SUGAR CULTURE. 



273 



As the forests of Cuba have disappeared, through 

 excessive clearing of the land, the sugar plantations 

 have begun to experience the want of fuel. In 

 former times, a small portion of bagass (the crushed 

 cane), had been used to enliven the boiling fires, 

 under the old kettles, but it is only since the immi- 

 grants from St. Domingo introduced the reverberating 

 furnace that the attempt to abandon wood, and burn 

 only bagass has been made. In the old form of 

 furnaces. and kettles, a load of wood, of 160 cubic 

 feet, is consumed to make five arrobes of sugar, so 

 that for one hundred kilogrammes of raw sugar, 278 

 cubic feet of lemon and orange wood are required. 

 With the reverberating furnace of St. Domingo, one 

 load of bagass containing 495 cubic feet, made 640 

 pounds of raw sugar, which is equal to 158 cubic 

 feet of bagass to 100 kilogrammes of sugar. 



During my residence in Giiines, and particularly 

 at Rio Blanco, while at the house of the Count 

 Jaruco y Mopox, I made experiments with several 

 new constructions for the purpose of diminishing 

 the amount of fuel, by surrounding the fire with 

 substances that were bad conductors of heat, attain- 

 ing, at the same time, greater protection to the 

 negroes while feeding the fire. A long stay at the 

 salt works in Europe, and the art of practical salt- 

 making which I had learned in my youth, gave me 



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