The National tribune., 1899-12-07

gallons, is used as a storage reservoir.
CHEAP LABOR.
Let us again turn TO the sugar industry.
Even under the old system cheap or i'm
ported labor was used, and this question
has become much more serious under the
large homogeneous. AT present there is
intense feeling among the better educated
against the importation of cheap labor on
contract
The agitation of this question has been
the cause of new system in the fields,
| known as cooperative sugar work The
plan is TO assign TO each individual a piece
of ground. The man agrees to clear,
pillow. harrow, and furrow the lands. as
need be, plant, tend, and deliver the cane
at the mill, while the owner agrees to give
| lodging and medical attendance to the
man and his family, furnish tools and seed
cane, and 10 Irrigate the land. The tenant
must work under the supervision of the
I owner or manager, irrespective of hours of
labor. and the work must be done to the
Satisfaction OF the owner. One-fourth
OF the gross receipts go to the labOrer after
deducting any advance made by the owner.
| ms system has been thoroughly tested
ana has been found satisfactory to both
parties to the contract
i one VINO has never seen one of these
great plantations can not imagine the
labor required. Immense cane fields.
cleaning the cane, the field railways for
transporting the cane, and dozens of other
contrlvances to facilitate the work, allrepre-
sent the outlay of great sums of money.
Companies are formed with from $500, 900
to millions of dollars capital each. and
usually stock OF these companies is for
sale III Honolulu, and generally bring
a good price.
1t would be n matter of speculation for
me to say how many acres are now under
cultivation in the group, but few years
ago there We're nearly 10000 acres in the
four islands of Hawaii. Maui. Oaku and
Kauai. These We're divided into about
81 plantations, which produced from 3.OOO
TO 1900 tons of sugar per year For
The year 1896 the total export of sugar
amounted to S14 1921 of which the
limited states received over 95 per cent
The value of the sugar exported was over
Ia tunes the value of all other exports.
one OF the most interesting incidents
OF my trips TO the islands was visit TO the
EVA sugar plantation, on the island of
Oahu. Upon one hand are the Chinese
IN their unique dress, while on the other
are the white help loading small ears. or
spinning along the narrow track on top
load OF cane, while on either hand we hear
the whistle OF the happy native as he
Joggles along on his clrt-load of cane.
now and again stopping his tune 10 fill his
mouth with the juicy sweetness.
sBut our greatest interest IS in the mills.
Here IS money invested. and the progress
OF mil methods, machinery, and labor
! nave been most marvellous in past wears
while We are told there is still room for
Improvement. Only few Years ago
Hawaii'S largest mills We're the crude and
disappearing wooden affairs run by mules
now expensive machinery has been i'm
ported, and the Processes of diffusion and
maceration are extensively used When
the former Is. fbp iy ,,,Y
IN pieces, after which il is saturated with
steam IN hydraulic press, and 81 per
cent. of the sugar extracted. The other
process differs in the manner of preparing
the cane for the press, as il is then ground.
From the press the juice enters Il set of
filters and clarifies, where it is heated and
skinned. 1t is then run into large boilers.
some of which contain as many as 4 900 900
gallons. Afterward it enters the large
cooling tanks, and then the granulatng
or vacuum pans. Now the sirup is ready
for the containers and centrifugaIs, which
| free 1t of the liquid molasses, and the pure
sugar is then dropped out.
| Night comes, vet the furnaces are not al
lowed to cool or the stills to run dry. Nearly
| all the mills have electric plants and are
ever at work from the time the cane begins
to ripen until the product is ready for the
market.
I RICE CULTURE.
Next in importance after the sugar in
dustry are the rice interests. What a
change from the sugar to the rice planta-
| ton, from the expensive machinery of the
mills to the crude tools used in cultivation
and preparing for market the rice! While
| the owners of rice plantations are usually
interpretations, no white men till the
| ground. The cultivation is entirely de-
pendent upon the Chinese, and no one else
can do the work so successfully. | do
| not mean by this that they have gained
monopoly; they simply hold the place
| because ii is a tedious, slow, and pains
taking task that no one else would under
| take.
At first sight a rice field suggested to
me one Of our large fields of Spring or
| Winter wheat, although Of heavier growth.
| The great unpleaSantneSs of the cultiVa-
ton comes after the fields have been plowed
and are ready for the seed; il is then the
land is Dverhowed to the depth of four to six
inches, and all future work must be done
| under water.
| / will briefly note few of the contrasts
| between sugar and rice plantations. First
10 be noticed is the piowing. In the sugar
cane fields large steam plcws and cultiva
| tors are preparing the ground for the crop.
Our Chinese rice farmer does his work
with the most primitive tools Imaginable,
and the methods are the same used in
China for hundreds of years; even the
buffalo is there, dragging along a wooden
plow.
Oahu is the chief rice producing island of
| the group, and furnishes nearly all the
laborers of the Hawaii and Maui Islands
with their staple food; those who labor upon
coffee and tobacco plantations subsist
almost wholly upon rice, which seems well
adapted to their needs, and also reduces
the cost Of living.
| In speaking of the rice-fields as seen
in Hawaii, Prof. Oleson very aptly re-
marks:
Sweet fields, beyond the swelling flood,
| Stand dressed in living green"
| This, though poetical is a correct and
| brief description of Il rice swamp. But |
may yet add that from the time the tiny
plants spring from the seed until trans
| planted, the Chinese laborer gives them
his entire attention. From the field, upon
the backs Of the laborers, huge sacks are
carried filled with plants four or five inches
tall, for transplanting in the great field;
here we see human beings literally as
| busy as bees" as each laborer chooses
his row and begins his tedious work upon
his knees, as he heftly pushes his plants
down in the mud-bottom under water
One of careful observation NAV be as
tonished at the accuracy these people show
in the straightness with which theserows
|are kept, but constant practice has given
to them Il wonderfully keen eye for this
work.
did not see a crop under cultivation, but
am told the work is, in accordance with