Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Rearing Of Cattle Was Succeeded By The
Cultivation Of Tobacco And The Rearing Of Bees, Of Which The First
Hives (Colmenares) Were Brought From The Floridas.
Wax and tobacco
soon became more important objects of commerce than leather, but were
shortly superseded in their turn by the sugar-cane and coffee.
The
cultivation of these productions did not exclude more ancient
cultivation; and, in the different phases of agricultural industry,
notwithstanding the general tendency to make the coffee plantations
predominate, the sugar-houses furnish the greatest amount in the
annual profits. The exportation of tobacco, coffee, sugar and wax, by
lawful and illicit means, amounts to fourteen millions of piastres,
according to the actual price of those articles.
Three qualities of sugar are distinguished in the island of Cuba,
according to the degree of purity attained by refining (grados de
purga). In every loaf or reversed cone the upper part yields the white
sugar; the middle part the yellow sugar, or quebrado; and the lower
part, or point of the cone, the cucurucho. All the sugar of Cuba is
consequently refined; a very small quantity is introduced of coarse or
muscovado sugar (by corruption, azucar mascabado). The forms being of
a different size, the loaves (panes) differ also in weight. They
generally weigh an arroba after refining. The refiners (maestros de
azucar) endeavour to make every loaf of sugar yield five-ninths of
white, three-ninths of quebrado, and one-ninth of cucurucho. The price
of white sugar is higher when sold alone than in the sale called
surtido, in which three-fifths of white sugar and two-fifths of
quebrado are combined in the same lot.
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