SECOND EDITION. XXXUJ 



" A gentleman of Montserat had some plants given to him 

 by Monsieur Pinnel, one of the most considerable planters of 

 Guadaloupe, who told him he had, in the preceding year, 

 1792, in which an exceeding great drought had prevailed, 

 planted, amongst a large field of the island-canes, half an acre 

 of these; that the want of rain, and the borer, had damaged 

 the former so much, that he could not make sugar from them, 

 but the latter had produced him three hogsheads. 



" In the spring of this year, 1794, a trial was made of the 

 Malabar canes on one of my plantations; 160 bunches from 

 holes of five feet square were cut, they produced upwards of 

 350 Ibs. of very good sugar; the juice came into sugar in the 

 teache in much less time than is usually required for that of 

 the other canes, and threw up very little scum. The produce 

 was in the proportion of 3,500 Ibs. to an acre; the weather 

 had then been so very dry, and the borer so destructive, that 

 I am sure no one part of that plantation would have yielded 

 above half that quantity from the other canes, in the same 

 space of ground. We had not then the benefit of the new 

 invented clarifiers, which, though imported, had not been fix- 

 ed up for want of time. 



" The French complain that these canes do not yield a suf- 

 ficient quantity of field trash, to boil rhe juice into sugar; to 

 this, and to their never throwing up an arrow, I think their 

 superior size may in good measure be attributed. This in- 

 convenience may be obviated, by the substitution of coals; 

 and the increased quantity of the cane trash, which their mag- 

 nitude will furnish, (and which we reckon the richest manure 

 we have, when properly prepared), will well indemnify the ex- 

 pense of firing, 



" The Batavia canes are a deep purple on the outside; they 

 grow short jointed, and small in circumference, but bunch ex- 

 ceedingly, and vegetate so quick, that they spring up from the 

 plant in one-third the time those of our island do; the joints, 

 soon after they form, all burst longitudinally. They have the 

 appearance of being very hardy, and bear dry weather well ; 



Vol. I. e 



