Cuban plantations may be divided into two classes, the ingenios and the centrals. The ingenio is a small plantation whose lands lie in the neighborhood of the mill, while the central, in addition to its own cane, handles the crops of a number of ingenios. The ingenio hauls all of its cane to the factory by ox-carts; the central is served by railroads, both privately and publicly owned, and its equipment and machinery are of the most modern type. Approximately 90 per cent of the cane grown in Cuba comes from what are termed _colonias_, _i. e._, farms varying in size from a few acres up to several hundred. _Colonos_, or farmers, may be classified in three groups: in the first is the man with his small _estancia_, or farm, on which he raises foodstuffs and cattle, and who takes his few hundred _arrobas_[49] of cane to the central when the price is good, or feeds it to his animals when the pasturage is short. In this class, too, is the man who has a hundred or two hundred _caballerías_[50] of land, but whose chief interests are in other channels and whose operations in cane growing are merely an adjunct to his regular business. In the second group is the independent farmer, who owns his land and cane and sells his crop to whom he pleases. The third and most numerous group comprises those who plant cane on lands belonging to the central. These people either pay rent, or receive a certain fixed amount for their cane, or both. Their work is at all times subject to inspection by the central administration and under such circumstances they may be likened to contractors or employés, whose compensation is based upon the success of their own efforts. The average size of a colonia, exclusive of those owned by colonos of the first-mentioned class, who are independent of cane growing, doubtless depends upon what would afford a man a decent living with a few luxuries. H. C. Prinsen Geerligs, in his book “The World’s Cane Sugar Industry,” states that one hundred arrobas (2500 pounds) of cane costs the Cuban farmer $2.07 at the mill. If 2½ cents be taken as an average price for sugar and $900 per annum as a fair living wage, then the colono who gets an average yield of 50,000 arrobas per caballería and is paid for it at the rate of 5 per cent, receives $1560 per caballería for cane that has cost him $1035 to produce. According to this reasoning, a colonia should not be less than 1.75 caballerías in size, but of course this is purely speculative.