The Rionda Properties are seven in number, comprising five estates which are in effect the personal property of Don Manuel Rionda, his relatives and family associates, and two others in which he is the controlling factor. All of these properties are operated as separate and independent units, or as individual or one-man enterprises, in the development and supervision of which few have equaled and none have been more successful than Mr. Rionda. Part of this success has been due to the fact that during the creative period these independent properties have been as a rule under the management of members of his own family, prominent among whom were two nephews, Don Leandro J. Rionda and Don José B. Rionda, both capable men, who grew up with the properties they came to administer, thus acquiring that close personal touch with employees and conditions which is so desirable an asset, but which is unfortunately lost to the larger enterprises, and who rendered to their uncle, Don Manuel, the loyalty he had inspired in them and so richly deserved at their hands. In such circumstances it is not to be wondered at that success of a high order has attended their co-operative efforts. Mr. Rionda has no children of his own and it is probably for this reason that so close an affection and so intimate business relations exist between him and his two nephews and the fine sugar producing properties they have developed under his auspices. The United Fruit Company entered the sugar business through an accident; and yet it is the only company that combines all the essentials for producing, transporting and refining sugar. Shortly after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, the Company acquired the Banes property, and also a large tract of land on the Bahia de Nipé, now known as the Nipé Bay property, upon both of which bananas were planted on an extensive scale. But it was soon discovered that atmospheric conditions in that part of Cuba were unfavorable to the successful production of bananas. Therefore in order to utilize the lands which it had acquired the Company planted them with cane and began the production of sugar; it was of course already a transportation company; and now it has built a refinery in Boston, to which its raw sugar is shipped from Cuba on its own steamers, and there refined; thus completing the cycle of operations from planting the cane to marketing the product. No other sugar producing enterprise has ever gone into the business upon such comprehensive lines. Such however are the lines upon which everything undertaken by Andrew W. Preston and Minor C. Keith, the directing geniuses of that company, is planned and projected; which largely accounts for the enviable success that has always crowned their efforts.