Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-16
PORTO RICAN FARMS
How Uncle Sans New Plantations
Are Managed.
SUGAR ESTATES PAY Is PER CENT
Tobacco Produced as Good as in
Havana.
THE NEED OF A S. P. G. A.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
copyrighted 1899 by Frank G. Carpenter)
PONCE Porto Rico, September /, 1899.
7 want to tell you something about the
big farms on Uncle Sans new island. IL
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, it is true, but it's 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 i'll which you may ride for miles and
not be out of sight of tobacco
The 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, sickly
green of luxuriantly growing sugar cane
There are large plantations of sugar cane
upon all the coast lands of the island
They form a pale green binding about
Porto Rico, running from the sea back
to the blue foothills of the mountains.
From them are produced between S30o0,o0O
and $4,000. OO0 worth of sugar year. Upon
them are made millions of gallons of rum
and out of their factories annually flows
enough molasses to give all the children OF
the United States a taffy pulling.
The Sugar Kings of Porto Rico.
All of these plantations are valuable. 1t
takes deal Of money to run them, and
those who own them may be called the
sugar kings of Porto Rico. They are the
Of Indian DOSSeSSiOn.
Many of them have incomes OF tens of
thousands of dollars year and not a few
get from l. to % per cent on the capital
they have invested.
Who are they?
It is hard to say Not n few are Span
iards who live in Barcelona and other
Spanish cities, and manage their estates
through agents One big sugar planter Is
a Frsnchman, several are Americans ana
large number are Porto Ricans. some OF
them have been living beyond their in
comes. notwithstanding their large profits
They have mortgaged their estates and the
mort ses are now being bought by Amer
leans Other Americans are investing In
sugar lands, one Of the largest estates on
the island near Guyana. having recently
gone into the hands of Boston parties. I
believe the day will come when the most OF
the sugar lands will be owned by our ma
tive citizens. and that under their manage
nent they will pay even better than they
are now doing. / should not be surprised
to see a sugar trust formed to buy up and
onerate the Porto Rican plantations. Such
an organization could make big profit Tt
could water its stock 500 per cent and still
pay dividends
Money in Sugar.
Sugar plantations need large capital.
Much of the profit comes from the econom-
ical handling of the cane. and the better
the machinery the greater the income. To-
day the best sugar plantations here pro-
years ago some of them produced as much
as 1900 pounds. and the lands were crop
ped again and again without replanting.
The cane was cut down. new shoots at
once SprOuted up about the old stalks and
within few months there was another
crop ready for cutting. In Louisiana be-
iieve they cut about two crops in three
years when the cane must be replanted.
In the past Porto Rican plantations pro-
duCed for fifteen years in succession. Many
of the Porto Rican estates now produce for
five years. and in the best parts of the
island some continue to yield for seven
years.
The machinery of Porto Rico is not the
most modern Most Of the mills are old
fashioned and wasteful. Some moved
by oxen and with two or three exceptions
none are up to cate. Some of the Louisiana
mills cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
They make their profits because absolutely
everything in the cane Is turned into money
and not cent goes to waste.
on a few of the plantations here there
are railroads from the fields to the factory.
One or two estates have steam engines to
pull the cars over the track. while
others this work Is done by oxen Upon
the smaller plantations the cane is hauled
in carts and nearly everywhere the
sugar when manufactured Is carried to the
Seaboard by oxen.
The labor on the plantations here Is less
than half the price paid in Louisiana. The
work Is done by the poems who receive
from so to 40 cents a day and board them
CntN- ry.NN
free from weeds. and when 1t is ripe cut Il
down and load 1t on to the cars for the
factories. They labor from daylight until
dark and never strike.
In the Tobacco Plantations.
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 are exceedingly
rich the dark green plants covering the hills
and climbing. as 1t were. clear to the sum-
mits of the mountains. Many of the to-
bacco fields 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 al
most lean backward to hoe the crop, which
grows almost straight over them.
Scattered here and there through the to-
oacco fields are long. matched sheds in
which the leaves are dried and cured for
the market. Some of the sheds are built
up and down the steep hills. the slope of
rain roll off.
=. One of the richest tobacco districts is
that or Cayey. about half way across the
island The tobacco raised here is as fine
as the best Havana tobacco It Commands
high price in the Porto Rican markers
Much OF IT Is shipped to Havana and there
made into Havana cigars to be exported to
the United States. ~
Good Cigar for a Cent.
< doubt, in fact whether you can ret ~ooa
cigars anywhere so cheaply as In por..
Rico. can buy a cigar for a cent here in
Ponce which IS as good as the best straight
6-cent cigar sold in the United States. and
for cents can get better cigar than
you can buy in New York for 10 cents
Very fine medium-sized cigars are sold a