+--------------+----------+----------+-----------+ | | Loads of | Arrobas | Quintals | |Departments. |panela, 64| of | of | | | parcels | molasses.| moscovado.| | | each. | | | +--------------+----------+----------+-----------+ |Guatemala | 1,571 | 5,162 | 1,472 | |Escuintla | 7,315 | 66,441 | 15,168 | |Sacatepequez | 413 | 35,765 | 45,796 | |Chimaltenango | 2,128 | 13 | | |Sololà | 1,067 | 150 | | |Suchitepequez | 4,149 | 9,560 | | |Retalhuleu | 3,191 | 9,825 | 8 | |Quezaltenango | 1,641 | 6,661 | | |San Marcos | 6,996 | 4,918 | | |Huehuetenango | 4,043 | 122 | | |Quiché | 1,256 | | | |Baja Verapaz | 3,889 | 3,401 | 2,003 | |Alta Verapaz | 867 | 632 | | |Peten | 499 | | | |Zacapa | 1,549 | 2,125 | 8 | |Chiquimula | 17,201 | 7,558 | 42 | |Jalapa | 741 | 269 | | |Jutiapa | 2,202 | 6,461 | | |Santa Rosa | 6,465 | 121 | | +--------------+----------+----------+-----------+ |Totals | 67,183 |159,184 | 64,497 | | | @ $8.00 |@ 25 cts. |@ $2.00 | |Value | $537,464 |$39,896 |$128,994 | +--------------+----------+----------+-----------+ While this table is by no means exact, it shows fairly the amount of saccharine products and their distribution. It is curious to note how many very small plantations are reported from the Department of Huehuetenango yielding almost exclusively the coarse panela. In Chiquimula the large proportion of sugar is due to foreign enterprise. There the cane-fields are capable of irrigation from the Hondo or other streams, and the cane is chiefly a small red variety. Escuintla and Jalapa have nearly the same area of cane planted, but the former, by superior machinery, produces forty times the amount of sugar, and ten times as much panela. The cultivation at present is almost confined to burying the seed-cane and trashing, that is, stripping the lower leaves twice in a season. In the rich valleys of the Atlantic, cane will grow nine feet in as many months, will yield four tons of sugar to the acre, will rattoon freely for twenty years without replanting, and may be ground during nine months of the year. Much of the product of the cane is in Guatemala converted into aguardiente, or rum. With the exception of the experimental plantation to which I have referred, I know of no sugar fincas in northern Guatemala, although there are several in similar situations in British Honduras.