The supply of labour and rates of wages in the future are now most serious questions to the sugar producer in Cuba, and present the greatest obstacle to reducing cost. For supplies of cane the manufacturer must depend either upon his own resources or upon large planters. Factories to be operated at a profit should be kept running day and night, and cane, owing to its nature, must be ground immediately it is cut. The grinding season in Cuba is limited to about one hundred and twenty working days, and small farmers, while they can generally find a market for their cane, cannot be depended upon for a constant regular supply. Had Cuba the power to dictate her own prices, she could maintain sufficient margin to overcome local difficulties, but that power has long since passed and future profits must be dependent upon her economies. The price of cane to her planters is dependent upon the price at which her manufacturers can sell their sugar, and this price in turn is dependent upon the price at which other sugar-producing countries (principally Germany, the great factor in the world's sugar trade) can place their goods, duty paid, in New York. If Cuba in the future should have to compete to any extent, in the United States, with free sugar from other countries, while a duty was exacted upon Cuban sugars, her case would seem to be hopeless. [Illustration: UNLOADING CANE AT A BATEY.] Another interesting and valuable statement was prepared for the author by Mr. Wm. Bonnet, of Havana, under date of October 8, 1898, and gives an array of statistical information which is as follows: The loss to Spain's dominion of the Mexican Territory (1821-1825) deprived the Island of a yearly allowance of about $1,000,000, which amount was drawn out of the Mexican budget for the needs of the Cuban administration. The Island, up to those days, was considered more as a penitentiary than as a productive colony; convicts were sent to Havana with the principal object of building good ships for the Spanish Armada. It was only after the loss to Spain of Mexico that Cuba began to improve her general production, and the efforts of the country in growing sugar and coffee were so successful that a few years later, with the help of the slaves that were again freely brought from Africa, and with the co-operation of immigrants that had come from Hayti, etc., the Island, besides covering all her expenses, was able to send large amounts of money to the mother country. From 1840 to 1850, the production of sugar increased gradually from 200,000 to about 300,000 tons. Prices of coffee began to decline owing to excess of production and competition of Brazil, and all the attention was given to cane growing, so much so that from 1853 up to 1868, the production was rapidly increased to the following figures: