The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-09-10
TRANSPORTATION IS
LIMIT REPRODUCTION
IS
Problem Is Same In All Lands,
Because Waste Percen-
tage Large !

There are gIO cane factories in +
Louisiana, twenty three Of which make
only syrup. Fifty-eight per cent of
the cane is grown on land owned by
the factories 3d..
The transportation problem Is what
has chiefly limited the indefinite ex-
pansion Of the sugar industry in Louis
lana. The land il flat, much of IL is
cut up into farms and small holdings,
and fields are not continuous. Hence
much of the acreage of cane grown by
farmers suffers a severe handicap due
to the cost and difficulty of getting the
! crop to the mill. ,
There is no other farm crop common
ly grown where ninety per cent of the
product is waste. vet where the ten
per cent Of arkctahle product must
be handled with the waste in order to
get any profit at all. 1t is the trans
portatiOn of the ninety per cent of
waste in the cane that makes this crop
a precarious one for any farmer whose
lands are distant from the factory un-
! less his fields are adjacent to an estab-
/ lished transportation system.
Transportation Limits Production
This factor has limited cane cultiva-
ton in Louisiana quite apart from tariff
and political considerations. Cotton is
picked and only lint and seed are
! handled. Wheat is threshold in the
field, the factory going to the stack,
instead Of vice versa. Tobacco fur
nishes a problem somewhat similar to
sugar, but even there the factories, ]"
or drying sheds, that get rid Of eighty.
Ave per cent of the dead weight, are in
the fields
The ninety per cent dross of the
sugar cane makes transportation "
the most important single item in the
cost of sugar production. :"
The same factor that. has operated to
restrict "small farmer planting of
cane in Louisiana holds to a greater
degree in Hawaii, yet little cOnsidera-
ton has been given the common sense
view of the proposition. A farmer
whose lands are near main flume, or
a plantation road, or railway, can plant
cane and be reasonably certain of sell
ling his product at a fair figure. If his
fields are inaccessible, OF II his area in
crop % tco srnoll to MAKE ID worth the
wbila Of the mil owners to meet him
baif way on tn" cot Of harvesting.
there will be no profit in the business
either fcr hun IT Cor the unfortunate
plantation Nkich IL compelled, by force
of public %, ion, TO huy his crop.
With "Free Sugar only eight
Wontbs ahead more attention has got
to be given the matter of whether any
man, big or little, has the right
to overlook the essentials of an indus
try and perpetrate an economic loss.
It is the cost of getting nine pounds
Of baRasse and evaporation water from
the field to the mill that makes it so
difficult for the farmer to reap a profit
on his one pound of marketable suga:.
Cane cultivation is an organization
problem and will be until some inven.
tive genius develops an easy method
Of extracting the sugar in the field so
that only the commercial product need
he transported. From all aspects of the
case this is liable to be never. II II
this difficulty that has forced the Or
paniZation of so many small cane syrup
factories in the Southern States.
Cane is easily grown. There are nc
factors out of the ordinary to limit the
mere agricultural operation of growing
crop, but sugar is product which
cannot be marketed widely in its pri.
mary, raw and nnmanufac tured state,
Hence il must for reasons of economic
necessity be handled in the larger way
by those whose capital and oTganiza
ton abilities enable them to control
the whole situation from field TO re,
fnery.
Gene Not Difficult To Grow
Small farmers cannot hope to grow
cane at a profit unless there are ex
exceptionally favorable circumstances u
help them. II is not that they cannot
grow it, or that the work is too hard
or the heat too oppressive, or that tbs
big plantations do not want to SEE
them make a success. These STOCK
arguments have all been worn thread
hare. 1t is having to carry nine pounds
of waste to market with one pound Of
su2ar-the physical job of transporting
cane from field to mill-that knOcki
out the farmers profits.
Many plantation managers would bI
glad to have the mere growing of tn,
cane taken off their shoulders if tn,
man who assumed that part of the bur
don was frst-cass farmer. Trans
pOrtation and milling problems ar,
more attractive to most men than tn,
prosaic process Of growing a crop.
The cane industry is getting to b.
more and more an organization prob
lem pure and simple
'OmPany is endcavOring to discount tn