in Cuba and France — First 

 beet-root sugar in Havana — Fears entertained — Changes in sugar 

 culture — Increase — First cane planted in America — Several classes 

 — Supposition of sugar-makers — Otaheitan cane has not degenerated 

 — Waot of fuel — Application of bagass — Wood and bagass com- 

 pared — Experiments and inventions — Suggested by the author's 

 residence at salt-works — Error in Europe relative to the effect of 

 cessation of slave-trade — Number of slaves in sugar culture — In 

 towns — Capture of Havana by the English, and its good effects- 

 Causes of prosperity — Evils of government embarrass it. 



When the Spaniards first settled in the islands, 

 and on the continent of America, they began, as in 



