The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-02-02


day, out Of Cuba's nine hundred and odd
plantations, not one is in operation as
before the war. After four years of
guerilla fighting, during which Spanish
! troops and Cuban patriots were chiefly
engaged In destroying property, not
much is left. Every estate in the coun-
try was seriously crippled and finally
had to suspend operations altogether,
while fully nine-tenths of them had
their buildings burned and machinery
destroyed. Most of the planters have
begun again, as far as their means will
permit; but they are woefully poor,
I without even money to pay the necessa-
ry laborers, much less to rebuild.
However, a good many will make shift
somehow on borrowed capital and long
credit. The last of the cane must be in
the ground before the end of April; and
it is estimated that this years crop will
reach perhaps two hundred and fifty
thousand tons, instead of the million
tons which used to be annually expect
ed of the island.
By the way, judging from the number
of letters am constantly receiving from
people in the United States concerning
the prospects for starting sugar-planta-
tons on amounts varying from few
hundred to a few thousand dollars, it
would seem that a great deal of misap-
prehension exists in regard to sugar
growing. 1t Is no use whatever for a
poor man, or one in moderate circum-
stances, to dream of such thing-un-
aided. There is not a plantation In
Cuba worth less than million dollars,
and many cost several times that sum.
Suppose some impoverished owner could
be induced to sell his estate literally
for a song" or on credit; it would be
found impossible to do anything with
such property without great deal Of
money at command. If by rare good
fortune the guerillas had left it's ma
chinery and buildings intact, an expert
enced and careful manager might set
things going again and rub along until
the first crop could be marketed on
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
or thereabouts; but to attempt it with
smaller bank account would be sheer
madness. The sugar business in Cuba
for many years to come will be one of
syndicates and ompanies-surely not of
individual owners, unless the latter be
milionaires; and that class can
better afford to remain in the pace and
security of home rather than to risk the
uncertain chances Of this chaotic coun-
try.
To-day it is a sad thing to ride
through the valleys of Santa Clara, not
withstandng their incomparably natu-
raj beauties Twice before l have made
the trip. The first time, nearly five
years ago, / thought the hill-envroned
plains back of Cienfuegos were the very
garden-epot Of the world-a f1awless
paradise of towering palms and yellow
ing cane, soft airs, singing birds and
odorous flowers, oyer-arched by the
cloudless skies of eternal summer. Next
time 1 came this way the war had been
going on nearly three years. and the
smoke of hundred fires hung over the
valley like dense, black pail. There
was danger in the trip, for every knoll
and hollow might hide a murderous
band of Spanish soldiers, or the no less
to be feared machetes of guerilla pa
triots." To-day the skies are blue and
untroubled as ever, for the last embers
ceased smoking months ago. But where
are the happy go-iucky, parti-colored
people that swarmed the wayside sta
lions and loitered along the sunny
roads? Death has gathered them all in
under sis shadowy wings-upwards Of
four hundred thousand of the non-com-
batting country people of Cuba wiped |
out by famine in four years time. |
Where are the white walled villas, the |
straw-thatched huts, the fields of way
ing cane. The whole province is like a |
vast atorium--every hamlet oblite-
rated every home an ash-heap. The |
patriots themselves destroyed fifty
thousand farms, plantations and ranch
as and converted sixty million dollars
worth Of growing cane into drifting
ashes Here, as well as all over the
lesolated island, shining, well-kept ma :
,hinery Is thing of the past in most
eases what is now rustng uncovered in
he fields has been shipped abroad as
I'D junk General prosperity can never
'eturn to war-cursed Cuba until it's
chief source of wealth-sugar-ha been
'ehabilitated by the introduction of
many million dollars worth of new ma
,hinery.
A description of one sugar plantation
answers pretty we'll for all the rest
The scene is always the same-the tall
white chimney of the mill, emitting its
hick volume of smoke like the funnel Of
| steamboat; groups of straw thatched
lutS constituting the laborers quarters
nd at one side, or on some commanding
,noll, the planters villa, veranded and
atticed, surrounded by gardens and
BEAUTIFUL shade trees. The entrances to
ONE of the estates are magnificent ave-
ues of royal palms. the round, smooth
runks, all as exactly alike as though
urned by machinery, looking like rows
# Corinthian columns with green capt.
ols, leading to some Egyptian temple.
'ou see hundreds of negroes at work.
nd swarthy overseers, mounted on
heir scrubby Cuban ponies, dashing to
nd fro among them. Just now they
re mostly planting cane and clearing
p the debris of war; but later you will
ee some gangs cutting the cane with
laohetes; others loading the stalks
pom ox-carts; others driving loads to
he mill; and others feeding the cane b.
Neen the great steel crushers, beneath
-hich a jelly-like stream pours forth
alto iron pipes to be conducted to the
pread the crushed refuse to dry in the
IN, after which it will serve as fuel In
mother department square cars filed
18th soft sugar are rolled along a track
, be weighed, and then their contents
re dumped into watts to dry After