The one and a half billion inhabitants of the earth consume 32,000,000,000 pounds of sugar yearly. The distribution of this enormous quantity is, however, far from even, some countries accounting for next to none of it, while in several others the average consumption exceeds fifty pounds for every inhabitant. Strangely enough, some of the oldest peoples, to whom the knowledge of manufactured sugar is a matter of immemorial possession, are only now beginning to develop a sweet tooth. This may be said of the Chinese and the various races of the Philippine Archipelago. The rapid growth in the world’s population naturally accounts for a constant increase in consumption, but it is also greatly enhanced by the increase in individual use. In the United States, for example, the per capita consumption has risen eight pounds in the past few
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years. We now dispose of eighty pounds of sugar annually for every soul in our population, while twenty years ago the average was little more than fifty pounds. This consumption takes no account of the large quantity of confections, especially chocolate, imported into the country in a manufactured condition. Only in Great Britain are the figures higher than with us. There they rise to one hundred pounds. Denmark comes next with seventy-five pounds, then Switzerland, with sixty. Thrifty Germany, which produces the largest beet crop in the world, and in fact controls the world’s sugar market, uses very little of the commodity itself. Its per capita consumption is only forty-two pounds, being about the same as that of Holland. Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Servia, each consumes less than ten pounds of sugar per head of its population, the poverty of their peoples doubtless accounting in the main for the small figures.
Sugar in some form has been used by the inhabitants of the globe from the earliest times. Until the fifteenth century before Christ, the chief source of supply was honey. It was at about that time that the value of cultivating the wild sugar cane was discovered in India,{168} and it is probable that the first manufacture of sugar in any manner should be credited to that country. For many centuries, only the raw juice was expressed, until about 700 B.C. the employment of fire in concentrating it came into use. From India the art spread rapidly among the ancient nations, but did not reach Western Europe until several centuries later. Columbus carried sugar cane from the Canary Islands to the West Indies, whence it extended to the mainland, and thus, in a progress of three thousand years, encircled the earth.
The production of sugar in the New World became so great within a century after its introduction, that the importers of Europe turned to it for the supply which they had formerly received from the Orient. Spain, Italy, and Egypt, large producers of sugar at that time, could not meet the competition with the American output, and soon ceased to cultivate cane commercially. Free land and slave labor enabled the planters of the West Indies to sell sugar at lower figures, with larger profit, than could the growers of any other part of the world.
To-day sugar is produced under the most diversified conditions and in the most scattered{169} regions. In many countries, such as India, Malaysia, and the Philippines, cane is raised and sugar manufactured by the crudest processes, with the cheapest labor. The product is low grade and the extraction small. In other countries, such as Hawaii and Cuba, the most improved methods are employed, and skilled labor engaged at high wages.
The competition between cane-producing countries is so great that a moderate advantage gained by one will sometimes destroy the industry of another. Such was the case when our reciprocal tariff arrangement with Cuba resulted in closing the mills of Jamaica. In recent years the keenest rivalry has existed between cane and beet sugar. At first the latter had great difficulty in forcing a place for itself in the world’s markets, but with government subsidies, improvement in cultivation, and economies in manufacture, it gradually became an irresistible competitor of cane. During the past fifteen years beet sugar has come to the front with great strides, and now it divides the world’s consumption with the cane product.
Cuba produces considerably more than one-fourth of the entire cane sugar of the world,{170} devoting two million acres to the crop. More than four-fifths of this area is in the provinces of Santa Clara, Matanzas and Oriente. The Island’s output in recent years has been about 11,500,000 tons a year, yielding somewhat more than 1,000,000 tons of refined sugar. Enormous as is this production, it falls far short of the quantity that could be produced if larger areas of the available suitable land were put under cultivation and if such scientific and intensive methods as prevail in some other countries were employed.
Sugar cane was probably first grown in Cuba some time about the middle of the sixteenth century, under the encouragement of a royal bounty. The industry made but slow progress during the next two and a half centuries. In 1850, the sugar production of the Island had reached approximately 300,000 tons. Since then it has steadily increased, the million mark having been attained in 1894. During the latter half of the nineteenth century a tendency to centralization set in. Previous to that period the crop had been raised on a large number of small plantations, each working entirely independently. In 1880 began the movement toward the establishment of “centrals” for
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the performance of the extractive operations. There are now nearly two hundred of these buildings in the Island. At the same time the combination of small plantations resulted in a decrease in numbers with an increase in average size.
