The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1920-07-29
CUBA ROLLS IN WEALTH.
Whole Island is Big Sugar Plantation.

Whole Island IS Big SuSar THthIa'ioh'
Sugar, like shoes, We once took for
granted. Now procuring enough for
! the preserving season may be PROB
lem and sugar speak easies" are not
uncommon IN lands where the supply
is rationed.
Writing to the National Geographic
Society, William Joseph Showalter
says:
with a sugar production nearly
doubled and prices more than quad
rupled since 1912, one can readily see
why Cuba is the worlds Ell Dorado OF
1920, and why sugar is its king.
The imagination is almost over
powered in attempting 10 comprehend
the vast of the island as it exists this
year.
THE cane produced is of such tre-
imendous volume that procession OF
bull teams four abreast, reaching
around the earth, would be required
to move it. The crop would suffice 10
build a solid wall around the entire
two thousand miles Of the islands
coast-line as high as an ordinary
dwelling house and thick enough for
a file of four men to walk abreast on
il.
"The sugar extracted from this cane
would load fleet of steamers reacn-
ing from Havana to New YORK, WIN
ship for every mile of the twelve
hundred that stretch between the two
ports. The great pyramid of Cheops,
before awe-inspiring proportions mil
lions of people have stood and gazed
in open-mouthed amazement, remains
after five thousand years, unrivaled
as a monumental pile; but Cuoa's
sugar output this year would make
two pyramids, each outbasing and
overtopping CheoH.
THE wealth the outgoing sugar
crop brings in is not less remarkaoie
in its proportions. Four hundred DOL
liars out of a single crop for every hu-
man being who lives on the Island
sum almost as great as the per cap
ita wealth produced by all the farms.
all the factories, and all the mines vi
the United States!
what wonder, then, that Cuba TO-
dav is a land of gold and gems, rlcher
than Midas ever was, converting oro-
esus, by contrast, into a beggar.
Sugar cane is grown by three
classes of planters in Cuba. perhaps
the major part of the crop Is grown
bv share farmers, or 'colonas, as
they are called. The owners OF the
sugar-mills furnish them with a CIV
on number of acres of land to plant
and give them an agreed snare ol lhe
sugar they produce.
THE next class is composed OF the
|land-owning farmers, who grow their
own cane and have 1t GROUND Vi,
shares, after the fashion OF the rural
erist mill. The remainder Oh the caiic
/ is grown BY the owners OF the Lnliis
themselves. At some centrals the au-
ministra:ion' cane as that grown uil-
der central management IS known
amounts 10 only per cent. OF the
total: at others it amounts 10 W per
cent.
Even the share farmer, at pre-"ar
urices made money. According "
Cuba Before the World the offlclal
hand book Of the Republic at the Fan
ANA Pacific Exposition, When Susal
was selling at 2.62 cents pound MS
share of the sugar brought him. on
the basis of twelve sacks TO the acre
a return of from S46 TO $51 per acre.
, The return of the planter owning MS
land was from $56 TO s61 per acre.
when one remembers that the selling
4, price of sugar is from four TO SIX tillies
las high in 1920 as it was then' 'ne
'siac of the per acre income To-Day Il
apparent. -. 49,. oo,o
"How much net profit the cane,
grower reaps at 1920 prices IS nara
to estimate, but that it is large VIII
anpear when the methods OF cane
growing are stated. To begin wlth' al
iterlhe first crop the planter does no'
have to bother with seed-tlme LOT
about ten years. The soil IS so deep
and so fertile that one planting pro-
duces fen harvestS. Neither does cul-
tiyation bother him after the tlrs'
season, for the blades that keeps the
weeds from competing with the next
one.
3Think of the profits that the Amer
Eah farmer would make out of corn
Gt/he could get ten crops from on"
planting, and did not have 10 ploW
nine Of them at all to keep down the
weeds,
Another item in the low cost ol
producing sugar is the cheapness OF
1.-The motive power. The cane Is hauled