The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-17
BIG PORTO RICO FARMS
ANGLE SANS NEW PLANTATIONS
AND HOW THEY ARE MAN
AGED
SUGAR ESTATES PAY MILLIONS

TobaccO Fields Which Produce CT
CARS as Good as Havana's-POrtO
Rico as Grazing COuntry-lts
Cattle Farms and How One Amer
lean Is Making Money Out of
Them-POrtO Rican Ponies.
Copyrighted, 1885, by Frank G. Carpenter.
PONCE, Porto Rico, Sept. IL want to
tell you something about the big farms
on Uncle Sans new island. 1t will seem
queer to many that there are large farms
In Porto Rico We look upon the island
as a patch upon the face of the Caribbean
sea. We think of it as divided into little
garden spots, with huts connected with
them. Porto Rico is nothing of the kind
1t has hundreds of thousands of huts, 1t
is true, but its lands largely consist OF
big estates. Fully one-half Of the island
is made up of large tracts. 1t has sugar
plantations of thousands of acres. 1t has
coffee estates which produce tens of thou
sands of dollars a year, and there are re-
gions in which you may ride for miles
and not be out of sight of tobacco.
This town of Ponce where this letter is
dated is down on the coast of the Carib-
bean sea. For miles above and below it
the country is covered with the pale, sick
ly green of IuXuriantly growing sugar
cane There are large plantations of
sugar cane upon all the coast lands of the
island. They form pale green binding
about Porto Rico, running from the sea
back to the blue foothills of the noun
tains From them are produced between
100000 and $4,000, 900 worth of sugar
year Upon them are made millions of
gallons of rum, and out of their factories
annually flows enough molasses to give
ell the children of the United States
tany pulling.
SUGAR KINGS OF PORTO RICO.
All of these plantations are valuable.
1t takes a deal of money to run them, and
those who own them may be called the
sugar kings of Porto Rico. They are the
nabobs of our West Indian possession.
Many of them have incomes Of tens OF
thousands of dollars a year, and not
few get from Is to 25 per cent on the cap
ltal they have invested.
Who are they?
1t is hard to say. Not few are Span
iards, who live in Barcelona and other
Spanish cities and manage their estates
through agents. One big sugar planter is
q Frenchman, several are Americans and
a large number are Porto Ricans. Some
OF them have been living beyond their
incomes, notwithstanding their large
profits They have mortgaged their es-
hates and the mortgages are now being
bought by Americans. Other Americans
are investing in sugar lands, one OF the
largest estates on the island, near Guy
amo, having recently gone into the hands
Of Boston parties. l believe the day Will
come when the most Of the sugar lands
viii be owned by our native citizens, and
that under their management they will
pay even better than they are now doing.
should not be surprised to see a sugar
trust formed to buy up and operate the
Porto Rican plantations. Such an or
genizauon could make big profit. 1t
could water its stock 800 per cent and
still pay dividends.
MONEY IN SUGAR.
Sugar plantations need large capital
Much of the profit comes from the eco
noInical handling of the cane, and the
better the machinery the greater the in
come. Today the best sugar plantations
here produce about 1000 pounds per acre.
Fifty years ago some of them produced
ne much as 1900 pounds, and the LANDS
were cropped again and again without
Teplanting. The cane was cut down. new
shoots at once sprouted up about the old
stalks and within g. few months there
was another crop ready for cutting. In
I,oI1isIana. I believe, they cut about two
CROPS in three years, when the cane must
ne replanted In the past Porto Rlcan
plantations produced for fifteen years IN
succession. Many Of the Porto R!can es-
fates now produce for five years, and In
the best parts of the Island some continue
.. The machinery Of Porto Rico Is not the
most modern. Most of the mills are
o1d-fashioned and wasteful. Some are
moved bv oxen and with two or three
exceptions none are up to date Some
of the Louisiana mills cost hundreds or
thousands of dollars They make their
profits because absolutely everything In
the cane IS turned into money ana not
q cent goes to waste.
On a few of the plantations here there
are railroads from the fields to the fac
tory. One or two estates have steam
engines to pull the cars over the track,
while on others this work is done by
oxen Upon the smaller plantations tina
cane is hauled in OK carts, and nearly
everywhere the sugar when manufac,
tured is carried to the seaboard by oxen.
The labor on the plantations here Is
less than half the price paid in Louis
fana. The work is done by the poems.
who receive from 80 to 4O cents a day ana
board themselves. They plow the cane.
They keep it free from weeds, and when
it is ripe cut it down and load it on
to the cars for the factories. They labor
from daylight until dark and never
strike
g. ,-- IN TOBACCO PLANTATIONS.
I have spent some time in travelling in
the tobacco districts of Porto Rico. These
are to be found up in the mountains
high above the sugar lands. They ara
exceedingly rich, the dark green plants
covering the hills and climbing, as II
were, clear to the SUBMITS of the noun
tains: Many Of the tobacco fields are
on the sides Of hills so steep that you
would think the plants would fall out of
the soil, and some of them so steep
that the men have to almost lean back
ward to hoe the crop, which grows al
most straight over them.
Scattered here and, there through the
tobacco fields are long, matched sheds
In which the leaves are dried and cured
for the market Some of the sheds ara
built up and down the steep hills the
slope of the hin forming the fall which
makes the rain roll off
One of the richest tobacco districts &c
that of Cayey, about half way across
the island. The tobacco raised here is as
hne as the best Havana tobacco 1t com
mands high price in the Porto Rican
markets. Much of it is shipped to Ha-