Show ME 05 wool im S I 1 41 31 V r e 47 iz q TV ili k S i M fp all az 71 W 1 g aw 11 1 apel r 1 g ad 1 in a cuban sugar mili prepared by bj the th batione Nt Nat lon ione society D C cuba which immediately following the world war climbed to heights of oc prosperity seldom attained by any ather small country has pa passed saied now into the valley of hard times and the reason in both cases was the same sugar for though the islands annual tobacco harvest Is very valuable and though hough it has haa many other potential it if undeveloped resources it Is hardly overemphasizing emphasizing tiTer the importance of ugar augar production to say that cuba is a one crop country when european and eastern sugar was unobtainable prices soared skyward and cuba not only cashed in heavily on her usual production but feverishly increased tier her cane acreage and sugar mills now that sugar from the eastern hemisphere la is reaching the world markets while europe has little buying power sugar prices have fallen to low levels and cuba Is finding her wr increased crop a drug on the market financial gloom has followed upon the heels of 0 0 a most hectic prosperity as the night the day sugar cane Is grown by three classes of planters in cuba perhaps tile the major part of the crop Is grown by share farmers or co lonos as they lire are called the owners of the sugar mills furnish them with a given number of acres of land to plant and give them an agreed share of the sugar they produce they made money rapidly the next nest class Is composed of the landowning land owning farmers who grow thelt their own cane and have it ground on shares chares after the fashion of the rural grist erist mill the remainder of the cane Is grown by the owners of the mills themselves at some centrals the administration cane as that grown under central management Is known amounts to only 4 per cent of the total at others it amounts to 90 per kven even the share faresa farE farr zer sr at prewar pre war prices made morny according to cuba before the world the official handbook of the republic lit at the pan itma ama pacific exposition ahen hen sugar wits selling at cents a pound his share of the sugar brought him on the basis of twelve sacks to the acre a return ot of from 48 46 to 51 per acre when one remembers that the selling price of sugar in 1920 was from four to six times as high as before the war the size of the per acre income at the high tide of prices Is apparent soom boom in sugar lands A great deal of the cane land produces much more sugar to tile the acre than the modest twelve bags that formed the basis of the calculations cited from cuba before the world according to figures furnished by the cuban department of agriculture much igind produces 22 02 bags to the acre al tit this nt at 15 cents a pound bri brings rigs aa poss return of more than 1000 an acre these conditions brought abo about ut fill an gnp unprecedented rece dented boom in sugar lands one olie sugar estate wh which fell vas boight about 1917 for sold in january 1920 for another lich mas as valued at about 11 few years before changed hands at numerous new centrals central sm ft ere built fill all 0 on n the basis of earnings during the early months of 1920 thousands of 0 ATner american ican capitalists in ested in tile wi enterprises ilow how cubas receipts from sugar expanded is howa shown s by the fact that the 1917 cipp bro brought bight rt a total return of 0 less than two thirds of the 19 1920 10 crop one third remains rema insi unsold brought production cheaper there cuba ha ams hie e adian advantage tage of enery eely auntry conri iry in producing sugar cheaply lost countries have to plant every wo we s curs antl and some soine of them bliem aery season but the average in ili cuba Is once in front from 7 to 12 cars ars in most parts parta of the lie llanil uc the harl harvesting esting eason I 1 Is 4 six dillont lis bolig ion froni frodi december to tine june I 1 anit tit in ili tome some bils the ail 1 flar the first of december to the first of rf october the fields are so planted in the first place that each month of the grinding season produces its own crop of mature cane here Is a group ot of fields where the new crop has just sprouted over yonder another group where the cane Is half grown and on farther Is a group where harvesting operations are in full swing how the crop Is I 1 harvested in harvesting the cane cutters first strip the blades from the stalk then them they cut off the upper part of the th latter which Is worthless except loi for re planting since what juice it contains possesses very little sugar one of the strange things about sugar cam is that the sap ot of the growing plant has little sugar while iu in the mature stalk the juice Is rich in sucrose the action of the suns rays seems t to transform glucose into sucrose a transformation that cannot be accomplished plIs lied by human means it if man knew how to do that every cornfield would be a sugar field the main body of the stalk Is cut down and loaded into the ox carts in these it Is hauled to the field sta tion and placed in the waiting cars each car contains about twenty tons find and each train Is made up of thirty cars this makes GW tons of cane to the trainload and eight to ten trainloads train loads a day are required to keep one ot of the bigger centrals la in operation for 24 hours tile the big united fruit central at preston requires the aie crop from 2150 acres every day to keep it busy imagine a field three fifths of a mile square being harvested between sunup and sundown to keep one central going at the mills the cars of cane are ar dumped on an endless belt which carries it to the crushing rolls each set of rolls the cane passes through presses it harder than the one before the lost last set may exert esert a pressure ol of a million pounds and when 8 as the crushed cane Is called issues from them it Is almost as dry as tinder it Is carried by con to the fire boxes of tile the boilers where it Is used as fuel in generating tile the steam that drives the big mills and boils the cane juice the stream of crushed cane flows through the tha last set of rolls at a speed of seven miles a day making tha sugar after the juice is freed of sediment it is pumped in the evaporators where about half of the water Is boiled out of it the next step in tile the making ot of sugar Is to draw the thick juice into the vacuum parts pans here I 1 it comes into cont contact ilet with hot steam coils and bolls at a very kery I 1 low w temper temperature because ol of the absence of atmospheric pressure ras As the boiling proceeds the crystallizes into small g grains the sugar and tile the adhering birli are finally removed to a centrifugal machine that acts somewhat on the principle of it a cream separator placed inside a perforated basket and whirled around at from 1000 to 1400 revolutions a i minute ablate all of t the be Is forced out through the perforations forat fo to ns while the crystallized sugar remains behind this rr his Is boiled again anil and tle process Is repeated until all the available sweetness etness lifts has been extracted the remaining I 1 liquor Is the black strap molasses of commerce A ton of ugar cane yields four and one halt half gallons of blackstrap wo mo lassos In seq and one gets it a good imbres tilon llon of the immensity of the In lutri whon on a single days roll rail journey lie opeti a doyen solid trains of some forty bi on finnk cars each every col cat full fit tn til tle me dome with blackstrap after u clr lins has come front from the centi hi 1 IL 11 goes to the bogging rodni lore it Is iq put iwo ill co bags bag that thai 2 i liounis ouch these are lilied in n tra Wands to find and l hii tri n tir rived in etl states where tlc tl alc 11 i i il rp re nove the imbur in i rin f ni the MI n r orr biilly vl cl ir I 1 11 L ll 11 af wb 0 |