ince that time, the output
has more than doubled. The increase is attributable to the large increase
in demand in the United States, and to the advantage given Cuban sugar in
this market by the reciprocity treaty of 1903. Practically all of Cuba's
export product is in the class commonly known as 96 degree centrifugals,
that is, raw sugar of 96 per cent, or thereabout, of sugar content. Under
normal conditions, nearly all of Cuba's shipments are to the United States.
The sugar industry was introduced in Cuba very soon after the permanent
settlement of the island, by Spaniards, in the early years of the 16th
Century, but it was not until two hundred and fifty years later that
Spain's restrictive and oppressive colonial policy made even its fair
extension possible. In 1760, two and a half centuries after the first
settlement, the sugar exports of the island were a little less than 4,400
tons. In 1790, they were a little more than 14,000 tons. Some relaxation of
the laws regulating production and exportation, made possible an increase
to 41,000 tons in 1802, and further relaxation made possible, in 1850, an
output somewhat unreliably reported as 223,000 tons. It reached 632,000
tons in 1890, and the stimulus of the "free sugar" schedule of the United
States brought it, in the next few years, to more than a million tons.
Production in recent years has averaged about 2,500,000 tons.

In forty years, only a little more than a single generation, the world's
supply of sugar has been multiplied by five, from a little more than three
million tons a year to nearly eighteen million tons. The total world output
in 1875 would not today supply the demand of the United States alone.
This increase in production has been made possible by improvements in the
methods and the machinery of manufacture. Until quite recently, primitive
methods were employed, much like those used in the production of maple
sugar on the farm, although on larger scale. More attention has been paid
to varieties of the plant and some, though no very great, change has been
made in field processes. In Cuba, the cane is planted in vast areas, in
thousands of acres. Some of the estates plant and cultivate their
own fields, and grind the cane in their own mills. Others, known as
"_colonos_," are planters only, the crop being sold to the mills commonly
called "_centrales_." In its general appearance, a field of sugar-cane
looks quite like a field of corn, but the method of