BOILING-HOUSE-EL TREN COMUN. The object of crystallizing in shallow pans is refiners of Enthat the crystals, floating loosely in a greater gland and the space, may form freely and of a large grain. United States. Those who crystallize in cones say that the But though long same object is obtained by gently stirring the used, it has workcooling sirup once or twice on the first day. ed its way among On the second day the cone is moved into the the sugar plantapurging-house, and is not touched again for tions very slowthree weeks, except once to remove the plug at ly, and few of the the bottom of the cone that the molasses may great mills of drain off into proper receptacles, to be boiled Cuba date back further than twelve or fourteen again and dried as muscovado sugar. A cloth years. The machinery for such undertakings is is laid over the top of the cone while the mo- so costly, that it was only when the great Dons lasses is draining off, and soft mud or clay found that slaves were hard to get, and they spread upon it. This, draining through the themselves were growing so rich that they hardsugar, drives the molasses before it to the apex ly knew how to invest their money to advantage, of the cone; and after twenty days the loaf of that they seriously set to work to build mills casugar in the cone is found to be hard, white at pable of grinding the product of 2000 acres of the base, whity-brown in the middle, and yellow cane-land, and at the same time reducing the with molasses at the apex. These divisions be- number of negroes necessary on an estate by more ing separated and dried are known as the Blanco, than one-third. Success only stimulated them Quebrado, and Cucurucho or Cugucho, common- to build larger mills and import finer machinery, ly quoted in the Havana market. The first of until now the sugar-mills of Cuba are not unthese would be called by our housewives "cof-worthy to be named with the cotton-mills of fee-sugar;" the meaning of the second is "Leavings;" and of the third "Cornucopia" - the points of the cones. In all these processes, as practiced in the oldfashioned mills, a very serious loss occurs. They rarely express more than half the sugar from the cane which analysis has proved to exist there, and in all the different manipulations it would seem as if the object was to waste, and not to save sugar. The boiling-house is filled with the vapors rising from the kettles, and in the tossing undergone by the sirup much sugar is evaporated. The consequence is much molasses and little sugar; and it is to obviate these losses that costly machinery has been invented. Boiling in vacuo, which is the great principle of improved sugar-making, is nothing new. It has long been in use in Cuba and Jamaica, and is the principal means used by the great sugar England. A large sugar estate like the San Martin, the Alava, El Flor de Cuba, Ponina, San Rafael, España, Habana, and others which we might name, is a small village in itself. Let us take for description the San Martin, in the jurisdiction of Cardenas, bordering on that of Colon, and about forty-five miles by railroad from the city of Cardenas; since it is the largest Yngenio in Cuba, and possesses the most costly machinery probably of any on the island. It lies in the midst of cane-fields, stretching as far as the eye can reach, and from the casa de purga can be seen the chimneys of five or six of the finest estates of Cuba. The jurisdictions of Cardenas and Colon produce nearly half of the sugar exported from the island, and the village of Banagüises, within three miles of the San Martin, is the centre of this rich sugar country. IN THE BARRACOON. Approaching the estate of San Martin from the railroad, the size and height of the chimney attract immediate attention, it being 23 feet in diameter at the base, and rising to the height of 180 feet. In the houses which cluster around this great chimney one recognizes the Spanish model of a village-a grand square, or plaza, and streets running off at right angles from every side. The Mill and Curing House are, of course, the most prominent objects in this great square. They form its northern boundary for 800 feet. To the right of the mill is the "barracoon," or building for the slaves, of whom there are some 900. It occupies the entire side of the square, and is itself a hollow square, with long sheds, substantially built of brick, running around it; the doors opening into the inner court, in the style common to Spanish and South American cities. Each one of the doors has a small hole, about six inches square, cut near the floor, to promote ventilation; and as there is a barred window high up in every room, on the opposite side from the door, good ventilation is secured. In the centre of the court is a large building, with a steam-engine for pumping water and a furnace, in which the food for nearly a thousand souls is cooked in common. Cornmeal and bananas are the staples. In crop time, however, there is a good deal of private catering going on, with the aid of sirup and molasses. ted to put up huts for themselves, in which may be recognized the peculiar architecture of a Chinese city, if bamboo and bits of matting are accessible. The interiors of the Chinese huts are cleanly, but behind