The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-06-05
SPRECKLESV VILE
VISIT TO THE LARGEST SUGAR PLAN
TATION IN THE WORLD.
The Story OF Claus SpreckIes' Success As
Written by q Honolulu Correspond
emit - Machinery, Labor, Guilt
walton, Yield of Sugar, Etc.
professor wayward in Hartford Courant.l

professor Maynard in Hartford Courantl
6 But what and where is Sprecklesville,
and why should il be visited2 It becomes
me to answer this quite natural question
without any parade Of superior informa-
ton, because two months ago knew as
little about Sprecklesville as the average
Sprecklesvillian knows today about Hart
ford 1t has a familiar sound, akin to
Tariffville or Falls Village. In point of
fact, it is a small settlement with poly
glot population-Chinese, Portuguese,
japanese, Hawaiians. South Sea Islanders,
Americans, Norwegians, Germans, Eng
Iish, Scotch, on the island of Maui. one of
the smallest of the Hawaiian group all
engaged in the manufacture of sugar on
the largest plantation in the world.
About 81, 900, 900 have already been ex-
pended in the plant The machinery, (all
made in the United States) is of the most
management is intelligent and progressive,
the annual yield is enormous, aud the
whole is the growth of only five years
The area under cultivation is about TO-
900 acres One quarter of this is planted
every year from July to October. Single
joints of the cane each containing an eye
very much like the eye of a potato) are
planted at intervals of twelve inches and
lightly covered with soil During the Pc
often as may be necessary. The most Sc
rious problem is how to obtain an ade
quate supply of water. The average rain
fall is very uncertain, as may be inferred
from the fact that it varied from 10. II
inches in 1878 to 31.T8 in 1884. The
planter must rely, therefore, on artificial
irrigation. The Spreckles plantation is
watered by two bitches. the principal one
twenty miles long. fourteen feet wide at
~. l.. -. -
1ngs TO supply water TO the trenches at the
rate of from IA, 200 to 5000 cubic feet to
the acre each week. The cost of this
ditch was about $3.50, 000
Cutting cane for the mills commences
in January and goes on until the fields are
cleared, the time required for bringing
the cane to maturity being from fourteen
to eighteen months. Of course, every
practicable expedient is adopted for di-
minishing the amount of manual labor
Twenty miles of narrow gauge road tTav
erse the plantation, the track being
changed as the work goes on, so as to re-
duce the carrying by hand 10 the min
imum. The cane is then transported to
the crusher, which, fed by an endless
chain, grinds up Gn the three mills about
$50 tons of cane per day, resulting in a
daily yield of about eighty tons of sugar.
The yield of sugar to the acre varies
from three to six tOns-depending on the
fertility of the soil, the thoroughness of
cultivation. and the perfection of the irri
CATION Perhaps four tons would be a
fair average The waiting line of between
200 and 800 cars loaded high with cane
and discharging their contents into the in
satiable throat of the cruSher presents in
a very vivid manner the magnitude of the
enterprise. The juice of the cane so ex-
tracted is then clarified, and boiled and
vacuumed, and centrifugal cylindered over
and over again until it reappears in three
qualities of sugar The final residuum is
a coarse. gummy molasses without mar
ket value The very competent manager
of the Spreckles mills-whose salary is
nearly three times the pittance paid to a
professor in Yale colleges seeking by
some chemical combinations. which prom
Use to be successful, to convert this resi-
dunn into a profitable fertilizer. The
trash, as the fiber of the cane after the
crushing process is called, is used for
fuel
A word as to the kind of labor en-
plOyed. l have already indicated the
various nationalities represented in the en-
terprise The men filing the more i'm
pOTtant positions are Germans, Americans,
and Englishmen. Of the common work
men, of whom there are more than / 800,
about 900 are Chinese. Also from these
industrious and thrifty people come the
store keepers, the dealers in opium and
liquor, and, of course, the laundrymen.
The natives do not love to toll or to spin.
Continuous labor is especially irksome to
them. They work, as a rule, only as they
are impelled by the pressure of poverty,
and this pressure is rarely severe, as they
live on raw fish and poi, affect little
variety or extravaganza in their ward
robes. and crave simply such an aCcumu-
lation as will purchase a horse and saddle
and bride.
Hence how to obtain an adequate num-
Der of workmen has become very puz-
cling problem with the planters, espe-
cially as the Hawaiian government has
portation of Chinese. Within recent
months recourse has been had to the
Portuguese of the islands of St Michaels
and Madeira, to the South Sea islands,
and to Japan. About 1000 japanese are
already under contract to come to these
islands. The objections most frequently
urged against the Chinese are alleged not
to exist in the case of the japanese,
who are industrious, facile, com,
panionable, quick to take in the Gus
toms of civilization, are eager to come.
and not desirOus to return to their native
land The South sea islanders are only
fitted for the more common forms of men
ial labor, and show no desire to improve
The Portuguese experiment cannot be
considered a failure-the men are on the
whole temperate and industrious, the
women are prolific. conspicuously so, but
they are not intelligent, and their ideas of
ownership need to be essentially modified.
They are quite too much given to Teaping
when they did not SOW.
have not yet alluded to Claus
Spreckles, the originator of the sugar in
dustry which Gears his name and in which
he is the principal proprietor. AL
though a German by birth, he
has lived in San Francisco since boy
hood, and in all his tastes and
sympathies is thoroughly identified with
the land of his adoption have alluded
TO the fact that all his machinery was
manufactured in the United States. as
were, also, his admirably equipped steam
ers the Mariposa and Alameda, plying be
tween San Francisco and Honolulu The
enormous annual yield of sugar, not less
than 5000 tons, the product Of the
Spreckles mills, is brought by rail to the
little harbor of Kahului, shipped on sail
ing vessels, and transported to San Fran
cisco, where the immense sugar refinery
of Mr.. Spreckles receives and converts it
into those white squares which have so
SO thoroughly displaced the tall, shining
cones, envelOped in blue paper. which are
among the memories Of orr childhood