PORTO RICO
Porto Rico, the most easterly and the fourth in size of the Greater Antilles, lies at the entrance to the Caribbean sea, between 17 degrees 50 minutes and 18 degrees 30 minutes north latitude and between 65 degrees 30 minutes and 67 degrees 15 minutes west longitude. It is about 100 miles long by 36 miles wide and has an area of 3606 square miles.
A range of mountains from 2000 feet to 3700 feet in height runs from east to west. The south slope of the island rises abruptly from the foothills, while on the north the ascent is more gradual and broken to a great extent by rugged spurs and deep ravines. There is but little coastal plain on the north, except at the river mouths, but on the south a considerable stretch of lowlands is found. Although many indentations occur in the coast line, few of them afford safe shelter for ships. There are thirty-nine rivers and a great number of smaller streams, but none of the rivers is navigable for more than a mile or two from the sea.
The climate is healthful and is tempered by the northeast trade winds that, with certain modifications due to local conditions, blow steadily the year round. The mean annual temperature is about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The rainy season begins in May and ends in November and the average yearly precipitation at the foot of Mount El Yunque on the northeast coast is 120 inches. At San Juan it is 55 inches, while other sections of the island are semi-arid or subject to severe droughts. Porto Rico is particularly free from epidemics. The last case of yellow fever was reported in 1897. Cholera and bubonic plague are unknown, and dysentery diseases, formerly common, are steadilydecreasing. Like other West Indian islands, it is subject to hurricanes, that of 1899 having been unusually disastrous. The census of 1910 gave the population as 1,118,012.
A. Moscioni, Photo.SUGAR PLANTATION SCENE IN PORTO RICO
A. Moscioni, Photo.SUGAR PLANTATION SCENE IN PORTO RICO
A. Moscioni, Photo.
SUGAR PLANTATION SCENE IN PORTO RICO
A. Moscioni, Photo.SUGAR-SHIPPING PORT, PORTO RICO
A. Moscioni, Photo.SUGAR-SHIPPING PORT, PORTO RICO
A. Moscioni, Photo.
SUGAR-SHIPPING PORT, PORTO RICO
The soil is fertile and may be divided into three classes. First, the red soil, generally found in the mountains; second, the black soil, containing much humus, and third, the coral sand soil of the coast plains. The black has proved to be the best for sugar cane, although excellent yields have been obtained from the coast lands. Notwithstanding the fact that both soil and climate are well suited to cane cultivation, the extension of the industry is checked by the formation of the country. The hilly character of the island and the comparatively limited transportation facilities do not admit of cane being grown in the interior. All of the modern plantations are near the coast, where sugar can be easily transported to steamers. In the north cane may be raised without irrigation, but in the south, where the greater part of the crop is produced, irrigation is necessary. About 400,000 acres of the surface of Porto Rico are under cultivation and half of this area is devoted to sugar. The cane grows chiefly on the rich alluvial lowlands along the coast. On the southern seaboard there is plenty of good land that has never been planted, but to make this available for agriculture means the construction of costly irrigation works with extensive aqueducts and much tunneling.
Porto Rico was discovered by Columbus in 1493. The name Puerto Rico dates from 1521, when gold was found in the island. The natives suffered cruelly at the hands of their conquerors up to the year 1544, when they were set free by the order of King Charles I of Spain.[43]Out of a population originally estimated at 600,000 only a few hundred remained. Great numbers had died and many had fled to Mexico and Peru, but the Spaniards soon filled their places with African negroes.
For three centuries the island was harried by the English, attacked by pirates and freebooters, torn by rebellion among the slaves or terrorized by the fleets of the Dutch, who were intent upon its conquest, so that Spain was kept constantly on her guard to prevent her colony from being wrested from her. This state of affairs naturally did not encourage population. The country could not meet the cost of its administration and the deficit had to be paid out of the revenues of Mexico. Up to 1778 only Spaniards were allowed to settle there, but after that date the privilege was granted to people of other countries, provided they were of the Roman Catholic faith, and in 1815 all restrictions were removed. Foreigners were welcomed to the island and many inducements offered them. Trade with the United States was permitted in 1815, but only in Spanish ships.
This liberal policy brought many planters from the British and French islands, and as they had experience, capital and slaves, they did much to develop the resources of the colony. Subsequently many refugees came from Haiti, Santo Domingo and Venezuela.
Slavery in Spanish possessions was abolished in 1873 and 34,000 slaves in Porto Rico received their freedom.
After Alphonso XII ascended the Spanish throne in 1875, commercial conditions in the island showed a certain improvement, but politically the situation was deplorable, reflecting as it did all the bad features of an obsolete system of government, complicated by a liberalism that was premature. By reason of its arbitrary decrees and many acts of persecution, the administration stirred up a feeling of bitter antagonism on the part of the colonists. A step toward reform was taken in 1877, when the provincial deputation was re-established, and eighteen years afterward, the home government, in response to vigorous demands from foreign nations, attempted to pass measures to effectively remedy existing evils, but it was far too late. Theisland received a grant of autonomy in November, 1897, and in July of the following year it was taken over by the United States.
