The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-15
MORNING. JOURNAL COURIER

! for The equipment of the road is no
| better than what is found in Michigan
| logging camps, and the service takes
! it's afternoon siesta in true Spanish
| fashion The only other railroad is the
tramway from San Juan to Rio Pie
dras, of which an illustration is given.
It's equipment is bad, but the service is
comparatively good. Trains run at
hourly intervals, furnishing rapid tram
sit of a tropical s r.,
There is said 10 g a great future for
trolley roads trCta the inland towns to
the coast, runn.Ag trains of two or
three cars and making twenty miles an
hour. Sugar mill owners would use
electricity for light in the mills, which,
during the grinding season, are operated
day and night. If the lack Of continu
Gus traffic or the sale of power should
make electrically driven cars unprofit-
able, compressed air might be substitu-
ted
In the sugar industry there is room
for much Improvement. Contrary to
general opinion, sugar making is not the
most important agricultural industry,
for the coffee output is three times as
valuable as the sugar output Still the
prosperity Of the sugar industry is vital
to the welfare of the island.
Modern methods of cultivation are
well advanced but most of the mills are
a combination of old and new machine
ry. AS result, mill after mill has been
closed down during the past ten years.
The price of sugar is so low that it
cannot be manufactured at profit
without the most skillful handling.
There are only two central" facto-
ries in Puerto Rico with complete
equipment of modern machinery.
Central factories, it may be ex-
planned in passing are generally owned
by capitalists, who may or may not
own the cane lands. The landowners
send their cane to the mill and receive
certain percentage Of the sugar pro-
duced.
In some districts the primitive meth
cd of crushing the cane between two
wooden rollers is still in use. The pow
er is furnished by two plodding oxen.
The larger mills employ contrivances
almost as primitive, and crude methods
have resulted in involving estate holders
in debt, condition Of things accounted
for by. the almost prohibitory tariff
placed by the Spanish on imported ma
chinery.
1t was in the hope of being relieved
from this burden that many Puerto Ri
cans welcomed the joining of the is
lands interests with those of the Uni
ted States. The factor of transporta-
ton has to be considered, particularly
in the case of sugar for export, where
the hauls to the coast are very expen-
sive. The poor shipping facilities also
increase the cost of production.
Coffee growing is in a prosperous
condition, but tobacco culture has not
made the progress 1t should. More to-
bacco was exported from Puerto Rico |
in 1928 than in 1896. The stagnation of
the industry Is due to a number of
causes, of which the most important is
the successful competition of the Cuban
growers. The increasing demand for |
Havana tobacco has excluded the Puer-
to Rican product from foreign markets.
The tobacco grown on the smaller is |
land is not so good as that grown on
the greater, but there is no reason for |
the difference in quality, aside from
careless methods in cultlvating, hand |
ling, curing and facturing,-New |
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