92 The Sugar Cane. [JULY, 



are liable to objections on account of the great risk of derangement of the 

 apparatus in a country where engineers are not very numerous., and where 

 few, if any, can lay claim to much ingenuity ; this circumstance together 

 with the general carelessness of West Indian labourers, renders it abso- 

 lutely necessary that every improvement should be recommended by the 

 simplicity of its machinery. Amongst those for regulating the boiling 

 process, the patent of Messrs. Beale and Porter seems least liable to ob- 

 jection ; and that of Mr. John Hague, (now the property of John Innes> 

 Esq.,) for expelling molasses from sugar by an atmospheric pressure 

 has been partially introduced in Grenada, Demerara, &c. with very con- 

 siderable advantage. We happen to have seen both in operation, and 

 consider them, although perhaps susceptible of further improvement- 

 well worthy the attention of every scientific planter. 



The author has collected much interesting information regarding the 

 culture of sugar and the very imperfect mode of manufacturing it in 

 India. An expedient for protecting the cane during high winds is to bind 

 several of them together with their own leaves (p. 216). One part of the 

 process for whitening in India is rather repugnant to the taste of the peo- 

 ple of this county namely, " the sugar is spread on a piece of course 

 canvass in the sun, where it is trodden by people with their naked feet, 

 till all the lumps are broken, and the grain of the sugar appears white 

 and smooth, which will in a great measure be in proportion to the time 

 and labour bestowed upon it." (p. 226.) 



It appears from the most authentic statements " that in every particu- 

 lar connected with the manufacture of sugar, our West India Colonists 

 are very greatly in advance of the agriculturists of the East, whose pro- 

 cesses are at once less productive and more laborious than those employed 

 in the West Indies : disadvantages which can only be met by the com- 

 parative cheapness of labour, arising out of the stale of oppression and 

 abject poverty in which the miserable peasantry of India are kept." 



We are far from attributing this state of misery to the Company's 

 government. We believe it arises entirely out of the inveterate and 

 unchangeable superstitions and civil institutions of the country. 



The culture of the sugar-cane, and manufacture of sugar, is carried ta 

 a considerable extent in Java, China, and various eastern countries. The 

 immense increase, of late years, in Mauritius, owing to the employment 

 of English capital and improved machinery, is a proof that it might be 

 produced by the application of similar means in the eastern world, in any 

 requisite quantity. " In a report made by Major Moody, which was 

 printed by order of the House of Commons in February, 1826, there is a 

 statement of the comparative number of days' labour required in dif- 

 ferent countries, for the production of equal quantities of sugar, viz. 



In Guiana 206 days. 



Barbadoes 406 



Tortola 653 



Bengal . ... 1200" 



The wages paid to labourers in India are said not to exceed iwopence- 

 halfpcnny per diem ! 



" On the art of refining sugar," and on " patents for improvements" 

 in that art, there is much interestiug information ; but our limits do not 

 permit us to go into that part of the subject. 



The distillation of rum is closely allied to the manufacture of sugar. 

 In the work before us the utensils and process are fully described, and 



