44 TROPICAL NATURE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 



quality with far less labour and expense, because no 

 manure and no cultivation would be required, and the 

 land will never be impoverished as it so rapidly becomes 

 by the growth of sugar-cane. The reason of this 

 difference is, that the whole produce of a cane-field is 

 taken off the ground, the crushed canes being burnt ; 

 and the soil thus becomes exhausted of the various 

 salts and minerals which form part of the woody fibre 

 and foliage. These must be restored by the application 

 of manure, and this, together with the planting, weeding, 

 and necessary cultivation, is very expensive. With the 

 sugar-palm, however, nothing whatever is taken away 

 but the juice itself ; the foliage falls on -the ground and 

 rots, giving back to it what it had taken; and the 

 water and sugar in the juice being almost wholly 

 derived from the carbonic acid and aqueous vapour 

 of the atmosphere, there is no impoverishment ; and a 

 plantation of these palms may be kept up on the same 

 ground for an indefinite period. Another most impor- 

 tant consideration is, that these trees will grow on poor 

 rocky soil and on the steep slopes of ravines and hill- 

 sides where any ordinary cultivation is impossible, and 

 a great extent of fertile land would thus be set free for 

 other purposes. Yet further, the labour required for 

 such sugar plantations as these would be of a light and 

 intermittent kind, exactly suited to a semi-civilized people 

 to whom severe and long- continued labour is never 

 congenial. This combination of advantages appears to 

 be so great, that it seems possible that the sugar of the 

 world may in the future be produced from what would 

 otherwise be almost waste ground ; and it is to be hoped 

 that the experiment will soon be tried in some of our 



