New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-12-24

for collecting refuse bagasse. Mr.. Mesa has also
the Yankee talent for organizing working force
and conducting the details of a large manuiac-
turing business with precision and thrift lie Is
ably assisted By the chemist and director OF the
boiling establishment, George A. Williams son
Of the well-known United States C0nsul-ticneIa'
in Havana. Mr.. Williams is recent graduate OF
the Brooklyn Polytechnic School, and now has
under his charge the delicate laboratory work OF
this great factory and is highly successful in stop
ping those lcakagcs which ordinarily reduce Il
sugar planters profits TO deficit.
Nc visitor can leave Santa Catalina. where
nine pounds OF sugar are produced from every
90 pounds Of cane millcd, aud where the manager
knows what the works doing day by dav ana
almost hour by hour what percentage of sugar he
is getting ont of his cane and how his product
will be rated and graded in the Nrw-lor market
and not carry away with him highly favorable
impression Of the industrial aptitude OF the
Cnbans When one arrives at Havana he Is III
cned TO regard them an alien race essentially
unlike his own: but when he hnds WORKING
force OF machiniss, sngar-testcrs, ana operatives
carving Oh with efficiency most complex
manufacturing business. and witnesses the success
and inventive skill with which men Ike MI
Ucidcager and Mr. Mesa are working out the
problem OF reducing the cost of their product ny
dispensinC with labor and substituting Tor IL
mechanical and automatic processes, he Is iuiiy
persuaded that Cuba is altogether American.
Here is an island that has practically single
industry-cane sugar. and that staple one whlch
has been subjected to ruinous competition from
European beet sugar. Plainly the only chance of
maintaining that industry lies in the reduction OF
the cost of manufacture and in the enlargement oil
the volume OF production. The cost OF making
cane sugar has been reduced in single genera
ton from 10 = cents pound, and one OF
the best-informed men whom ! have met IN ,Hoa
asserts positively that 1t VIII scdliy 10. cuu uom !
TO SIS cents This has been done by the general
adoption Of the central factory SYSTEM, oN WliVh
larr, works grind the cane of te slIi'4 pah,cIS'
and also by marvellous Improvement IN nlechail,,
zeal annliances by which human labor Is dispensed
with At the same time the production mas Dech
| increased until the last record Tor me SpalliS1m
West Indies is 100000 tons or gam oi mean
400 600 tons. in two years Inc Cnoan calic
| planters are solving these problems win rrhiark-
able ingenuity and practical INTEL sence fnnke
manufacturers i'll Ncw-England do not display
greater industrial aptitud- i,,
Caue-producers like Mr. Heidegger not ony
| carry on successfully Il most intricate nIahu-
| foctnrinp industry, but they also nav" an
| enormous business TO conduct with mcicihtHc
shrewdness The plantation at Santa Ca,aHHi
is large one, but the mus Wo"i9 , I"t we're
| dependent upon the home supply OF ctnc VII,
| tracts have 10 be made in advance win a swarm
! OF small planters for the purchase oil theH VaHo
1 ,l,
order that the works can re PROVIDED WIZ y
stock without interruption. W hen tue s sugar !,
| made and graded il Las TO he sold to tlc n' 80
advantage in the American market Certainly
| there is no other business conducted IN uopral
America which requires higher gtaar "i , n,.u,
camille sagacity and practical intclliscncc 'h}h
the production Of cane sugar not .r Is W. Indi.s
| found either in Mexico, the Britlsh N'sl mn
or anywhere in South Ameriea an indn aIi
class that can be compared in efficiency ana 9nH"-
80 ~ mind with the sugar operatives Of CUBA.
There is something & Santa Catalina oe' ram i
well-ordered SUGAR mill with It's cra~'"sS Ia,npe
| ~ activity There j. wcll-cultivatcd ghtI'h
behind the plantation house. Win %cr , o. s'r AND
n cbIoidn collection Of tropical fruit trees Mr.
Heidcgge even aprs to rePlan ant 'r G% ,t c 'a.
"a nlonters were accus omed 10 do hfty years a-p.
| In front of the hospitabe house - IolriT
| rose garden with orange trees 'a,chIhs ~ !
| drove away in the early morning last gIlinps
| NJ mink roses and golden fruit and Of TIE silihi
faces Of the ladies of Mr.. McNa's household,
found il hard TO convince myself that II wa
| December and tina; I had not had tlste o.
genuine American home life in the hesrr o.
| Cuba. - ~ -