SANTO DOMINGO
Haiti is divided into two unequal parts, the republic of Haiti (République d’Haiti), comprising 10,204 square miles, and the republic of Santo Domingo (República Dominicana), with an area of 19,325 square miles. It is one of the four large islands of the West Indies and lies between 17 degrees 37 minutes and 20 degrees north latitude and 68 degrees 20 minutes and 74 degrees 28 minutes west longitude. Its length from east to west is about 407 miles and its greatest width is 160 miles. The total population is 2,737,700.
The surface of the island is exceedingly mountainous, three distinct ranges traversing it from east to west. The loftiest peak, Loma Tina, near the city of Santo Domingo, reaches a height of 10,300 feet. The extensive intervening valleys are fertile and watered by numerous rivers, none of which, however, are deep enough to be navigable.
The climate is hot and humid. An average temperature for the month of January would be about 75.4 degrees Fahrenheit, for July 84 degrees, and for the year 79.2 degrees. There are no active volcanoes, but great damage is done from time to time by earthquakes and hurricanes. The yearly rainfall is abundant, averaging about 120 inches. In San Pedro de Macoris, however, where the greater part of the sugar crop of the island is grown, the annual precipitation is in the neighborhood of 60 inches. As this is not sufficient for the needs of the growing cane, the planters have to do a certain amount of irrigating, and the water for this purpose is obtained from artesian wells.
The soil of the sugar-growing territory is of porous limestoneformation, which shows evidence of disturbances and upheavals due to volcanic agency. Overlying this is a deposit of decomposed vegetable matter from three to twelve inches in thickness, and there are areas where a rich black or red soil, varying from one to two feet in depth, is found.
On December 5, 1492, Columbus sighted the northern coast of Haiti and found safe anchorage there. The newly discovered island was named Española, which was afterward latinized to Hispaniola. Later still, the settlement founded by the Spaniards in the southern part under the name of Santo Domingo gave its name to the entire island. When Columbus set foot on its shores, Haiti had 2,000,000 inhabitants, who were governed by five caciques, each holding both religious and political sway over the separate kingdoms. At the outset the newcomers were received with welcome and honor, but it was not long before their tyranny caused a rupture between them and the natives. A war of extermination followed, and by 1506 the entire island had fallen into the hands of the invaders.
Left in possession of a depopulated country, the Spaniards restocked it with African negro slaves. Meanwhile the interior of the island had been explored, settlements had been established, mines opened up and progress made in agriculture. In 1506 sugar was brought in and its cultivation soon assumed important proportions. About 1625 the French and English began to give trouble to Spain in the western archipelago, and a few years later a number of Englishmen and Frenchmen, who had been expelled from St. Kitts by the Spaniards, took refuge on Tortuga island and became famous under the name of Buccaneers. They succeeded in establishing themselves in a part of Haiti, and in 1697 their right of possession was acknowledged and the territory occupied by them was ceded by Spain to France by the treaty of Ryswick. The new colony was called Saint Dominique, and it entered immediately into an era ofprosperity in which the expansion of the sugar industry was the principal factor. When the French revolution broke out, the exportations of sugar amounted to 80,000 tons, and this large production necessitated the employment of a great number of slaves. The whites were few and the unequal proportion led to disaster. The population consisted of whites, free colored people (most of whom were mulattoes) and negro slaves. The mulattoes demanded the same civil rights as the white people and these privileges were accorded them in 1791. Incensed beyond measure, the whites clamored loudly for a reversal of this decree and finally obtained it. On August 23, 1791, a violent insurrection of the blacks broke out; the plantation slaves were joined by the mulattoes and a massacre of the whites followed. Those who escaped the slaughter fled, leaving all their possessions behind; the sugar plantations were destroyed and the entire sugar industry came to an abrupt end.
In 1793 Saint Dominique was attacked by England and Spain, whereupon the French government, in order to conciliate the blacks and retain its dominion over the colony, proclaimed all the slaves free. By the terms of the Peace of Bâle in 1795, the whole island passed into the hands of the French.
