The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1908-02-01
TEXAS GREAT
SUGAR STATE.
Move to Buy Large Sugar Plan
tati0ns.
Run Largely With Convict Labor. and
Plan to Have Control Under State
Immense Capacity Of mills Growth
Of Industry in State.

Texas is preparing to buck the
sugar trust by going into the grow
ing of sugar on large scale. The
Penitentiary Board has recommend
ed and the Governor has approved
a plan to purchase two of the larg.
est sugar plantations in this state,
These consist of the Cunningham
plantation, known as Sugarland
and the Riddick Plantation, both
in Fort Bend County. When this
deal is consnmmated the State oil
Texas will be the largest single
sugar producer in the Southwest.
This proposed action grows out
of the fact that since slavery was
abolished, the cane sugar industry
has been largely carried on by
convict labor by means of system
of leases. This. system has long
been a sore spot in Texas, and
persistent rumors have gone up
and down the state about the treat
ment of the convicts so leased.
Under the new arrangement the
handling of the convict labor will
be done directly by the state, and
its regulation will be entirely under
the control of the state Legislature.
The Sugarland plantation is one
of the finest Of the kind in the
South. 1t consists of Is, 900 acres,
of which IL, 1000 are under cultiva-
ton. Some six or eight thousand
are in sugar and the remainder in
corn, cotton, and fodder crops.
Some thirteen or fourteen hundred
acres are under irrigation from the
Brazos River.
The mills have capacity 50,-
900. 900 pounds of sugar annual.
During the sugar season this great
plant gives employment to an
army of 1000 workers. The plant
consists of refinery, and two
sugar mills equipped with the lat
est machinery, of a store, board
ing house, restaurant, and cooper,
besides the $4,000 fertile acres.
The refinery produces 900 to 700
barrels of refined sugar a day.
As the output of the State Sugar
refinery and plantation will be
very large, there is every reason to
hope that it will be able to wage
a successful warfare against the
sugar trust, especially since it is
contrary to law to sell trust made
goods openly in Texas, aud secret
contracts by jobbers in trust made
sugar would soon be shown up.
Beneath the shelter of the state,
smaller refinery may also to able
to engage successfully in business,
and in Texas a sugar industry will
probably develop in the next few
years which will be able to compete
with the sugar trust in other states.
There are already a number of
sugar mills in Texas. The de-
velopment has been especially rapid
near Brownsville and along the
Rio Grande in the last few years.
The sugar cane grows there to
great perfection, natures early,
and labor is cheap there. The first
prize for ribbon cane at the St.
Louis Exposition was won by cane
grown by John Closner, Sheriff of
Hidalgo County on the Rio Grande.
B. F. Yoakum, the head of the
Rock-Island- Frisco Railroad sys-
tenn is the head of big syndicate
that little over a year ago bought
up a great tract of Rio Grande
sugar lands. Many Louisiana
planters have also come into that
section. Climatic and labor condi-
tons are combining there to re-
volutionize the sugar business and
build up /: great sugar industry in
Texas.
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