The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1908-03-20

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Vacation Days in Porto Rico. oas
We devoted one day to a visit to
big sugar plantation at Carolina. a vii
lage 20 kilometers southeast from San
Juan and connected Herewith by rail
Sugar growing is the biggest single
business in the island both in capital
invested and in the value of the pro-
duct. There Is plenty Of good sugar
land in the island but 1t costs tremen.
dously to equip sugar central and it
requires close business skill to make
them pay. There are plants on the
island which cost million dollars
which were complete failures and are
falling into ruin, and on the south
side of the island the drought of the
past two years has driven many rich
sugar planters into bankruptcy.
The sugar central, as they are call
ed, which We visited is not one of the
larger plants on the island but 1t
turns out about 800 sacks of raw sugar
daily. each sack weighing either go
pounds or $50 Kilograms, could not
find out which. We had letter OF
introduction to the manager. Mr.. Van
Ryn, from a San Juan business man
with whom we became acquainted
through Mr.. Odds whom / have before
mentioned. Mr.. Van Ryn Is Nova
Scotian but has lived in Porto Rico
for 20 years. He gave US every OPP
portunity to see the entire process.
There is so much machinery and so
many processes required in making
sugar from cane that | am not able
from the little time devoted to look
ing 1t over to describe the business
very accurately. The cane is ground
as soon as possible after being cut as
it deteriorates rapidly If left unground.
The juice is squeezed out by crush
ing the cane between heavy rollers.
The juice is then strained and then
boiled in series of vacuum watts. As
1t thickens up it is carried along in the
cookers something the way that maple
sap is progressed along through an
evaporator. After being cooked to
the required thickness the heavy half
syrup and half sugar is driven into a
series of swiftly revolving centrifugals
which separate the sugar from the
LIQUID The sugar is delivered into
sacks which are sewed up ready for
shipment. The residum syrup can
either be boiled over and made into
an inferior grade Of sugar or distilled
into rum, of which large amount is
made and drank on the island.
The cane grinding at sugar mill
lasts about six months of the year,
from December to June. Many Of the
cane growers have no mill of their
own but sell their cane outright or are
allowed a certain amount of sugar for
each ton OF cane taken to the mill. But
little OF the sugar produced in Porto
Rico is refined there, most OF 1t going
to New York to the big refineries.
there. The sugar as 1t comes from
the mill is slaty white I'm color and has
sweet, sickish and decidedly disa-
greeable odor.
The railroads of Porto Rico look
like playthings alongside the big trunk
lines of the United States. All the
lines are narrow gauge, the cars are
old and poor, the roadbeds rough and
the locomotives small and light. Rid
ing on the line to Carolina is some
thing between trip on Joe Flies
"dumpey" into Glastonbury and a two
hour trolley trip to Hoosick Falls. ros.
| ilus
We spent an hour one day visiting
the island prison at San Juan. In 1t
are confined six hundred prisoners
| from all parts of Porto Rico. Of
| course all the different districts have
their local jails but when prisoner
is sentenced to term at hard labor
he Is brought to San Juan. Here too
are confined murderers awaiting trial
| and persons who are accused Of other
more serious crimes. There is not an
American in the prison. There are
two or three Italians, one German and
one Jew. or the 600 prisoners rs are
women. One of the women who is
there for killing a child has a small
baby born in the prison. We saw the
infant, naked, crawling around under
a table In the laundry where its
mother is employed.
We saw the gallows In small al
cove in the back part Of the prison.
On this gallows are to be executed
sometime next month three brothers
convicted of murder. They assisted