The Donaldsonville chief., 1914-01-17
PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE.


Interview with Louisiana SUE
gar Planter.
The following interesting article ia
copied from The Country Gentleman
Of December 20 last: -5.-..-
1t was just a few days after con-
gress had passed free sugar that my
Louisiana colonel came through
Washington from New York. sought
him and found him in his room.
''The very deuce is to pay In the
sugar belt, sir,' he exclaimed mo,
sir, we Louisianians are not kickers
or hoWlers. Every time the levees
have busted and drowned our crops
and all but f1oated away our homes,
we have said nothing. We have sim
ply worked all night and all day to
fill the creVasses. When the spring
freezes have come along we still
laughed and said these were all B.
part and parcel of the will OF the
Almighty. When the boil weeVil
came and got our cotton we flinche3
a little, but kept right on with our
work. But when congress got our
sugar we let out a holler! We are
not kickers or GROWERS, but this is
too much.
Il knew it was coming he contin-
ued. "All of us in the Louisiana su-
gar belt knew It, and now it's here!"
Well I asked, "can't the sugar
planters and the sugar factories sur
V1Ve free sugar?''
Not by a jugful! I believe that
Cuban sugar has been contracted
for, to be delivered at New York and
New Orleans at two cents a pound
when the Cuban tariff reduction
goes into effect next March. Then
along comes free sugar in March,
| 1916. How do you think we are GO
| ing TO stand any such game as that?
Some Of the factories are working on
q pretty solid foundation; others are
not. Some of the planters say they
cannot grow sugar on free-sngar
basis, but they believe the small far
[mers can make a living raising cane
for the central factories. The GEN.
| trail factories buy on margin cor
responding to the reduction OF the
tariff, but I'll eat my hat if can DO
it!
what will it cost to raise sugar
under the reduetion?"
Il don't know, but do know the
planters will get two dollars ton.
meaning an income Of forty dollars
an acre. You know We aren't selling
sugar cane in Louisiana to the fac
tories on a sugar-eontent basis any
more. There is sliding scale of
prices governed by New York week
~ quotations. =
Well II suggested, III the large
! planters can tIaaet the siIuatIen and
as I understand, the factories In re-
cent years have increased their ca
pacity and have been reduced IN
numbers, there is a big amount OF
| money at stake"
You bet there ISL he shouted.
We have just few more than two
hundred factories in the Louisiana
sugar belt, representing an invest
ment of something like $4,000 each,
1 but that isn't all. We fellows who
have been sugar planters ever since
We outgreW a love for peppermint
candy are the ones that are going
to suffer. The sugar manufac-
turers can turn their attention to
some other industry, but we plant
ers don't, know anything but sugar
planting!
Let me tell you little about the
situation: We have been making an
average of about three hundred thou
sand tons, with an average produc-
/ ton of about twenty tons to the acre.
| Srf1 tvrrSs 4~n srlT
plants-tWenty tons for first-year
stubble and fifteen tons for second.
year stubble. One acre will plant
from three to five acres OF cane.
Every twenty tons of cane give us
about ten tons of tops, which we
burn in the field. We operate on
money that the New Orleans banks
loan us and we pay that out of the
crop-nortgag the sugar house and
the plantation. / guess more than
half the sugar plantations OF Lou
isiana are mortgaged for half o,
more of their worth. OF course the
Isugar house represents greatel
value than the plantation It's bull
on. II the sugar house is stopped
the value of the land will Just abou
cover the mortgage.
Some years the freeze gets III
I, and we go in the hole. The mex
I year we make a good crop and pa,
out. When we make money W,
make it in scads, and we lose 1t tn
. same way. Our land values run be
tween thirty-five and seventy-fiy
dollars an acre, Independent of tn
sugar house. Some Of the lands ar
q worth more than a hundred dollar
an acre.
J, ..To sum up the whole situation
$ We have all Of our money, brain
G and experience tied up in this suge
y business that your all-Wise congree
Il has decided to wipe out!
II Now l am going out. I have a
e engagement to talk with some Of Ii
0 officials in the United States Depar
IS ment of Agriculture. They hay
q been looking into this situation ar
g understand they see great possibi
G ties in the Louisiana sugar be-
II other than raising sugar cane alon
/ want to talk with them and 81
what they have to say. You come
70 see me tomorrow
Is He marched out Of the rooi
ID while | sat there thinking that, In q
le dltion to the sugar crisis, the prese
~ cotton crop Of Louisiana was fearfl
s. ly short; that the rains had furth