Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-29
NOW SHIPPING SUGAR.
Development of the Industry in
Mexico.
THE EXPORTS INCREASING
Plantations Worked Three Centuries
Without Fertilizing.
ADOBE VILLAGES OF THE Poems
Content to Work at Merely Nominal
Wages Generation After Genera
tion-Interoceanic Railway.
THE EXPORTS INCREASING
ADOBE VILLAGES OF THE Poems
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and Chicago
Record Herald
CUAUTLA, Mexico March 26, 1906
The sugar industry In Mexico has now
reached a point of development to permit OF
small but increasing exports every year.
Last year they exceeded $2,50O.000. The
wide, rich valleys between the several
ranges of mountains south and east of the
capital have deep soil admirably adapted
to the cultivation of cane with and without
irrigation. In some sections the fields do
not have to be replanted more than once in
eight or ten years. In o.her sections 1t must
be renewed every two years. 1t requires
about fourteen months for the cane to
mature. The land is allowed to rest one
year after cutting before it is replanted.
In other localities it is allowed to rest one
year IN FIVE. The Aztecs made sugar in a
crude way. Cane grew wild in all these
valleys, which they cut up into chunks,
crushed between stones and boiled the juice
In large jars of clay. The Spaniards i'm
proved the quality and the quantity by cul-
tivating the cane and began business short
ly after the conquest. Some of the planta-
tons around Cuautla have been worked
more than three hundred years successfully
without fertiliZing. The soil is from eight
to twelve feet deep and the methods Of Gull
tivation in many places are still the same
that were used in the sixteenth and seven
teenth centuries. Many of the mills are
very old-fashloned also operated with ma
chinery that was brought from Spain more
than a hundred years ago and they still
continue to produce a profit. On the larger
plantations. however, the machinery Is
more modern. Most of it was made in the
United States. but some of 1t comes from
England also.
Encouraging the Industry.
The government of Mexico is doing every
thing possible to develop the sugar industry
and to encourage the cultivation of the
great haciendas that now lying largely
idle. Some of them comprise hundreds of
thousands and even a million or more acres
Of land, the greater part OF which is sus-
ceptible to cultivation. but is allowed to
lie idle and pays no taxes because the own
ers get all the income they need from the
cultivated portions. Most of them live
abroad. in Madrid or Paris. and have very
little knowledge or sympathy with the de-
Velopment OF the country. Others have been
stimulated by the spirit of progress and
have taken advantage of the introduction
of railways to enlarge their operations and
bring their land under the pillow. They live
like feudal lords of the middle ages in
Europe.
The Natives Contented.
Their sugar mills and haciendas are sur
rounded by villages of wretched adobe
houses with dirt floors and matched roofs.
where the poems live and breed like ami
mails, and are content to serve the same
master at merely nominal wages generation
after generation. Very few of them ever
leave the ancestral plantation. They are
| contented to lead the lives that their grand
| fathers led; and are satisfied to use the
same tools. From among the cabins In
| these villages a tall tower or stately dome
| marks the presence of an ancient church,
| usually two or three hundred years old,
| where the peasants are baptized. married
| and buried, and where they go to mass
every Sunday and confess their sins. Their
| wages are small. their work is easy and
| they are allowed to do about as they please,
! provided their master gets in his crop. He
| furnishes them cornmeal which Is the staff
| of life, they raise O. few chickens and Gull
tivate little garden and whatever else
| they need is bought at the hacienda store
| and charged against their wages, which are
| usually from % to 33 cents in silver day.
They are so we'll satisfied with this lot
that they never emigrate; they never at
| tempt to better themselves, and 1t is i'm
possible to drive them away. Some young
men drift to the cities or find employment
| on q railroad, but they always regard the
| hacienda as their home and its owner as
| their master. and he feels a responsibility
| for their welfare which he observes with
| more less interest and zeal according to
/ his habits and disposition.
| Every attempt to change the customs OF
| the natives has failed Several Americans
| who have bought plantations In this part OF
| Mexico have tried TO improve the condition
| of their laborers; have paid them higher
| wages than their neighbors; have built
/ them better homes; have furnished them
| iabor-SaVing machinery and improved
| tools, but the conquences have only been
| trouble and sorrow. The poems will not
| accept innovations; they will not use mod
/ ern implements and machinery, and, il
| their wages are increased, they Will lie Idle
! long enough to make up the difference in
| their earnings That is, If they are pa
| 30 cents day they will work six days in
| the week: If they are paid 90 cents they
| will work three days. The number Of holt
| days ard religious feast days Is very de-
| moralizing, because work is not only sus-
| pended on those occasions. but two-thlrds
| of the poems get drunk and require a day
| or two to sober up before they are ut FOR
| anything again.
Following the Trail of Cortez.
| The Interoceanic railway from Ameca-
| MEGA southwark runs through series OF
| these haciendas, rapidly descending in alti-
| tude and following very nearly the rail OF
| Cortez when he came up from Vera Cruz to
| the capital of the MonteZumas. The track
! TWISTS around in series of seni-ctrcies
| and parabolas through plantations and ras-
| lures dotted with herds of cattle and sheep.
| II seems as If the engineers mfsh- have
| shortened the route a little and picked out a
| more regular grade. for the track seems to
| be rising and descending I'm turn. We are told
| In explanation that the builders received a
| subsidy from the government of $40 600 n
| Kilometer and earned as much AS possible
| by lengthening the track. Rat 1t is go5d
| thing for the passenger If he is not in a
| hurry. and Mextcans seldom are. 1t takes
| a little longer to reach the end of his jour-
| ney, but he always has the two noble vol
| canoes, Pbpocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl be-
| fore him and can see thsm In all lights and
| shades; in the glare OF the MONDAY sun;
| in the purple twilight, and in the cool gray
| OF the dusk. He can see them from all
! sides, and during the day he learns to know
/ them as Well as a volcano can be known
| without actually living with It.
| During the administration Of President
| Diaz more than 10000 miles of railway have
| been constructed in the republic of Mexico,
| and the government has encouraged the
work by subsidies in cash amounting to
| S145, eoo,o0o. The first railway attempted in
| the country WAS as long ago rs 1897. when
| Francisco Arrillaga. wealthy Vera Cruz
| merchant, obtained concession from Pres
| ident Bustamente TO build a line from that