them or rather, between them, for they are laid out in streets -are the usual collections of garbage which, as much as any other cause, make the Asiatic cholera so fearful in the cities of the East. The southern side of the square of the San Martin is occupied by the houses of the administrador of the estate, the engineers, and sugar-masterthe hospital and fine gardens stretching for several hundred feet to their rear. To the east are the saw-mill, tool-shops, and other buildings. The Hospital is said to be the finest on the island, and certainly surpasses any which it has been our privilege to examine in a lengthened tour of Cuba. It covers about an acre of ground, the open court in the centre being partly paved and partly covered with flowers. In the middle of this court is a fountain, and an aviary containing doves and quails, the whole presenting a pleasing effect to the eye. Over the doorway is an inscription in Spanish, to the effect that it is "consecrated to suffering humanity." To the right on entering is the Botica y Drogueria, full of medicines, and arranged with all the neatness and possessing all the medicines of a good pharmacy. To the left is the Salon de Practicante, where new cases are examined and trivial ones prescribed for. The doors of the various halls which open on the corridors have appropriate inscriptions for males, females, and Chinese- each being dedicated to some saint. There is also a mortuary-house (Capilla y Deposito), with skull and cross-bones over the doorway, and warehouses for drugs, dispensary, etc. Entering one of the halls we find it full of beds, with the headboard to the wall, at equal distances apart, each neatly numbered. Each man's basin hangs at the head of his cot, and each one is supplied with a blanket. The beds are made by stretching a bullock's hide on a solid frame, the most suitable bedding in a hot climate; but some of the beds are merely boards laid lengthwise, in The barracoons of the San Martin cover about four acres of land, and being well painted and kept in good order, have a pleasing appearance. The same style of architecture for barracoons-suring coolness and cleanliness. It is evident a single-storied shed, forming a hollow square, with its cook-house in the centre-prevails on most of the large plantations, for security as well as convenience; some of them having high walls, and all access or egress being strictly guarded. On others, however, the negroes live in wooden or thatch hovels, in such proximity to the sugar-house as may be convenient. The Chinese have quarters by themselves, and on more than one estate have been permit that every care is paid to the condition of the sick; and we may cite as a proof of the superior management of this estate, as well as the wisdom of humane treatment, that out of 900 negroes and 170 Chinese only 14 were in the hospital, and of them about two-thirds were able to sit up. Most of them were confined by accidents, such as happen daily in the cane-fields with people so careless. In one of the wards was a woman suckling her child, dressed in the style of negro infants-a bit of string around the wrist. | less wretch, but we never saw any burial more These proofs of humanity and care for the slaves wretched than that of a miserable slave. It and Chinese apprentices were the more pleasing from the fact of their being undoubtedly compelled to labor very severely. They lead at the best a hard life, far worse on most of the Cuban estates than on the Southern plantations of our own country. As was rudely observed by one of the many American mechanics in Cuba, "They treat a nigger like a gentleman in Alabama to what they do here." A large number of those found in Cuba are native Africans, rude, savage, and ready to commit any atrocity. Nothing but the whip can keep such men in subjection and compel their labor. With every opportunity they skulk away to the cane-fields, where they often lie hid for many weeks. Some are in shackles half their lives, for when the chains are off away they go like wild beasts. As for any attempt to civilize these rude creatures further than whipping them when they will not work, a man must look far and carefully to see it in Cuba. It is true that the priests in the cities gather them into the churches, where, on grand occasions, they distribute among them catechisms and cigars, and make it a point to baptize every negro baby; but it is little that the slaves learn of the Christian religion, and they will sooner kneel to their masters than to God. Indeed one can not but think that their master is a greater and more powerful being in their eyes than the Almighty. On the sugar estates in the country they rarely see a priest; churches are unknown except in the cities and towns; Sabbaths are passed without notice; and from birth to death the native African and his children live as much like the beasts as if in Africa itself, the only real difference being that in Africa they are wild beasts, in Cuba they are beasts of burden. It needs but to see a negro funeral on a large estate to realize the bitter mockery of that philanthropy, which claims that the slave is most charitably ransomed from death in his own country to be civilized and Christian ized; and for these priceless boons he is made "an organized laborer." We saw one once on the Alava estate, one of the largest in Cuba. We have seen men buried on the field of battle, have seen many a pauper funeral, have heard the burial-service mumbled at sea by an infidel captain over the remains of a god was a rainy afternoon-and a rainy afternoon in the tropics means a fierce thunder-stormwhen one of the Spanish overseers remarked that "there was another dead," and pointed out a procession of three negroes, two of them bearing the body with a piece of bagging thrown over it, and the third following with a spade in his hands. The bearers were old men who could be spared for the duty, and walked very slowly, which seemed to suit the gravedigger well, for he had irons on both legs, and though a lusty fellow, could not go much faster than his elders. The group had not enough clothing between them for one man. The old men had breeches of an unknown mud color, and their bent backs were bare; the follower was minus the breeches, but he had obtained a long coffee or sugar sack, had cut a hole in the bottom for his neck and two at the sides for his arms. They passed behind the mill, but no one looked up, through a crowd of women and girls who were raking up the cane-trash, and down to the edge of the cane-field. No notice whatever was taken of them, while the stout fellow in chains dug a shallow trench, in which they left their burden. The whole job, for ceremony there was none, took about half an hour. Just as the rain ceased they hobbled back to their ordinary tasks, well soaked but indifferent. These things have little effect on the negro; but it is very different with the Chinese; and for the treatment of Chinamen in this matter the Spaniards and Cubans have undoubtedly earned the hatred of many individuals who would otherwise be content. When we recollect that at home the Chinaman actually worships his dead ancestors, that he procures his own coffin in his CATCHING THE TRASH. lifetime, often spending $1000 upon it; that China is justly described as a vast burial-ground; and that wherever Chinese are colonized they send their dead to their own country, if they can afford it-the greatness of the outrage in the eyes of a Chinaman, of this burial like a dog, will at once be perceived. He has superstitions which oblige him to burn paper figures of clothes, money, etc., for the use of his departed friends in the other world. All these superstitions exist still, but can not be carried out in Cuba, and he knows that at his own death no friend can perform the rites for him. We will venture to say, from actual statements of Chinese themselves, that this is, in their own opinion, the greatest grievance of their lot as laborers in Cuba. They are, however, a casuistic race, and comfort themselves with the belief that immediately after death their souls return to the Flowery Empire, and hover around the altars of their ancestors, where the relatives whom they left perform the necessary rites, in the benefits of which they participate. Possibly this belief in the immediate passage of the soul to their native country will explain the alarming prevalence of suicide among the Asiatics when they first discover how severe their lot is, or when they become homesick. Suicide is more or less common among the newly-arrived, and breaks out suddenly like an epidemic, without any change of labor or treatment, which would seem a reasonable provocation to self-destruction. Some of the best of machinery is to be seen on the Yngenio San Martin; and we will endeavor to describe the process of sugar-making, as practiced on that estate, remarking that it is similar, with a few slight alterations, on all plantations using the fine system of Derosne. In this system the boiling of the sirup is conducted entirely by steam. The cane is first crushed in a powerful mill, made at Paris, by J. F. Cail and Co., in 1853, which has been in operation ever since with only the most trifling repairs, and is now in as fine condition as when it was put up. The engine is of 60 horse-power, turning three powerful rollers for crushing, eight feet in length and three feet in diameter. The cane is supplied by an endless chain, with slabs as in a tread - mill, moving in a channelway of the same width as the rollers, and running almost level with the ground for 50 or 60 feet. Some thirty or forty women are constantly employed in supplying this feeder with cane-stalks, which are smoothed by others. The stalks pass unceasingly between the rollers, the crushed cane falling upon another channel-way, like the feeder, which carries it out of the mill, and to such a height that the refuse drops into carts standing ready to carry it to the fields to be spread out to dry. Some idea of the volume of cane passing through the mill may be obtained from the fact that seven light carts, each holding as much as would fill a New York omnibus, are kept at work, receiving and distributing the "trash" as it falls from the mill. A still better idea of the immense bulk of cane crushed in a day is gained by watching the trains of cars running on a tram-way from the cane-fields to the mill, and discharging their contents, and then to find at night, that, although the train of seven or eight cars has