25-4 
SUGAR ilAKING MACHIXERT. 
and tlie rise in the price of sugar which was tho natural 
consequence, the improvement in machines and ovens, 
due m great part to the refugees of Cape Jfrancoia, the 
more intimate connection formed between the proprietors 
of the sugar factories and tlie merchants of tlie Havan- 
nan, the great capital employed by' the latter in agricultural 
establishments (sugar and coflee plantations), such have 
been successively the causes of the increasiug prosperity 
of the island ot Cuba, notwithstaiiding tbe conilict of the 
authorities, which serves to embarrass the procu'ess of 
aftairs. ° 
The greatest changes in the plantations of sun-ar-cane 
and in the sugar factories, took place from 1796 to 1800. 
prst. mules ivere substituted (trapiches de mulas) for oxen 
(trapichcs de bucyes) ; and afterwards, hydraulic wheels 
were introduced (trapiches de agua), which tlie flrst con- 
qiiistarlores had employed at Saint Domingo; final! v, the 
action of steam-engines was tried at Ceibabo, at the expense 
ot Count Jaruco y Mopex. There are now twenty-five of 
those mM iines in the different sugar mills of the island of 
Cuba. The culture of the sugar-cane of Otaheite in the 
meantime increased. Boilers of preparation (clariticadoras) 
were introduced, and the reverberating furnaces better 
arranged. It must be said, to the honour of wealthy pro- 
prietors, that 111 a great number of plantations, a kind soli- 
citude IS manifested for sick slaves, for the introduction of 
iiegresses, and for the education of children. 
factories {yngenios), in 1775, was 
47 in the whole island; and in 1817 more than 780. 
Among the former, none produced the fourth part of the 
sugar now made in the yngenios of second rank; it is con- 
sequently^ not the number of factories that can afford an 
accurate idea of the progress of that branch of agricultural 
industry. “ 
yie first sugar-canes carefully planted on virgin soil yield 
a harvest during twenty to twenty-five years, after vvhich 
they must bo replanted every three years. There existed in 
1804., at the llacienda dc Matamoros, a square (Canaveral) 
worked during forty-five years. The most fertile soil for 
^le production of sugar is now in the vicinity of JIariel and 
Ciuaufljay. That variety of sugar-cane known by tiic iiamii 