Toussaint Louverture, a negro of marked military ability, was appointed commander-in-chief by the directory, and by 1801 he succeeded in restoring order. Unfortunately, the measures that he endeavored to put into effect aroused the suspicions of Napoleon, who sent out an army to subdue him and to restore slavery. This expedition met with such determined resistance that the commander, General Leclerc, opened negotiations and Toussaint was induced by solemn promises to lay down his arms. He was treacherously seized and taken to France, where he died in 1803. The blacks immediately renewed hostilities under Jean Jacques Dessalines, and in November, 1803, the French withdrew completely. In the followingyear the independence of the island was declared and its ancient name of Haiti was restored. Dessalines was first made governor for life and in October, 1804, he proclaimed himself emperor. He was assassinated in 1806. From that time to the present the country has been in a state of turmoil and the end is not yet. In 1844 the people of the eastern end of the island seceded and formed the republic of Santo Domingo. Ever since then there have been two distinct governments in the island, with the strongest political antipathy existing between them.
But little sugar cane is raised in Haiti, and the most of this small quantity is either consumed as cane or made into a beverage calledtafia.
The sugar plantations of Santo Domingo are found on the southern coast, in the level stretches of Arua and Romana, in the valleys near the city of Santo Domingo and in the region near San Pedro de Macoris. No sugar is grown in the interior. While most of the factories are land owners and cultivate cane, they do not grow all that they grind. A good deal is raised by colonos under the following conditions: The factories assign parcels of land to the colonos rent-free and in addition allow them the use of draft cattle and farming implements. When necessary a certain amount of actual cash is advanced. The colonos plant and till the land, furnish their own labor and deliver the cane at the point where it is loaded on the railway cars. The field hands are either natives or negroes brought from nearby islands, and their pay ranges from 50 to 75 cents gold per day.
The ground is tilled in an indifferent fashion and no fertilizing whatever is done. When virgin soil is planted, the seed is put in at seven-foot intervals, sometimes greater, without any holes or furrows having been made; the cuttings are simply stuck in the ground and partly covered with earth. The cane ripens in fourteen months or more. Ratooning follows until theyield gets so small that replanting is necessary. When this time comes, the old roots are ploughed up and furrows from four to six inches in depth are made about five or six feet apart. The seed cane is planted in these furrows at four- or five-foot intervals. The yield from virgin soil is very heavy and has been known to reach ninety tons to the acre, but the sugar content of such crops is low, whereas the subsequent ratoons with a decreased tonnage of cane per acre give juice of a better quality. A fair average production on a plantation having 4000 acres in cane would be about twenty-four tons to the acre. Naturally this estimate would be affected by the relative proportions of plant cane and ratoons, as well as by the character of the soil. Planting is generally done in June and October, while the harvesting begins in December and continues until April.
Manufacturing methods in Santo Domingo admit of much improvement. Single crushing is the method employed for the most part, so that the loss in extraction is considerable. The juices are treated and the suspended impurities allowed to settle at the bottom of the tanks. Filter presses are the exception rather than the rule, and for want of them the sugar in the resultant mud is lost. The clear juices are then concentrated and boiled to grain in vacuum pans. First sugars generally polarize between 95 degrees and 97 degrees, seconds about 86 degrees. The molasses is either made into rum or permitted to run to waste. Notwithstanding the crude character of the factories and machinery, the recovery of sugar is generally good, the average being between 9 per cent and 11 per cent of the weight of the cane, with single crushing.
Almost all of the factories are managed by Americans, but, as has been said, the equipment they have to work with is by no means modern, and under the extremely uncertain political conditions that prevail there is scant encouragement for outsidecapital to come in and improve matters. Just when a change for the better will come is impossible to say.
Messrs. Willett & Gray give the yearly figures since 1903 in long tons, as follows: