Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-05-02
A CUBAN SUGAR FARM.

broad Stretcn OF lanQ, rlSlnS anu urop'
ping in graceful curves. Pleasant
groves of trees, glades of woodland,
and far mountains, suffused in poetic
blue haze, lend lovely general effect
to the picture. On one of the central
curves rises the planters home. 1t is
often a Chinese puzzle of architecture,
with no end of projecting points and
piazza work, covered with lattices so as
to let in the breeze while it keeps out
the heat, and so lined with high colors
of red or blue that in the distance it
often looks like great toy box. A
little way from this dwelling is a solid
beam, set firmly in masonry and sup
porting the plantation bell. Farther
| away still is the vast mass of mixed
up buildings that make up the sugar
works, flanked by the heaps of crushed
dry cane which is used as fuel for the
boiler. Then grouped at various dis
tances from this plantation center are
the rough mud and lath houses of the
negro hands in all stages of architec-
tural decrepitude. Beyond the eye
lights on the cane fields, if one may
use that term for what is rather a vast
prairie of cane. 1t is peculiarly hard to
do justice to the beauty of one of these
sugar cane oceans, its surface breaking
into green waves under the wind, its
solid mass of verdure still further keep.
ing up the watery effect, and its re-
moter bounds reaching far away until
they almost touch the horizon. Dot
this scene with. stately palms lifting
their tufted heads sixty feet high, with
moving figures of horsemen and toiling
negroes, with frame works of loaded
cane drawn by four yoked cattle, and
the spectacle, seen from a distance
where detail is lost, charms the eye
with its PASTORAL loveliness.
But with nearer vision, when the
outline is lost and details arebrought to
clearer view, one finds grim realities of
thriftlessness. Everything seems bat
tered and worn and weather-stained.
There is a prevailing air of unthrift
and carelessness pervading the place.
The trim orchards, the clean yards,
and neat gardens that go with wealth
in more temperate zones have no place
here. The sugar mill is rough and un-
painted, its machinery rusty, and the
broken cane trodden under foot gives
it a barn-yard semblance. Even the
planters own dwelling, with its once
fiery paint, has a washed-out and
| dilapidated look which its interior
often confirms. Worst of all are the
half-wrecked homes of the negro hands,
with the mud falling from yawning
cracks, the timbers deceased or broken,
and their outward and inward aspect
rivalling the mud huts of squalid Ire
land Among these poor dwellings
wander frowsy and fierce dogs, half
naked black women and entirely naked
black children of both sexes
SUGAR CULTURE.
Sugar cane produces no natural seed,
but is propagated from cuttings placed
in shallow trenches through the fields
two or three feet apart. The young
plants spring from the joints of the
buried cane, a1d continue thus to
grow for several years without new
paintings, somewhat after the manner
ofgthe asparagus of our Northern climes
But each year the growth becomes in
| ferior, until the planting has at last to
be renewed. Though at first having
to be weeded, while the ground is
kept clear, the cane is soon left to
itself when once it hegins to shade tho
soil so as to prevent the growth of OBJ
structive plants. Most curious of all
is the change that ensues as soon as
the cane begins to ripen at its lower
Joints. Then the long, sWard-like
leaves that surrounds the under part
of the stalk loosen one by one. Final
ly they drop off, and as joint after joint
softens the dry leaves make tangled
thick mattress on the ground covering
thousands of acres and highly infam
mable Readers of this letter will
many of them recall the frequent re-
ports telegraphed during the late Cuban
rebellion of the immense destruction
caused by firing the sugar plantetions.
The explanation is to he found iD the
ease with which whole sugar crop
can be set in flames by touch of the
match to this jungle of dry leaves that
underlies and penetrates the standing
cane. Fire is the Cuban planters
nightmare. A careless toss of q half
burned cigarette, spark from negro's
cabin, an ignited MATCH, way signify
the loss Of q years crop and absolute
ruin. Most dangerous of all, a re-
vengeful negro has it in his power to
inhict loss of tens of thousands of dol
lars on his employer. l have heard of
one of the clever devices which the
negro uses to fire plantations and at
the same time prove an alihi le takes 9
light box, with Q candle set within it.
Equipped With this and a bunch of
matches, he crawls to the center of a
sugar cane tract. He then SO fixes the
candle that it must burn through the
box before the fame can reach the
matted cane leaves. A touch of the
match does the rest, and the fugitive
has time to escape and appear among
the working hands long before the dis
tant smoke and spreading flames Yarl
the planter of the impending calamity.
ga sugar crop has to be watched like
baby" said Cuban planter recently
speaking to me of cane culture. II
danger is apprehended, the watchers
guard it at every point, and short
shrift is given the black man evel
caught in the incendiary act. If he
reaches the courts bis chances are fal
better than those given him by th;
quick bullet Of the guard.
Outside of this peril Of fire | panno
find that sugar culture is more pre-
carious than any other agricultural in
dustries. But it exhausts the soil rap
idly, so that its fertility needs constan
renewal by manures and plantation
| Of thraa or fonr thnusand acres will