been running incessantly, a space of at least fifty feet square, where the cane in the morning was piled up twenty feet high, is quite bare by sundown. Indeed it is necessary to stop the mill every few days for want of cane, and to turn all hands into the cane-field. The juice runs out from below the rollers in a stream as thick as a man's leg; and passing through copper strainers, the holes of which are as large as an English six-pence, it leaves behind a portion of the dirt and bits of cane which fall with it from the rollers. It is then forced up to cisterns in the boiling-house, from which it is to be discharged into copper clarifying kettles, called defecadores. These are made with an iron jacket in which steam can be admitted. In the Yngenio San Martin there are sixteen of these. When ready for use they shine so that you can see your face in them. The coolie turns a great stop-cock and a stream of tawny liquor rushes as from a hydrant, and in three or | twenty in number, and as many feet in height, four minutes fills the kettle up to a certain mark, in which the juice is finally purified after makabout 10 inches from the top, when the stop-ing the circuit of the boiling-house once or twice cock is closed in that kettle and one opened in more. the next. The black vats full of animal carbon-in common English, "bone charcoal"-perform an important duty in the sugar-house, and cost a great deal of money. The charcoal can be bought in Havana for about $3 per 100 pounds, and each one of these great filters holds 1800 pounds, which can only be used for seven or eight days, so that the value of the charcoal used in the train during that time is nearly $2000. The cost is reduced on the large estates by burning the bones and by washing the charcoal each time it is taken from the filters. To do all this a large house with furnaces, many retorts, and a considerable force of slaves are required. Unburned bones are brought from South Amer We will wait and see what is done to the juice in the first defecator, while one after another of the train is receiving its supply. It will detain us only a few minutes. After starting the next kettle the workman returns and gives a few turns to a little wheel by which steam is admitted below the defecators. A grand commotion follows that shakes the light flooring on which we are standing, and for about five minutes there is a mysterious boiling going on in the depths of the great pot, which shows itself by a frothy scum rising to the surface. A little lime has been slaked in a bucket and poured into the mess. As to the quantity the sugarmaster has a word to say about that, and gen-ica and other parts of the world, and cost in Haerally sees to its being all right before it goes in, the proportion varying according to the quality of the cane. As soon as the kettle is fairly boiling steam is shut off and the contents are left quietly simmering for ten or fifteen minutes. Meanwhile the bubbles have gone down, but a very muddy scum-the cachazza-is forming on the surface, growing blacker and thicker with every minute. You can draw lines through it with your stick, as though writing in the sand by the sea-shore. When this scum begins to crack it is time to draw it off through the meshes of a sieve, and if you go below the defecator you will find a stream of hot juice, looking like turpentine, running into a trough. The scum settles in the bottom of the defecator, and as soon as the liquor begins to run very dirty the pipe is turned by the coolie below to discharge over another trough which carries it into a receptacle where it is purified again. The light scum is drawn off also, and a jet of cold water is started in the defecator, while the workman carefully cleanses it to be ready in its turn for another charge of juice. It is necessary to have a train of kettles sufficient to keep the stream of guarapo from the grinding-mill always running. In the San Martin the circuit is completed in about an hour. Meanwhile the hot stream of defecated juice is pouring into a small charcoal filter about ten feet high, twenty-three of which stand in a grim row, dividing the defecators from the bulk of the machinery, and behind them is another rank of tall fellows, vana about $1 per 100 pounds. They require four days' burning in the furnaces to make charcoal, and much care and attention during the process. After being used the coal is returned to the charcoal-house, sticky with molasses and quite lustreless It is then passed through a revolving washing-machine, and afterward finds its way to the furnaces. This process being repeated until the coal is too fine for use, the loss for each week in the filter is not much more than ten per cent. Great efforts have been made to economize charcoal and fuel (coal), as these two materials are the most expensive in the sugarhouse. Numerous experiments have been made in retorts and furnaces, every improvement in this department effecting a considerable saving; but after all experiments, animal carbon remains the best refining material known, and the use of a certain quantity appears indispensable to produce white sugar. The higher the filters the better the product of the Yngenio. Sulphurous gas has been emploved with a cer DELIVERING THE CANE. |