Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1857-03-12
Cuban Sugar Plantation.

Oouiiei gives tne loIlOWlnS lnCereSl
ing account OF one of the largest 81
gar plantations in Cuba:
This estate is very properly call
ed the Flor de Cubas,' (Flower Q
Cuba). There are other estates a
} large and larger, but none that hav
such perfect machinery, and whicl
have laid out SO much money for that
and Oh buildings, There are abou
1000 acres of land, nearly three
quarters of which are under cultiva
ton with sugar cane, the balance
being devoted to grazing and the
plantain fields. The product of thi:
estate, of course, varies with differ.
lent years; thus, last ear, owing tc
the rains, they could not cut all theil
cane and it fell short, but its present
average crop is 10000 boxes and
1000 hogsheads of sugar, and it:
gross income at present prices will be
from S32O,0O0 to S350,000. Ofthis
enormous sum about one-half is alb.
sorbed by interest on its debt and by
It's annual expenses. There are Csc
hands--350 negroes and $50 Chinese
The rest are overseers, cartmen, coon.
ers, engineers, &c. There are 80 OK
carts for drawing the cane to the mill
and 500 oxen, four being used to ev-
cry cart, and they are relieved twice
a day. There are many buildings in
this village, for it is almost like one,
Besides the sugar house, there is the
dwelling houses, for the owner anG fol
the overseers, the drying houses, the
hospital, the baracoons for the slaves,
and even a nursery for the children
of the slaves.
"The sugar house here is the prin-
cipal attraction and it is an enormous
affair. Itisa all on one floor and covered
by single roof, and its Interior
some what similar to that of some of
our large sugar refineries in New York.
There are two large rolling mills for
crushing the cane, each with three
rollers six feet long, and placed on the
top of two. the cane feeding itself and
passing under one and over the other
two rollers, it comes out squeezed al
most dry, and as flat as a sheet of pa
per; the juice runs down into trougts.
These rollers are set very close, within
an eighth of an inch of each other, and
the pressure is enormous. To drive
these rollers there is an engine of fif-
ty horse power. The juice then is
carried by pumps to set Of fourteen
kettles,wh by steam it is condensed,
and then it runs through "a body of car
bon or burnt bone in another set of
cisterns, it is then carried to vacu-
um pan, where is evaporated, then
over set of copper pipes for conden-
satiOn, again through the charcoal for
decolcring. then into a vacuum pan,
where tits boiled to crystalizing point.
1t lis then carried off to another part of
the building, and by copper ladies' is
emptied into the sugar moulds holding
about sixty pounds each, where in an
other day it is ready for claying. This
process is only followed where it is In
tended to make box sugar, which is al
ways clayed, while that packed in hogs
heads is called muscovado, and is
packed into the casks in green state,
where it is then allowed to purge Itself
for fifteen or twenty days and is
then ready fol shipment.
con this estate they make mostly
clayed or box sugar, and the process
of claying is this. The moulds con-
talnlng the green sugar are placed on
long floor in a room holding from
500 to 1000 moulds; the point of the
moulds is below the level Of the floor,
which is made with square holes fol
their support; after the sugar has sci
in the moulds the plug at the bottom
is taken out, and on the base or upper
fiat surface Of. the sugar is placed 9
quantity of black pasty clay, which
has the property of distributing the
water very equally through it. Thi:
clay is wet and the water filters slow.
ly through the body ofthe sugar, car
rying with it all color and leaving the
base of the cone perfectly white. This
process is repeated several times ant
the sugar is kept in this house for a
bout twenty days. 1t is the n turned
out of the moulds into large, open, flat
wooden trays; and the different layer
or strata of sugar is divided by ne
gro with large cleaver into white