Industrial and commercial South AmericaPeck, Annie S. (Annie Smith)
History
Industrial and commercial South America
Peck, Annie S. (Annie Smith)
South America; South America -- Economic conditions -- 1918-
The cane has more than 14 per cent sucrose, often 16 or 17 per cent.
The returns have nowhere been surpassed; the production to the acre is
double that of Cuba, where the average is 23-24 tons, in Peru 45-50
tons. At Cartavio, an estate of 29,000 acres in the Chicama Valley,
they once cut 79.8 long tons of cane per acre from a field of 85 acres.
This had 15.24 per cent sucrose and gave 12 tons of sugar an acre, a
probable record. The grinding capacity is 1000 metric tons in 23 hours.
In 1917 they ground 240,000 tons making 34,000 tons of sugar, mostly
white granulated. The Casa Grande in the same valley, said to be the
largest estate in the world, has a population of 11,000. Churches,
schools, hospitals, and “movies” are provided for the work people, and
the luxuries of modern life for owners and superintendents. In the
montaña sugar cane is said to grow to a height of 30 feet and once
planted to persist for a century. One writer speaks of two or three
crops from one planting, but nine years without replanting is not
unusual on the coast.
In the year 1915-16, 100,000 tons were exported from Salaverry, more
the year following; half as much from the smaller port of Huanchaco
near by. Production in Peru reached 400,000 tons in 1918. The
plantation Tambo Real, on the Santa River near Chimbote, was recently
sold for $1,750,000. Just back of the port is plenty of good sugar
land, now desert but easily irrigable. As the nitrates have never been
washed out of the land by rain, the soil is of extraordinary fertility;
with irrigation the cane receives the precise amount of water required
and at the right season. Back of Samanco are two large sugar estates,
one belonging to the British Sugar Company, which has a larger at
Cañete in the south, producing long ago 30,000 tons a year. One estate
had years ago 22 miles of tramway which was to be increased. In some
places small farmers owning or renting land sell their cane to sugar
mills. Most of the estates have the best of machinery. In 1911 $100,000
worth of sugar machinery was imported into one Department, Lambayeque.
Labor is cheaper than in Cuba, formerly 60 cents a day, but with
housing and other perquisites. Much sugar has been exported to Chile;
recently to Europe and the United States. Some years ago sugar could be
sold at a port at a profit for 1.5 cents a pound, more recently at 2.5
cents. There is still a field for investment in desert land, suitable
for those with sufficient capital to arrange for irrigation. About
600,000 acres are now devoted to sugar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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