The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-08
Mr. Palmer Continues His
 Testimony About Sugar
SOME INTERESTING FIGURES
Says American Owners of Sugar Plant ations Have War Claims Against U. S. Aegregatins 541 ,335,soe.
 Land Is Better Now

Washington, June Truman G. Pal mer today continued his statement on American holdings of sugar lands In the Island of Cuba before the senate commit tee on Cuban relations. He added to the two classes of American owners four others. Summarizing the entire presenta- ton he placed the rGlsJCr of Cuban es- tates held by Americans. individual and corporate, at 172. with total acreage of ownership amounting to 1.432, ,so1, of which 3S0,S46 acres are cane producing. The an- nual cane capacity of this land he placed at S3O, 445 tons, but he said that the lands were not of course producing their full capacity and some of them not at all These American owners have war claims against the United States amounting in the aggregate to $41. 335, sos.
 Mir. Palmer began his statement with the presentation of the third series of classifcations, two having been presented by him when he testified Thursday. The third classification consisted of ten Cuban American corporations. the names of which had come into his possession with in the past ten days and he did not hllOW WHtlutI they HthS OpctdAth6 UT not.
 Acreage and Production.
 Estimating the holdings of these cor porations are at least 40 per cent of those of the companies whose holdings are known, he placed the acreage own ed by these companes at 173 155, with an annual sugar producing capacity of 75,- 125 tons.
 Ane next classification was that of Gu ban sugar centrals owned by American citizens most of them naturalized, resid- ing in Cuba. There were 31 states in this list, and the war claims presented their account, which aggrega ted $106T.et9. The total acreage of these estates was placed at 2is, 705, part of it estimated, and the total capacity at 105, 400 tons of sugar.
 The fifth list Tn the series presented by Mir Palmer was that of eighteen Cuban cane-growing estates, which do not own centrals or manufacture their own cane, and which are owned by Americans. The total acreage of these lands is 43, 62S; the total capacity of the lands in cane is 34, Gt0 tors; total war claims on file before the American claims commission s1,592,- e61.
 I he next list, embracing the sixth clas- siflcation, was similar to the preceding except that the owners in this instance while Americans, still reside in Cuba. This list included 55 estates, none of which own centrals or factories with an aggregate acreage, partly estimated, of 91,0S0, and total sugar-producing ca pacity of 76S62 tons. This class of estates has war claims amounting to s5,749S99.
 Nnety-nine Raw Factories.
 MT Palmer said the estates mentioned contain ninety-nne central raw sugar factories with total producing capacity of 33O,440 tons, but from a purely. cane growing standpoint the lands in cane would produce S27,115 tons. He then added:
 Some of these American factories for which claims for damages have been pre- scented undoubtedly have not been re- built The cane undoubtedly was de- stroyed but the land must be in better idlenes than 1t was several years ago when Cuba produced over a million tons of sugar per season.
 Whatever additional scaling down may be done on the statement submitted on the basis of inaccuracies or msstate- ments on the part of the claimants for damages. the fact must be patent that the holdings by American citizens of lanN in Cuba which is or has been in cultiva- ton is of sufficient area to produce as great crops as the entire island turned out this year, and this is less than one fourth of the total area owned by Ameri- can citizens and corporations"
 In this connection MT. Palmer said there were other large areas of Cuban lands owned by outsiders which he had not included in his list.