A. Moscioni, Photo.PLOUGHING CANE FIELD WITH STEAM PLOUGH, PORTO RICO
A. Moscioni, Photo.PLOUGHING CANE FIELD WITH STEAM PLOUGH, PORTO RICO
A. Moscioni, Photo.
PLOUGHING CANE FIELD WITH STEAM PLOUGH, PORTO RICO
A. Moscioni, Photo.UNLOADING SUGAR CANE AT A MILL, PORTO RICO
A. Moscioni, Photo.UNLOADING SUGAR CANE AT A MILL, PORTO RICO
A. Moscioni, Photo.
UNLOADING SUGAR CANE AT A MILL, PORTO RICO
As soon as this became an accomplished fact, there was a marked improvement in conditions, especially from a sugar point of view. Up to this time much attention had been given to the cultivation of coffee, and sugar production had suffered to a certain extent in consequence. Spain had admitted Porto Rican coffee free while protecting it by duties levied on foreign coffee, but when the island passed into the hands of America, this advantage to the coffee raiser disappeared. Besides, the hurricane of 1899 had caused great damage to the coffee plantations and the combination of circumstances proved a severe setback to the coffee industry.
The sugar planters, on the other hand, benefited greatly by annexation. In 1889 the government allowed a reduction of 85 per cent on the duty assessed on Porto Rican sugars entering the United States. In 1901 they came in absolutely free and Porto Rico has enjoyed the full protection of the tariff ever since.
In 1900 Congress passed a law known as the Foraker act, which provided that no corporation should be allowed to acquire more than 500 acres of land in Porto Rico and that no stockholder in any agricultural company operating there should be permitted to hold shares in any other corporation of the kind. The object of the law was, of course, to prevent capitalists from buying up great tracts of land for the cultivation of sugar on a large scale to the detriment of the native land owner.
The act, however, did not serve the interests of the small Porto Rican farmer as its framers apparently intended it should. The owners of large holdings were non-resident and the small farmers lacked the money and enterprise to carry on the industry in a proper manner. The law excluded that which wasmost urgently needed, namely foreign capital, and when this fact became apparent, the provisions of the measure were construed liberally by the authorities, so that of late years extensive sugar estates have been started in Porto Rico with American, British and French backing, and the production has grown from 85,000 tons in 1902 to 378,509 tons in 1916.
Formerly the Porto Rican planters used to harvest cane from the same lands year after year, without using fertilizers of any kind. When they planted new cane, the soil was only partially prepared; the subsoil was never cleared of roots and rough grasses and cultivation was only indifferently done. The result is that many cane fields are now practically exhausted and some planters find that their lands are becoming spoiled by rapidly multiplying weeds.
Today the usual method is to plough the ground twice before putting in the seed. Deep ploughing is taking the place of scratching the surface and steam ploughs are being used on the larger estates. Where the soil is heavy and the rainfall abundant, the furrows are dug about eight feet apart and two feet deep and the cane planted in double rows at four-foot intervals. In dry, sandy soil the planting is in single rows and the distance between the furrows ranges from four to six feet, according to how rich the soil is. The fields are kept free from weeds and manure is used but seldom.
The greater part of the cane is planted during the last four months of the year and crushing is begun in the second January following, which gives the cane a growing period of fourteen months or more. Some planting is done in January, February and March and this cane is cut in twelve months. Then a certain amount is planted between March and June, and if the sugar content proves satisfactory, it is ground the following season; if not, it is allowed to remain standing for another year. Planting is done every four years and the best results are obtainedfrom the first and second ratoon crops. The yield of cane per acre averages about 18 long tons, although this has been exceeded in good years. The cane is cut close to the ground with amacheteand loaded on ox-carts to be taken to the mill or the railway station, according to the location of the field.
Almost all of the cane grown in Porto Rico is ground in the large central factories, but it is only during the last ten or twelve years that this has been done. The small mills have disappeared for the most part, although a few have been able to struggle along.
The centrals usually raise about one-half of the cane they grind. The rest they buy from thecolono, who grows cane either on his own land or upon ground rented to him by the central owner. As a rule the price paid to thecolonofor his cane is 5 per cent of the weight of the cane in sugar, although this is subject to modification at times. As the central factories are of recent construction, they are equipped with the newest and best machinery and the most scientific methods govern their operation.
In 1853 Porto Rico exported 112,000 tons of sugar; the following year the amount was 70,000 tons and during the next twenty years it remained nearly stationary. In 1871 the production reached 105,000 tons, dropping back to 89,000 tons in 1885 and 65,000 tons in 1886. The crop of 1900 was very small—35,000 tons—owing to the havoc wrought by an unusually severe hurricane, but from that time on it has increased year by year.
As most of the diseases and pests that attack sugar cane are met with in Porto Rico, it is obvious that the work of the United States agricultural station at Mayaquez has been of inestimable benefit to the planters. Experimenting with different varieties of cane, importing seed cane from other countries, analysis of soils, scientific advice upon the use of fertilizers and instruction as to the best means to destroy or control harmfulparasites, these are but a few of the many important services rendered by the station.
The outlook for Porto Rico’s sugar industry seems hopeful. Labor is cheap and abundant, climatic and soil conditions are favorable and an irrigation project at present under way promises to convert lands now arid into productive cane fields.
Since 1900 the production of sugar in Porto Rico in tons of 2240 pounds has been: