The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-12-04
IN LOADING
. | CANE CARS
How To Save Labor On
Plantations.
WHAT J. N. HORNER SAYS
He Advises Use of Sleds and Tackle
and Gives His Own
Experience.

about the hard work the laborers COM
planned of loading cane cars upon irri-
gated plantations. i was at loss to
know where the hard work came in, as
had had hundreds OF cars loaded
with cane eighteen years ago. but
heard no complaint. In my ignorance
l supposed they were compelled to use
some kind of contrivance which was
not used twenty years ago, TO enable
them to send in cane enough to make
40. 60. so or 100 tons Of sugar per day.
The labor was so hard, lit was said,
on some plantations that the laborers
refused to load cars except by con-
tract. when by lively work they made
u.75 per day.
| L felt a deep anxiety about the mat
ter when | returned home; so much so
that the thought OF hard work load
ing cane returned to- me frequently
until / saw a picture in an Eastern
paper of How cane was loaded IN cars
In the Sandwich Islands" looked at
Il critically.
Finally I exclaimed, "Oh, they are
loading cars as il was done twenty
particlei No wonder they make hard
and costly work of it."
The picture represented laborers car
rying cane by armfuls up plank and
dropping IL on top OF a partly loaded
car from a heap Of cane lying along
side of the car. My mind has not yet
dismissed the subject and perhaps II
will not do so until I shall tell those
I..Ir
save ONE-HALF THE LABOR AND
ALL THE HARD WORK packing the
cane and loading their cars.
Listen to the voice OF experience"
Twenty years ago my brother, VIM.
c.. and myself contracted with Claus
Spreckels to cultivate on his Spreckels-
Vile plantation 500 acres OF cane on
shares. Our first crop was 400 acres
Being unschooled in the raising Of SUI
gar cane, we did our work when and
as we saw others do the same kind
of work. with the exception that we
plowed better than the plantation did,
and we cultivated our cane while
growing. which the plantation did not
do. We think we made no mistake by
so doing. as / met the superintendent
after the crop OF the planta ton had
u.
He said: "Horner. you beat me this
time; you got one ton Of sugar per acre
more than did, but will see how you
do II and next year will get as GOOD
a crop as you" I write the above quo
tation from memory and believe IT
substantially correct.
We had contracted to deliver to the
sugar works when harvesting enough
/
daily. We delivered an average OF
over twenty-one tons. We loaded II
upon cars with few men. but there was
no complaint of hard work. The fact
is there was no hard work.
The following Is how we did It.:
We loaded the cane upon sleds
, where II was cut in the field; from zoo
to 900 pounds upon each sled drawn by
two horses. II was then driven by the
side OF the car and the sling being al
ways under the cane on the sled, IL wa.
hooked on the block. the horse started
and the sled load dropped in the cal
much more quickly than laborel
could walk up n plank with an armful
Whether the cane to be loaded on tn,
sled was 80 or 200 feet from the cal
made but little difference as to time
expense or the amount Of work per
formed in a day.
Another sled load was there to b.
hoisted as soon as the empty sled wa
> away. SO the work went on during tn
day. No one carried cane from tn
field on to the car; no one did har'
work. The horses did the packing an
lifting.
-Four sIeds. costing Sc each, min
horses and fifteen men working by thi
= method will put as much cane on tn
Tears from a distance Of 200 feet as fit
men can do packing half that distance
The first lot will have easy work; tn
last all hard work. The above will en-
able managers who are loading cane a
indicated In the picture above referre
to. 10 estimate their savings In muscl'
money and men working by this net
method. Still another saving woul
result in not requiring the rails, fiume
or cables so often moved. as 100 or q
feet more or less. Is not worth consid
ering when cane Is packed by hors
power rs indicated Objection will II
doubt he made that "sleds cannot
used In irrigated fields on account
bitches" But the fact as limited aboy
that 10000 tons OF cane was thus har
dled In lSNZ Wnere 0ltCneS were eve
deeper than they are required und'
= the system now In vogue should knoC
out OF mems minds all such obje
lions.
The above method Is not a theor
but n worked-out fact. and sleds ha'
been used by US more or less the pa
sixteen years as opportunity l'resente
and other plantations have Used sle'l
Sleds properly constructed will readi
= cross over all bitches a horse will ST.
over. or follow the bitches with
- without a load.
- will state that without adding al
more drivers. sleds. or men about &
car. one-third more work can be do
by hitching three horses to sled
place OF two and adding more loade
I'm the field.
y There are n few more details tn
any man OF thought can supply wit
out my writing them here.
II seems n duty OF all plantati
o managers 10 avail themselves Of
economical labor-savlng devices. n