The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-06-20


| away up the mountain slopes. two hun
dred feet above the level of the rushing
sea- bathed in almost perpetual sunshine,
l.nine thousand acres of fertile land have
| been hedged into an Enclosure, and under
| the name of Eva plantation is known in
| the business world as earth's most pro-
| ductive SPOT.
| Ten years ago an enterprising stock
company secured a lease of this tract
of land from the son of a missionary for
| the term of so years, and Immediately set
about by ali the devices known to human
ski to gather from it the greatest har
vest the soil could produce.
At the present time over six thousand
acres are under sugarcane cultivation,
| the remaining tract being devoted to pas
| ture land, bananas. vegetables and rice.
The process CT growing the cane and
making the sugar is very like that upon
other plantations, the mode only varying
| by the use of the most modern appliances
| These devices have so increased the pro-
ductive possibilities. of the soil as to
gather larger harvest than from any
other place devoted to similar purpose
/ ELEN LIN lONOs III AChE.
The average output OF sugar to the
acre is eleven tons-most remarkable In
| Louisiana the average is but one and
cne-half tons of sugar, and that, too,
| where the question is not How will we
water the land. but how will we keep
the water off the land?"
| The machinery of the South may not
| be cutie equal to that in use in the is
| lands, but the negro, born TO plant, has
solved the question: and the possibility
| OF an unharyested crop rotting upon the
ground or parching in the sunshine is not
| a factor in the Louisiana industry; and
| yet with the advantages of natural water
supply and no labor problem to imperil
| harvest the yield is only a small frac-
| tion of that of the island plantation.
| In Cuba planter is well satisfied and
finds no fault with Mother Eearth If the
summing up puts to his credit the profits
| of a yield of three tons to the acre, and
| likewise to the north of Africa.
| The fullest possibility of the land has
| just beer demonstrated in the results Of
| the highest cultivation of thirty-seven
acres of Eva plantation. When harvested
| the sugar output was the hitherto I'M
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| tenths, tons to the acre.
| The heavy yield of the plantation is
| said to be due to two conditions beside the
very highest degree of cultivation--good
water supply and perfection of climate.
| AS the annual rainfall is small, not ex-
cceding twenty-five inches, which is far
| from sufficient, it was necessary to in
| troduce system of artificial water sup
| ply. Next to climate there is nothing SO
conducive to abunda mt harvest as free use
| of water. For this purpose the planta-
| ton has been dotted with artesian wells.
| fifty-one in number With these in full
operation. and six pumping plants carry
ing the water from 81 feet above sea level
| 10 the height Of 20 feet, there is con-
| tinuCus flow of $4,000, 900 gallons every
| twcnty-four hours. This amount is al
| most beyond grasp, but it gives us some
! idea when we recall that the quantity
| Of water daily consumed in the city of
/ San Francisco with its population of $780,
| GEO and its numerous factories, scarcely
| reaches that amount. With such almost
unlimited water supply the very desert
could be made to bloom like the rose
| yet water alone would fail in results.
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