Morning journal and courier., 1885-06-03
IN CUBA.

iU oUUHs
 Sugar-A Visit to The Toledo PIanta- ton - Cane-Cutting Cultivation = Crushing the Cane Heating the Jafce-The Final Process-How the Business is Dome.
 HAVANA, May F. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: The sugar-grinding season is about over in
 Cuba. It begins along in November or De-
 cember and lasts until early in the month of
 May. Ina previous letter I alluded to the
 depression prevailing in the sugar industry
 here in Cuba (as in all branches of Cuban in-
 dustry) and promised to conduct your readers
 over.a first class plantation at some early date
 hasten to fulfill that promise in the present letter.
 For years it has been one of the things
 as essential to the maintenance of his self
 respect as well regulated globe-trotter that
 he pay visit to some leading plantation
 here. In the past this has been an ea5y thing
 to accomplish, by reason of the lavish hospi
 tality of the planters great and small. Even
 8 hotel interpreter could get a permit for
 whomsoever he chose. Now all that is past.
 The genus tourist has so abused the hospi tality thus extended that the planters almost
 as body have been obliged to close their estates except to certain persons who may come provided with letters of introduction
 from some mutual and highly reputable ac- quaintance. Foreseeing this state of things, I came to Cuba provided with letters of in troduction which have given me the entree te the Toledo plantation at Marianao. It is to resume of the facts gleaned during sev- eral visits to this large, valuable estate that propose to devote this letter.
 In the first place it should be noticed that the name of Cuban sugar estate is regarded as avery important consideration. Every thing must be named here, even the smallest store for the sale of beef, pork or codfsh But when it comes to a hospital, or cigar manufactory, or sugar plantation, this i'm perative necessity is overwhelmingly urgent in the eyes of these title-loving islanders, who even retain the name of the maternal branch of the house, coupling it with that Of the paternal side by means of the conjunction ''and".. Thus Catholic nomenclature has been adopted in many cases, and dozen saints are commemorated in plantation titles. The Toledo (with the sounded like, long a) is some two or three miles from Marianao, a pleasant village ten or twelve miles from this city. A party of us went out last week, talk
 
 Marianne half an hour later. At Marianao we engaged carriages, and proceeded to the estate. On the way we passed the private palace of the present proprietor, widow named Antonia Otermin. The palace, like all these Cuban palaces, was the conventional one-storied stucco pile, tinted like rainbow and rambling over the greater part of an acre of ground. It was located in the center of a large tropical garden that was enclosed by the usual forbidding wall. The scenery en route was typical1y Cuban, repeating the features which have mentioned in previous letters characteristic. At the entrance to the plantation we found swinging gate across the road, and just inside of it, to the left, stood guard on the threshold of the diminutive guard house provided for him. We surrendered our printed passes to this functionary, the gate was swung open, and we drove in.
 The road led up gently ascending ground, to the "batey," or open square where the operations of the plantation were being ducted. The fields at the right and left of the drive had long since been cleaned of cane, anda dense growth of young rattoons gave promise of good crop for the next sea son. To the left, not far distant, 8 rail over which the proprietor's own engine and cars passed in going to remote portions of the plantation in order to gather cane. Some planters own and employ as many as ten or a dozen Baldwin locomotives ia the operation of their vast estates.
 At one place we came across @ patch of late cane,-a pretty sight as the tasselled tops swayed in the breeze and finally bowed be- fore the machetes of the negro laborers These 1aborers, men, women and children, who were scantily rather than picturesquely clad, were as skilled in the seemingly simple operation of cane-cutting as Florentine sculp tors or Cantonese ivory-carvers in their re- spective avocations. They swung their broad-bladed knives with graceful regularity, first cutting off the stalk at the base, then
 sevsring the foliage top, and lastly cutting the stalk in two as they tossed it into one of the two-wheeled carts in waiting to convey it to the batey.
 The superiority of the Cuban soil and climate over that of Louisiana for sugar-rais ing purposes is attested amosg other things by the fact that field of cane tassels here, and it is only rarely that single stalk tassels in the Pelican State.
 Long lines of twe-wheeled carts; ;drawn by two or four oxen each, were toiling along the
 roads centering at the batey. The soil is so rich in most parts of Cuba that
 a field of ribbon cane will run seven or eight
 years, and have an instance in mind of a
 patch which produced we'll this season and
 has not been renewed for sixteen years.
 When the ground does run out it is re-
 ploughed steam plough being ordinarily
 
 of steam ploughs on hand. After this, the
 soil having been fertilized little, pieces of
 cane are placed in the ground in horizontal
 parallel rows about yard apart, with the
 ends slightly overlapping. The buds at the joints promptly sprout, and thus fresh
 cane sections are planted upright in the
 ground.
 During the rebellion the Toledo plantation
 got thoroughly run out, along with many others, and was only redeemed afterwards by a novel experiment on the part of the manager.
 He purchased the privilege of removing the refuse of the streets of Havana each night, and bringing this by train to his estate sue ceeded in making it more prolific than ever. In general, however, but little fertilizing
 material is used beyond the scum and dross eliminated from the boiling cane-juice.
 We reiped up at the mill-house, large open building from which proceeded the
 hum of whirling machinery. and the oppres- sively sweet smell of sugar-cane juice. The first operation which naturally attracted our attention was the dumping of the carts of cane which we had seen vending their way toward the mlll-house. The cane was thrown, lengthwise, crosswise, or diagonally, as it might happen, upon long, slow-moving apron, which operated on the endless chain
 principle so commonly applied in our thresh- ing machines. I suppose this appn was nearly 200 feet long;-so long that score or
 more of cart loads might be dumped upon it at once. AS the cane reaches the end of the gentle inclining plane, it passed into the
 jaws of ponderous machine prepared for crushing it. There were three iron rollers of prodigious crushing power, locked by means of powerful cog wheels. As the cane entered this relentless maw, it was mangled and fattened till it came out in front in the form of mere rags It then fell upon another apron, which conveyed it outside of the mill and deposited it where it might be loaded upon carts and taken to the drying sheds for preparation for furnsce use. I had noticed these sheds on the way to the mill house, and comment ed upon the amount of ''bagazo, D. as it is called. (bsgaz in English, believe), which
 was being turned by coolies in order to dry
 it, so that it might serve as fuel In dry
 weather most plantations get along without
 any other fuel except this crushed cane.
 Rather than use coal, the Toledo, at least,
 shuts down in adssweather. In this way thirty-ive days were lost during the past
 season, an unusually large number. It is interesting to note how the gospel of utility is espoussd in the process of sugar making. Four great services are enacted