264 



hxjmboldt's cuba. 



ments in the mode of culture, and of expressing the 

 juice from the cane. The able writer I have just 

 quoted estimates that the improved division of labor, 

 the use of steam-power, the introduction of mechani- 

 cal appliances, as railway from the boiling-liouse to 

 the purging-house, pumps for several purposes, and 

 water pipes, improved furnaces and clariliers, cane 

 carriers, bagass-carts, &c, and the greater facilities 

 of transition to market, make an actual saving of 

 seventy-nine hands to the plantation. 



This largely increases the number of hands that 

 can be applied to field labor, and consequently 

 increases the breadth of land in cane, while the use 

 of steam-power, and a small increase in the capacity 

 of the boiling trains, suffices for the purpose of 

 manufacture. Such is the magical influence of the 

 improved mechanical appliances of our day, upon 

 the product of man's labor. Great improvements 

 have also been effected in the chemical processes of 

 sugar-making ; but their effect is, perhaps, expe- 

 rienced more in the improved quality, than in the 

 greater quantity of sugar produced. The sugar 

 planters of Cuba, as a class, are exceedingly intelli- 

 gent, and quick to adopt improvements in their 

 system of labor.] 



From calculations which I made, when in Cuba, I 



