The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-02-03
BUCKING THE SUGAR TRUST.
The State OF Texas Preparing to
Grow Cane on a Large Scale.

Grow Cane on a Large Scale
; Texas is preparing to buck the SUI
! gar trust by going into the growing
of sugar cane and refining of sugar
on a large scale. The penitentiary
| board has recommended and the gov
ernor has approved a plan 20 pur-
| chase two of the largest sugar plan
! tations in this state. These consist
| of the Cunningham plantation
| known as Sugarland, and the Rid
| dick plantation, both in Fort Bend
| county When the deal is consum-
! mated the state of 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 con-
Wet labor by means of a system of
! leases This system has long been a
sore spot in Texas, and persistent
rumors have gone up and down the
state aoou, the treatment of the con-
victs SO leased. Under the new ar
! rang ament the NJ III ing of the con-
! Wet labor will be done directly by
the state, and it's regulation will be
! entirely under control of the state
! legislature.
! The Sugarland plantation is one
OF the finest of the kind in the
! south. 1t consists of 1000 acres, of
! which $4,000 are under cultivation.
Some six or eight thousand are in
sugar and the remainder in corn;
cotton and fodder crops. Some thir-
! teen or fourteen hundred acres are
/ under irrigation from the Brazos
river
: The mills have a capacity of So
! 100000 pounds of sugar annually.
/ During the sugar season this great
of 900 workers. The plant consists
of refinery, and two sugar mills all
equipped with the latest machinery.
/ of store, boarding house, restaur-
ant and cooper shop, besides Is, 200
! fertile acres. The refinery produces
! 500 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
1 that it will be able to wage 2 success
full warfare against the sugar trust,
especially since it is contrary to law
! to sell trust made goods openly in
! Texas, and secret contracts by job
bers in trust made sugar would
soon be shown up. Beneath the shell
ter of the state smaller refinerie5
may also be able to engage success
! fully in business, and in Texas
sugar industry will probably devel-
! OPP in the next few years which will
I be able to compete with the sugar
/ trust in other states.
! There are already a number o.
/
ment has been especially rapid near
| Brownsville and along the Rio
| Grande in the last few years. The
sugar cane grows there to great per-
! lection natures early, and labor is
| cheap there. The first prize for rib
| bon cane at the ST. Louis exposition
was won by cane grown by John
ClosneI sheriff of Hidalgo county on
the Rio Grande. B. F. Yoakum, the
| head of the Rock Iseland-Frisco
railroad system is the head of big
| syndicate that a little over 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~revolu
tionize the sugar business and build
up a greater sugar industry in Tex
as