pEBRUARy I, 1884.) THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



SOS 



SUGAR CULTURE IN BRAZIL— AND IN 

 CEYLON ? 

 In placing the following translation before our 

 readers, we would attract attention to the fact that 

 a densily varying from S° to 10° Beaumfi is ealculattd 

 on in regard to tlie juice of the sugarcanes grown in 

 Brazil, Who will try experiments with the juice of 

 Ceylon-grown canes ? * Could the industry be resuscit- 

 ated here, sugar culture much more than that of 

 tea would give occupation to small farmers ingrowing 

 produce for central factories, for canes would not suffer 

 from handling, transport, delay and possible putre- 

 faction as tea leaves might. It will be seen that 

 the Company, of which " Senhor Scott-Blacklaw " is 

 Manager, have contracted to pay.Hs per ton for caue. 

 But this, no doubt, means on delivery at the mill. 

 In the Mackay District iu Queensland, the usual 

 payment to growers of cane is 10s per ton, on the field, 

 the purchaser cutting and carting away the canes. 

 The average yield being about 30 tons per acre, this 

 means a gross revenue of £15 per acre, of which 

 we should think that one-half is clear profit : saj 

 £7 10s per acre, which for 50 acres in cane would 

 mean £375 net income, and for 100 acres £750. As 

 we remarked the ether day, enormous changes and 

 advances have been made in the manufacture of 

 sugar within the past third of a century, and it is 

 possible that now sugar could be grown and made to 

 pay in Ceylon. An account of the general experience 

 of the Baddegama estates and mills would be valuable. 



(Translation from /or. do Commercio, 30th Nov. 1883.) 



Mr. Scott-Blacklaw, the representative of the "Kio 

 de Janeiro Central Sugar Factories Company,'' has 

 just submitted for the approval of Covernment the 

 plans, estimates and designs of appliances, as well as 

 a description of the processes for manufacturing sugar, 

 and the contracts entered into with the fanners for 

 the supply of cane to the central factories which 

 the said Company has to establisli in their muni- 

 cipalities, both of which are in the province of liio 

 de Jaiieiro. 



In the first of these townships, the Company has 

 got contracts made for furnishing annually 21,250 

 metrical tons (1.000 kilos per ton) for the price of 

 seven milreis per ton (equal to 14s English), calc- 

 ulating that the saccharine density be 8° Beaume as 

 a minimum ; in the second 16 090 tuns is contracted 

 for at the same price. 



The factory at Araruama will have the necessai-y 

 capacity for gi-inding 240 tons of cane every 24 hours ; 

 and if the juice has a density of 10° Beaume, this 

 at 124 tons of cane to the ton of sugar will be 20 

 tons of sugar per day.+ The factory at Mangaratiba 

 will gi-ind 160 tons of cane per day, and with cane 

 jiiice at the same density will produce 13 tons of 

 siigar per day. 



The representative of the Company, Senhor Scott- 

 BlaSklaw, expects that by August the factory at 

 Araruama will be in active operation, and that at 

 Mangaratiba by December next year (1SS4). 



1 he appliances, we are assured, are of the most per- 

 fect kind, and are ordered from the Scottish engineer- 

 ing firm of Dak Brothers, Kirkxildy, Scotland. 



The Agricultural Railways will have a gauge of 



» Mr. Curtis' letter reached us after the above was 

 written.— Ed. 



_ t A return of one ton of sugar from fifteen of caue 

 16 the usual average in Queensland.— En. 

 76 



82 centiynetres (32J English inches), and the Company 

 expects that it will be able to run two trains per 

 week between lyuaha-grande and St. ri?tcenle de 

 Paul for the transport of passengers and goods. 

 These will run regularly in connection ivith the local 

 service of steamers in the Araruama lake. 



We are informed that in Mangaratiba, the weakest 

 of these two townships in the supply of cane, there 

 are extensive waste lands well adapted for the cultiv- 

 ation of this graminea, and that private owners have 

 large tracts uncultivated and disappropriated. This 

 point appears to us well worthy of being enquired 

 into. If there exist zones of Goverament land in 

 Mangaratiba, the sale of these after dividing them out 

 in lots will be profitable to the State, and time ougiit 

 not_ to be lost in establishing both European and 

 national colonies on these lands, whether thej' (the 

 lands) belong to the State or to private individuals. 

 Without entering into the question of the mistakes 

 made in some instances in managing colonization, here 

 is a case that will soon pay its original cost. If it 

 were possible to locate a few hundreds of these 

 families before or as soon as the sugar factory com- 

 mences operations, they would supply to the enter- 

 prize what it requires, and the produce would find 

 at once a market. 



One of the founders of the large factory at Quissa- 

 man (in the Province of Rio de Janeiro) announces 

 the fact that around the factory, as a natural con- 

 sequence of the division of labour (the factory taking 

 the cane from the farmer as soon as he deposits it by 

 the side of the Agricultural Railway), there had 

 sprung up an agriculture quite suited to the small 

 farmer. If we require official testimony to this grateful 

 fact, it would not be possible to desire one more en- 

 thusiastic and valuable than that of our late Minister 

 of Agriculture, Buarque de Mecede. 



The territorial conditions favouring the expansion 

 of agi-iculture iu the hands of small farmers in the 

 district of Mangaratiba, it will be quite inexcusable 

 if the colonial system is there left undeveloped, since 

 the setting up of a central factory there will be the 

 means of the products of the soil being profitably 

 utilized. 



In this case nothing else requires to be done but 

 to mark off the land available for colonists, reserving 

 what may be required for public uses, and show us 

 the establishment of a colony in a few months, the 

 land being sold in lots. The expenditure on such 

 work w-ill reproduce itself in a very short time, for the 

 colonists will soon see themselves iu a position to 

 pay back what may have been advanced them, the 

 production of the district will be increased, not only 

 will there be created a tributable material for the 

 State, but the latter will be recompen.sed for the risk 

 it may have nin in guaranteeing interest to such 

 enterprizes. The State will run no rc-sponsibility, and 

 the factory will have soon to increase its capacity. 



We need not say anything on spontaneous immigra 

 tion. We think that an immigi-ation entirely abandoned 

 to itself, without any true course, without any north, 

 without any aid that can serve for its guide and 

 protection, is not suited for a countiy situated like 

 ours, and we do not know of a sii.iilar system in 

 any other country under the same conditions. To 

 direct a current of men, we must dj as we would 

 with a current of water, we must hew out a channel. 



COFFEE AND CHICOi;Y. 



An interesting lecture has been recently delivered 

 on " Coffee and Tea," by Dr. G. V. Booie, Vice-Chair- 

 man of the Council of the Parkes' Museum. 



The dietetic value of coffee, in the cpiuion of this 

 .authority, is of a high order, and parti ulais are fur- 

 nished with regard to the preparation ol this delight- 



