Cane is grown either by colonos or by indentured laborers. In the colono system a tract of land from 9 to 36 acres in size and planted to cane is assigned by the estate to a group of colonos according to their number. The colonos care for the cane during its period of growth and harvest it when ripe. For this they receive the equivalent of $12.50 American gold per acre. Assuming that the yield per acre is 20 tons, the cost to the owner of the estate of cultivating and harvesting a ton of cane is 62½ cents. The colono is given pasture land for his cattle, fuel and house rent free. The indentured laborers are allotted a certain amount of untilled ground, which they prepare, plant and cultivate. Seed cane, houses and pasturage are furnished gratis, and when the cane is ripe they harvest it. The amount paid the indentured laborers for cane raised in this way fluctuates according to the market value of sugar. For example, in São Paulo when the price of sugar is $4.41 gold per hundredweight, the laborer gets $2.23 per ton for his cane; when the price exceeds $4.41 and is less than $5.90 per hundredweight, he receives $2.55 per ton; when sugar sells between $5.90 and $8.60 per hundredweight, his share is $3.18 per ton; should the price go over $8.60, he gets $3.82 per ton. The practice in Bahia is somewhat different. Taking as a basis a price of $2.939 gold per hundredweight for sugar, the cane brings $1.646 per long ton, and for every .147 cent (⅐ cent) per pound fluctuation in the price of sugar, the value of cane changes 9.88 cents per ton up or down as the case may be.[75] In the small factories the methods of manufacture are very old-fashioned. The cane is crushed between rolls of hard wood, and the juice, after being strained to remove the suspended impurities, is boiled to grain in copper kettles. The magma is then run into large wooden moulds having cone-shaped, perforated bottoms. The holes in the bottom of these moulds are closed when the hot massecuite is dumped in, but as soon as it cools the plugs are taken out and the molasses allowed to drain off. A layer of very wet clay is then spread over the top of the sugar, and as the water slowly drains from the clay it passes through the sugar crystals, carrying the mother liquor with it. After this washing process has gone on for some time, the sugar is removed from the moulds, and the upper portion is found to be white, or nearly so, while underneath the color deepens into yellow and from that to brown as the bottom is reached. The sugars are carefully separated according to their color, then dried and packed in bags containing 60 kilograms or about 132 pounds each. [Illustration: SUGAR PLANTATION BETWEEN RIO DE JANEIRO AND SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL]