The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-10-13
IS STRIPPING
CANE PROFITABLE?
Planters Monthly, Just Out,
Puts Question SquareIy Up
to the Managers.

"Does stripping payl' is the peril
nent question asked in a leading article
in the Planters Monthly, just issued
with its review of the sugar industry
of Hawaii for September. The article
reviews the main points of the strip,
ping and antistripping controversy
which has been going on between the
plantation managers for the past many
months and invites correspondence
from practical operators in order that
additional light may be shed on the
subject.
The Planters Monthly contains
more than the usual amount of up-to-
date sugar information and articles of
special interest to the plantation man.
A review of sugar conditions through
out the world, of crop prospect and
estimated consumption, contains much
to encourage the Hawaiian producer
with prospect of good prices. Local
opinions on the ACCESSIBILITY of adding
a mechanical department to the plant
ers experiment station are given, the
arguments in favor being that i'm
proved harvesting machinery might be
evolved at the station, whereas the
expense of experimenting is often too
heavy to be borne privately. Another
of the main articles of the issue is
the report made by F. Muir in his
search for cane borer parasites.
The question of cane, stripping is
discussed as follows:
What Saves Pays.
"To evolve labor saving ways,
means and devices should be the slogan
of the Hawaiian sugar planter III
season and out of season, there should
be ever present before every plantation
manager, this question::
"What can | do to accomplish a
given amount of work with a less
number of laborers2 Under existing
conditions it is more important to re-
duce the number of laborers required
on plantation than it is to reduce
the cost of production of sugar.
cit does no good to reduce the cost
of a given operation by dollar a ton,
if the operation requires ten men and
there are only FIVE men available to
perform the werk! Under such cir
cumstances the economy is theoretical
only; one that would be achieved if
the work could be done; but if the
work can not be done at all, owing
TO lack of laborers, then what becomes
of the economy? The situation is like
that of the man who would lift the
world, if he could get fulcrum on
which to rest his lever.
Reduction of the cost of produc-
ton is always and ever to be sought;
but the manager who can devise ways
or methods of accomplishing with nine
men work which now requires ten men,
is the man which the present occasion
requires.
at is up to each manager of plan
tation to take account of stock of the
various operations on his plantation,
one at time, and see if there is not
some one of them, which in some way,
by some means or other, can not be
accomplished with a less number of
laborers than are now being used.
'Some managers have been doing
this Why do not all of thems
Practical managers of plantations
know more about the practical details
of managing a plantation than does
the editor of the Planters Monthly;
but the latter would like to put up to
the managers for consideration, the
following propositions and inquiries,
1t = IL q
their experience, furnish the answers:
"The planters experiment station
has demonstrated by two successive
field experiments, that stripping cane
is not only an unnecessary expense,
but that it is a positive injury to the
cane; that unstripped cane weighs
more and produces more sugar per ton
of cane than stripped cane, SO that the
cost of stripping is not only a dead
loss, but causes an actual reduction
in the output of sugar.
'The results of the experiment sta
ton have been verified by a number
of plantations, both irrigated and non
irrigated, some showing a greater and
some a less degree of saving; but none
showing any benefit from stripping.
"Stripping is one of the most dis
agreeable tasks on plantation.
and one of the greatest labor con
sumers; and yet if we are cor.
rectly informed, many of the plan
tation managers are still stripping
cane.
Pertinent questions to each man
ager are:
Are You still stripping your cane
IF so, why7
IF the demonstration of the ex-
pertinent station and the plantations
who have tried nonstripping on a large
scale do not convince you, have you
tired nonstripping on your own plan
tatlon on commercial scale--not on
ten rows in the back yard--hut on
two hundred acres in the regular course
of civilizations If not, how do YOU
know that you are not wasting. not
only the money of your company, but
using laborers uselesslv. when their
are urgently needed at other
works
els it not time for you to get
hustle on and find out for yourself
whether stripping pays or NOT instead