The Opelousas courier., 1893-05-06
SUGAR KING OF HAWAII,
HOW CLAUS sP3EcKELs EARNED
THAT TITLE.

A4o
ne introduced Irrigation. Steam
lows and Modern Machinery
and Ran Steamers to the Islands.
x UGAR planting was practiced in
~ the islands on a small scale be-
~ lore the reciprocity treaty with
:. the United States Gin 1879, but
IL was after that event that it took on
the large proportions and improved
methods which characterize it TO-DAY.
NO small part of the improvement in
methods and enlarged scope of the bust
ness Is due to an American citizen of
German birth of whom the American
people have heard a good deal in one
way or another, This is Claus spreck-
les, tbs sugar king, who is drawing
dividends on millions of Sugar stock.
Spreckles's work as a financial artist is
drawn with a bold, free hand, which
produces startling effects. He got his
first foothold in the business world bv
land speculations in California. Having
achieved in this way the wherewithal to
pursue further operations, he got control
OF the California Sugar Refinery. This
opened up an occupation most congenial
to his mind in the shutting off of compe-
tltion in the refining industry. He paid
a rival refinery a comfortable income for
many years to stand idle, and made it
we'll worth his own while by the in
creased price he charged for the refined
sugar.
He succeeded in cornering the Ha-
wallan sugar crop year after year and en-
joyed a monopoly of the refined sugar
supply on the whole Pacific coast. The
Hawaiian sugar supply was ample for the
demands Of the Pacific coast, even with
only the most favored spots brought
under cultivation. The easy-going Ha-
walian planters were long content to
work these rich lands until Spreckels
went into the planting business himself,
retaining vast areas of what had been
considered waste lands.
Previous to that time sugar planting
had been confined to areas within reach
of existing water courses. The cane re-
quires a great deal of water, and the
rainfall is not to be depended on te
supply its needs. The resource is irri-
cation. There is a vast amount of land
in the Sandwich Islands which coua
be made productive by water supply,
either by digging wells or lengthy con
duits. Before Claus spreckels's time
| the planters huddled about the mouths
of the valleys and along the streams,
from which they brought water for short
distances in rlckety wooden fumes.
Hawaiian sugar planters are the en-
bodiment of hospitality. They are much
isolated from one another, and for long
periods their only intercourse with the
outside world is through the occasional
travellers who stop with them for shelter
and food. So they welcome all comers.
There are in this region a plantation and
sugar mill run wholly by Cinnamon.
They are owned by Along, the wealthy
Chinese merchant in Honolulu, whose
SON is a graduate of Yale College. The
oyerseer is a Chinamau. The mill hands
are Cinnamon, and the field hands also.
The mill machinery was all made in
Honolulu.
The zane requires thirteen months to
mature. After the first crop is taken off,
a second and sometimes a third, called
| the first or second ration crop, is raised
from the same seed, each time with a di-
~minishing Quantity and quality of sugar.
Then the cane is good for nothing
| further. but to use as seed in ~replanting.
AS this cane is cut in the fields and
stripped, it is in most cases pitched into
one of the rickety fumes used to carry
the water for irrigation and foated down
to the mill, which is often run by the
same water.
In other cases the cane is carried to the
mill in OK carts. It is then run between
heavy rollers and the juice pressed out.
The Juice is run first into clarifying
tanks with copper steam pipes in the
bottom. Upon being boiled the dirt and
| foreign substances rise to the surface
and are SKINNED off. The evaporating
pans are very similar, but shallower, and
are used ta, clear the water from the
Juice. The-pure juice is then sucked
up into the pan-a gigantic IL
| closed tank, from which the air can be
| exhausted il order to save time in boil
ing the juice.
After boiling down to a thick grant,
lar substance, it is turned into the centri-
| fugal circular iron jars, which are set to
whirling at the rate of 1900 revolutions
a minute, and so separate the sparkling
sugar crystals from the fluid. The su.
gar is then dumped, still hot, on a clean
floor and from there shoveled into
sacks. Then it used to be slowed away
until Claus Sppeckles came along and
offered his priceIfor it.
This was ~the,tranquil and easy-going
way of doing things which it struck
Claus sprecklestten years ago could be
improved upon to his advantage.
The island of Maui, next north of Hawaii
in the group, is made up OF two separate
clusters of mountain peaks twenty or
thirty miles apart a%ndsjoined together by
a low-lying strip Of land-so low-lying
that 1t looks as though Maui had once
been two islands. With the sea flowing
over this strip. There are several hun
| dred square miles of this lowland, and
there are no natural water courses HoW-
ing through it.
The planters on Maui had conse-
| auently never attempted to plant sugar
in 1t, and had conined,themselves TO the
mouths of the valleys on either side of it.
4 -. y - 1880 ,~~l 11rl