Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-03-24
SUGAR CANE IN HAWAII,
Lively Scene at the 1Tii,-3Iodes of Trans
 portion-Laborers' Houses.

Lively Scene at the 1Iiii-aIodes of Trans
 portion-Laborers' Houses.
 The sugar cane is grown mostly upon the plateaus or level stret ehcs of land. fo. the sake of irrigation and covers acre upon acre of open country, down to the ocean shore itself. The fields are defined by solid fences of rough stones, at once economical, durable, and picturesque. After the first crop of cane is gathered in, there are two or even three volunteer crops, known as ''rattoons'' and after the last crop the stubble is burned and the land allowed to rest, when it is plowed and planted again with cuttings from a previous harvest, so all the various processes are going on at tfe selfsame time. When the cane is ripe, it is cut off with a sharp knife about foot from the ground, by native, Portuguese, or Chi nese laborers. The tops and leaves are trimmed to be used as fodder for the cattte,= e-4sd it-I5s tiaeff ready for the meta morphosis into sparkling sugar.
 At the mill itself all is animation Down the winding hillside come team after team of OK carts, laden to over flowing with the succulent cane stalk, each team drawn by six sturdy oxen, the dusky drivers running eXcitedly before them and using, to an accompaniment of violent language, the formidable 'sblack- snake or cowhide; whose strokes, how ever, seem to have but small effect upon the speed of the patient and bewildered burden bearers. Each load is deposited in front of the mill and the teams return the same way they came, so there is q con- tinual stream both going and coming. On some plantations the cane is transported by means of fumes extending from the mill to the various parts of the field. The cut ters throw the stalks into the Hume by the armful, and the current carries them to the mill, where thcJ are strained out by a rough set of wooden crossbars and on thcSo carried on to the crusher. The fact that the cane fields are, as before mentioned, on the levels and irrigated makes it possible on very many planta- tions to use this cheap and effective method. It is certainly the most char acteristic of them all and is possible only in an abundantly watered land. Other modes of transportation are employed, as seen in the elevated railway in the fields of Kealia, and the flat boats from the bottom lands in the district of Hanalei. Sugar making does not differ mate rially from the methods employed in l other countries. There are the various processes of crushing and maceration, of Altering and purifying, of Loiling in the vat and the vacuum pan, of passing 1 through the ''double effect'' into the coolers, and thence to the centrifugal machine, from which it issues the first ! quality of brown sugar. ready to be shipped to the distant refineries in San | Francisco.
 Each mill hos its individual village of laborer's houses, which are either thrown picturesquely down upon the hillside. like cast off pasteboard boxes, or stand i ing in neat and regular rows. There are also the comfortable homes of tho over- seer and sugar boiler, store and post office, and perhaps a church or school.- Bertha F. Herrick in Overland Monthly.