Excerpt from Annual Report of the Porto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station for 1906 The central factory system has supplanted the small mills with their open kettles and low extraction. These large "centrals" consume the can grown in distances of 40 to 50 miles, and their operation has resulted in the abandonment of many small mills that now stand idle in the fields. The large centrals purchase the greater amount of their cane from the planters, or else manufacture the sugar on a percentage basis. The small growers find it more profitable to dispose of their cane in this way than to grind it in their small mills of low capacity. In addition to grinding cane of others, the large centrals are growing more or less cane, for the larger part on leased land. Such plantings are usually carried out under the best conditions, taking advantage of the more modern aids of science. This has a good effect upon the various communities in which such plantings are made by reason of the fact that many planters in the neighborhood watch the results and take advantage of the improved methods demonstrated. The one crop that has made the greatest advances during the year under consideration is tobacco. There has been a decided improvement in the quality as well as the quantity of this product. The improvement of the quality of the Porto Rican leaf has called the attention of capitalists to the possibilities of this crop in the island. Corporations backed by capital have come in for the purpose of not only growing tobaccos, but of manufacturing them, taking advantage of the plentiful supply of cheap labor abounding here. Many acres, especially in the valleys of the interior, have been put under cultivation and prices of lands adapted to tobacco growing have increased enormously. Large factories have been erected in San Juan, Bayamon, and Caguas, employing hundreds of people. These large companies are not only planting tobaccos, but are buying much more from the small cultivators. A growing practice is for the handlers to buy the crop in the field from the smaller growers, curing and fermenting the plants themselves under the best scientific methods. The coffee industry, which is the support of the larger number of the inhabitants of the island, has shown some improvement, brought about by the reestablishment of the plantations destroyed by the hurricane of 1899, together with a favorable crop year. A small amount of foreign capital has been invested in coffee plantations, but such investments are not as a rule being sought. Many of the plantations are heavily mortgaged, and such changes as are taking place in the holdings of such properties as a rule result from the foreclosures of these deeds of trust. The plantings of fruits have been very rapidly extended, especially with citrus fruits and pineapples. These plantings are made almost altogether with foreign capital, and by people from the States, especially the Florida planters. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.