The million ton mark gained in 1894 was upheld in the following year, but in 1896 the war was in full blast, and the year’s output was barely more than 225,000 tons.
During the last war of independence the sugar plantations throughout Cuba were either utterly ruined, or severely damaged. Since the war, the industry has been resuscitated by the investment of vast amounts of money, the erection of modern buildings, and the installation of the latest types of machinery. As a considerable proportion of this investment was American money, American methods have been extensively introduced. The result of all this is a complete reformation of the industry in all its branches. There is, nevertheless, room for further improvement, especially in the field. A better quality of cane might be secured by intelligent selection, and the invention of a harvester would result in a great economy.
The latter-day sugar plantation is a very{172} extensive establishment and costs from five hundred thousand dollars to several millions. One of the largest and most complete in Cuba is that called the Central Preston, belonging to the Nipe Bay Company, and situated on Nipe Bay. The factory, according to the latest method, is erected close to the wharves at Punta Tabaco. Thence the cane lands extend inland and along the shore for twenty-five miles.
The present grinding capacity of three thousand eight hundred tons of cane a day is shortly to be increased to five thousand tons, when the factory will be the largest in the world.
The main building, entirely of steel construction, has a frontage of 312 feet and a depth of 234 feet on one side and 330 feet on the other. Separate buildings are devoted to carpenter shops, machine shops, foundry, refrigerating and ice plants.
Besides the usual full equipment of pumps, juice heaters, clarifiers, filter presses, etc., the factory installation includes ten 600 horsepower vertical water tube boilers with bagasse burning furnaces, automatically fed by bagasse carriers and the latest improved type of fur{173}nace feeders; two tandems of 36 inch × 84 inch nine-roll mills, with crushers, each tandem of mills being driven by one 32 inch × 60 inch Corliss engine and each crusher by one 20 inch × 42 inch Corliss engine. Two Lillie Quadruple Effects, each of a capacity to evaporate 600,000 gallons, reversible both as to vapor and liquor. Four 14 inch steel vacuum pans, each equipped with its own vacuum pump and condenser. For the injection water, three-stage direct connected centrifugal pumps are used, one of which is a reserve, throwing 3,500 gallons of water per minute. Twenty-two crystallizers, with an aggregate capacity of 37,400 cubic feet; thirty 40 inch Weston centrifugal machines and the most improved installation of conveyors, and other auxiliary and automatic machinery of practical design for the handling of the finished product. Three molasses storage tanks, of 425,000 gallons capacity each, accommodate the final molasses thrown off by the factory. These are situated near the wharf, and from them shipment in bulk is made directly into deep draught tank steamers.
The company’s railroad is thirty-five miles in length, of standard gauge, laid in 60-pound rails, and furnished with cars completely made{174} of steel and having each a capacity of twenty tons.
When it is considered that the entire tonnage of many thousand acres must be transported within a certain period to a central point, and that the supply of cane to the factory must be equal and continuous to avoid the losses that result from retardation or stoppage of the mill, the great importance of the transportation system on a plantation may be appreciated.
The modern method of the large central with its immense sphere of influence, necessitates that the railroad be thoroughly equipped and efficiently managed. The old practice of carrying the cane from field to factory in an ox cart has passed into disuse along with the small mill, and has been superseded by the present railroad, with standard gauge roadbeds, heavy rails, steel cars, powerful locomotives, and schedule running, the whole being under the direction of a practical railroad man, as train despatcher. Although the standard gauge is often used, the narrow gauge is generally employed. On estates which are a considerable distance from any trunk line or public road, the latter is preferable on account of the lower cost with correspondingly smaller car capacity;{175} while on large estates, where the cars have a capacity of twenty tons or over, it is necessary to lay the standard gauge road for the greater efficiency and smaller cost of maintenance.
Opinions vary as to the most convenient and economical size of car to be used on small and large plantations. It is, however, beginning to be generally admitted that the larger the car, having in mind the weight of the rail, the better the results. Experienced constructors are now recommending a steel frame car, mounted on strong trucks, with automatic couplers and air brake attachments. A steel car has been found by carefully observed experience to have a longer life than a wooden one, since it is in the field the year round, and if it is well painted the deterioration is much less than with the other style.
Recently, plantation operators have learned that it is a mistake to use light locomotives with heavy loads. The result is an abnormal deterioration, while when a locomotive of sufficient power and weight is used, less trouble is experienced in hauling the train and the wear and tear is minimized. Up-to-date plantations are furnished with an adequate round-house, where the engines can be under the eye of an{176} experienced mechanic, and where repairs can conveniently be made.
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