Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-07
BIG SUGAR FIELDS
IN SANTO DOMINGO
National Geographic Core
Spondent Describes Huri-
canes Stricken Country.

Santo Domingo as 1t looked frora the
air q few weeks ago, before it was
stricken by the hurricane, is described
by Frederick Simpich, National Geo.
graphic Society correspondent, who
recently led Photographic aerial survey
OF the New York-Buenos Aires air route.
With 1,100-horsepower roaring like
many Niagaras we hurdled the Haiti
Dominican border" writes Mr.. Siupich
land scared over Lake EnriqullS.
saltwater waste about 100 feet belc%
sea level. Hard by are mountains, some
more than 10000 feet high.
ITO see the crocodiles that sun them
selves on its banks we circled low over
the salt lake. For such big, clumsy
looking creatures the saurians scraTn-
bled into the water with amazing
quickneSS as we few over. When o
flock of 80 or 80 beautiful fiamingos,
their pink plumage gliStening long legs
stretched out behind. suddenly took
wing from cove we Immediately gave
chase. The graceful birds, obviously in
panic, few for dear life. Scared 90
badly they seemed almost helpless. one
or two tumbled head-over- into the
lake.
LAS you cross from Haiti to santo
Domingo you see the border is more
than an imaginary line You can tell
where one country stops and the other
begins, because Haiti is so much more
denSely peopled. Far-f1ung, practi-
cally uninhabited regions slip under us
now. From clunp of trees a herd of
wild horses dash out and gallop crafty
In circles, heads up, tails erect like
hearse plumes.
Vast Sugar Fields.
Toward Neibay Bay and Barabona
we fly over vast sugar fields. Gas
tractors at work, good tram lines, cane
cars, spick-and-span sugar mills and
plantation houses, with fine paved roads
here and there as we fly farther into
Santo Domingo, reveal how progressive
1t is.
Now we are over rolling, brush
grown regions again, criss crossed with
cattle trails. First the land looks empty.
But as you stare down fixedly clumps of
brush turn to herds of cattle, and
another motionleSs object is O. Domini-
can cowboy. see his horse turn up
its bald face and look at US.
we near the seacoast now, heading
for San Pedro de Macoris. Over . fiat.
tree-fringed atoll we fly low over its
straw huts and the fishing boats drawn
up on its sandy beach. In the middle
OF 1t Is a tide fiat and piles of salt
evaporated by the sun from sea water.
We see natives who work at this shovel
ing salt into heaps.
Wreck Of Cruiser Memphis.
Turning inland we look down on
Santo Domingo City. There is the
wreck of the old American cruiser
Memphis, which went ashore here some
years ago, still piled up on the beach.
And a big church, where some insist
you can see a casket with the real
bones OF Columbus. Other sets of his
bones, OF course, are exhibited else
where. I look for the withered tree
to which Columbus tied his ship, but
the city spins under us like merry-go-
round and cannot get oriented before
we are gone again. There's a river
the Ozama-bringing down a yellow
flood. Into the indigo-blue sea 1t pourS,
the dirty river so different in color that
you can see its mark far out from
shore, before 1t mingles with the clean
sea.
Our big flying boat bumps water
now, bouncing on the blue Bay Of San
Pedro de Macoris, American sugar
planters, Dominican officials local news
paper men, give us friendly welcome.
We go ashore to a speechful Latin
American banquet; then out to see the
1SN60A \ OhoCAtC 1lClC bIl1b IllP
DominicanS themselves are not q nu-
merous people; so much Of the popu-
lation is madeup of Negroes from the
Windward Islands and of Haitians, who
are here to do the heavy field work.
which Dominicans dislike
Here Sugar Is King.
Here sugar is king. More than
twice as much is produced in this tiny
land-which is but scantly cultivated
as in the whole Republic of Mexico. On
the vast Consuelo plantation, near San
Pedro de Macoris, they produce more
than $4,000 tons of sugar in a fair
season. Among work animals here we
see many bovine hybrids, cross be-
tween native cattle and the hump
backed bull of india This gives q big
meat-bearing animal and one able to
resist tick fever. But he is sullen, evil
natured, as even animal half castles
may be.
"Santo Domingo is rich link in the
big chain Of sugar growing islands
which begins with Cuba and runs clear
down to Trinidad. Over this Antilles
island bridge lies our air route to the
South American mainland, on our long
aerial survey trip to the Argentine.