ARGENTINA

The Argentine republic occupies the southeastern extremity of South America, and extends from 21 degrees 55 minutes to 55 degrees 2 minutes south latitude, and from 53 degrees 40 minutes to 73 degrees 17 minutes west longitude. From north to south its length is 2285 miles, and its greatest width is 930 miles. Its area is 1,135,840[79]square miles, and the population, including the nomadic peoples, numbers about 8,000,000.

Physically, the surface of the country comprises three great divisions: the Andes and the high plateaus to the west, the vast plains of the east and the desolate, barren wastes of Patagonia. Only the northern part lies within the latitudes where sugar cane can be grown, and owing to the mountainous character of that region the area available for cane culture is limited. The provinces of Tucumán, Jujuy, Salta, Santa Fé and Corrientes, and the territories of Formosa, Chaco and Missiones produce the entire sugar crop.

Argentina’s great length and the range of altitude within her borders, from the lofty, snow-clad peaks of the Andes eastward to sea-level, give a widely varied climate, upon which the prevailing winds and the mountain barriers exert a further influence. In the extreme north there is a stretch of country extending about ninety miles into the torrid zone and running from the Pilcomayo river, five hundred miles west, to the Chilean border. The eastern part of this region consists of a low, wooded plain where the mean annual temperature is 73 degrees Fahrenheit and the average annual rainfall is 63 inches. The westernend is a dry plateau where the temperature drops below 57 degrees Fahrenheit and the rainfall is only about two inches during the year. In the cane-growing district the rainy season is from October to March. At times during the winter the frost is severe enough to partially wither the cane leaves, but it never wholly kills the cane.

Sugar cane was brought to the La Plata region by the Jesuits, and it appears in the records of the Santo Domingo monastery that sugar was manufactured in Tucumán as early as 1670. After the banishment of the Jesuits nearly one hundred years later, the industry quickly declined, in fact as late as 1871 the total production of Argentina did not exceed 1000 tons. Development in Tucumán followed the completion of the railway, which opened outside markets to the planters of the province in 1876. Railway transportation facilities brought in modern factory equipment and machinery. As a result numerous small primitive mills were eliminated and their owners turned to sugar-cane growing.

Stimulated by a heavy protective tariff, the cane-producing area in Tucumán increased from 12,000 to 104,000 acres between 1881 and 1896, and in other provinces the industry made substantial progress. By 1894 the output exceeded the country’s requirements. This led the government to concede an export bounty in 1896, and a syndicate called the Unión Azucarera was formed by the producers, who agreed to deliver to it 60 per cent of their product. From 1896 to 1904 exports of sugar varied from 15,000 to 50,000 tons per annum. Conditions changed, however. The other South American countries would not buy Argentine sugar, the United States had fixed a countervailing duty on all bounty-fed sugars, and Great Britain was contemplating their exclusion entirely. To save the situation, therefore, it was decided to curtail the output, and the following plan was adopted:

BATTERY OF BOILERS, INGENIO LA TRINIDAD, TUCUMÁN, ARGENTINA

HOME OF SUPERINTENDENT OF A SUGAR PLANTATION, TUCUMÁN, ARGENTINA

An arbitrary amount was fixed as the total production of the factories in operation, and this tonnage was prorated among them according to their capacity. Upon every 100 kilograms (220.46 lbs.) produced in excess of the allotment, a tax equivalent to 48¾ cents[80]was levied, and factories where operations were not started until after the passage of the law were taxed at this rate upon 25 per cent of their output. The fund raised in this way furnished the compensation for the growers who destroyed their cane crops or left them unharvested. A certain sum was applied to the payment of export bounty[81]and the remainder went into the national treasury.

The Brussels convention, by its provision for countervailing duties, nullified the effect of the export bounty and in 1905 the export privileges were withdrawn.

In 1912 the import duty was established at 3.85 cents gold per pound for 96-degree sugars and 2.977 cents per pound for sugars testing under 96 degrees. A yearly reduction of about one-tenth of a cent per pound was provided for until the rate of 96-degree sugars shall reach 3.0645 cents per pound, and that for those under 96 degrees 2.19 cents. Countervailing duties were also imposed on foreign bounty-fed sugars.

Tucumán produces between 80 per cent and 85 per cent of Argentina’s total crop, the remainder coming largely from Jujuy.

From the “Boletin Mensual de Estadistica Agricola,” Buenos Aires, August, 1913, the following figures are taken:

At the present time, Argentina has over 200,000 acres in sugar cane, and this area can be considerably increased. The present production about takes care of the country’s needs, although a round amount of American refined sugar was imported in the latter part of 1916.

Field methods admit of great improvement. Little care is exercised in the selection of seed cane and disinfection is never practiced. Planting is done in September and October, when the rainy season sets in. Irrigation from rivers and streams is the rule; fertilizers are seldom used, and no preventive measures are adopted to combat diseases of the cane. The yield of cane per acre in poor soil is from nine to fifteen tons, in average soil from eleven to seventeen tons, while on the best lands it is eighteen tons.

Ratoon crops are raised fifteen or more years in succession without replanting, and the period between frosts is too short to admit of the cane reaching maturity.

Grinding is begun about June 1st and usually takes one hundred days, depending, naturally, upon the amount of cane to be crushed.

INGENIO NUEVA BAVIERA, TUCUMÁN, ARGENTINA

The factories are modern and equipped with machinery and apparatus of the latest type, but notwithstanding this the recovery of sugar is poor, owing to the quality of the cane. In 1911 the average extraction obtained by the factories of Tucumán was 7.65 per cent. A few factories make white sugar fordirect consumption, but the great part of the output consists of raw centrifugal sugar, which is subsequently refined. Most of Argentina’s refined sugar is produced by the Refineria Argentina of Rosario.

Argentina’s sugar industry could not live without a protective tariff, on account of the high cost of production, which even in the best factories is about 4⅓ cents gold per pound. There is no chance to build up an export business now, so, unless conditions change, the production must adjust itself to take care of the consumption and no more.

The statistics from 1906 to 1915 are in long tons:

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