162 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



June 1. 1918. 



the sugar-cane gi'ower was content tor long to continue 

 to combine the functions of grower and manufacturer 

 in one; to make no attempt to grow more or richer 

 canes, and to make sugar of most inferior quality. 

 It is not to be wondered at that the pure white 

 crystallized beet sugar was preferred by the consumer 

 to the dark muscovado laden with impurities. This 

 •condition has been changed in recent times. The or- 

 ganization of the sugar industry — though by no means 

 perfect — has in most of these islands led to the 

 establishment of central tactories, which supply the 

 sugar market with a standard product of approved 

 excellence, while the planter directs his attention — 

 with marked good results — to the production of more 

 sugar per acre by improved methods of cultivation, and 

 the employment of better varieties of cane. 



For the future stability of the cane-sugar industry 

 in these islands it would seem that better organization 

 must be arranged in the second direction. The labour 

 supply of almost all these islands is very limited. The 

 cultivation of sugar-cane and its manufacture have not 

 hitherto seemed able to afford suthcient attraction to 

 the working classes to retain them permanently; they 

 emigrate, as is well known, in large numbers of the 

 most industrious type. How to remedy this i.s 

 a problem to be faced. The present high prices of 

 food have called for, and the high price of sugar has 

 permitted, a substantial rise in the labourers' wages on 

 sugar plantations. That, however, is not enough, for the 

 high price of the product will not continue indefinitely, 



. and wages cannot be reduced without dissatisfaction. 

 There must be organization between the employer an<l 

 labourer to attain more production per man, thus 

 enabling each man to obtain rightfully more pay- 



■ Just as the employer must remember that he ought 

 to give 'a f'lir day's wage,' so the labourer must 

 recognize that he must give 'a fair day's work.' One 



■wonders whether after all some system of organized 

 profit-sharing is not the panacea which Maurice and 

 Kingsley believed it to be. 



The more advanced experience of industrial 

 countries shows that little is to be hoped from merely 

 moral suasion on either side. There must be either the 

 compulsion of necessity or a community of interest. 



The former is the basis of the present system, and 

 k may be possible to continue it, in the face of a reduc- 

 tion of the working population, by the better 

 organization of work and more extended use of agricul- 

 tural machinery. The development of mechanical 

 power has been the means by which prosperity has 

 bi en achieved in every modern miinufacturing industry. 



It does not in itself remove the labour difficulty, but it 

 postpones it, and by the economits it permits, affords 

 a margin which is wisely used if it is applied to make 

 the conditions of the worker more attracr.ive. The 

 attention of economists is at f)resent hopefully turned 

 towards the effort.s of enlightened employers in this 

 direction, in which a degree of success has been 

 achieved which, to many at lea-^t was unexpected. It 

 is admittedly difficult, in an indu-^ry which not so very 

 long ago was based on slavery, to adopt this point of 

 view, but there is no other of which we are aware that 

 offers the same prospects of either sound commercial 

 prosperity or social amelioration. 



The cane-sugar industry in those islands is, with 

 the exception of the lime indnstr*', the only one in 

 which the manu Picturing of the marketable article is 

 carried out locally. The other agricultural industries 

 are concerned with the growth and exuortation of raw 

 products. In such the correlation of the grower and 

 manufacturer seems to be the desirable aim of 

 organization. 



In a recent editorial of this Journal the advantages 

 which the cacao planters would derive from organized 

 attention to the requirements of the CDCoa manufacturers 

 were pointed out, and therefore need not be repeated 



Such advantages have already accrued in the case 

 of the cotton industry in several of these islands from 

 organization in the direction of finding out what 

 the spinners chiefly require in cotton, and then 

 combining to supply them with a dependable supply of 

 the desired material. 



A narrow but to .some extent current view of the 

 function of agricultural departments in these islands 

 has been that they exist to give advice to the cultivator 

 regarding his cultivation. This they will no doubt con- 

 tinue to do where it seems to be re<juired. But a more 

 important duty is the adjustment of the quality 6f the 

 raw material produced in the tropics to the require- 

 ments of the industries dependent on them. This may 

 be achieved, to mention some of the means, by the 

 improvement of ciop plants, by seeij supply, by edu3a- 

 tion in the requirements of the market, and by the 

 promotion of co-operation among growers. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CUBAN 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



When Ibi! industrial lii^tery of ihe West Indies comes 

 to be written, it will not fail In be noted that the cultivation 

 of the sugar-cann has been one of ilie chief fsotors in the 

 fluctuations of pro.sperily which t'cy have experienced. 



