May I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



9°5 



in reality due to endless other influences. But even 

 trade depressions, bad seiisons, and over-stocking of markets 

 have not always so much effect as new developments of 

 manufacture; aud this is a class of influence altogether 

 ignored. Demerara crystals constitute one signal aud 

 important instance of this cla^s. The planters here have . 

 devised a system which supplies the English market 

 with a raw sugar fit to go into English consumption 

 mthout further refining. ^\'e have thu.s a sugar under 

 the very cheapest of conditions, and dii'ectly competing 

 on the very breakfast-table with other sugars the result 

 of extensive sugar growing operations in one part of 

 the world, and extensive sugar refining operations in 

 another part of the world. The English makers cf this 

 particidar class of refined sugar — of crystals — whether in 

 Bristol or in Glasgow, will, by degrees, accumidate ex- 

 perience sufiicient enough to accept this fact, and no 

 longer go wailing the country over that French sugar 

 bounties alone have ruined their business. 



But if Demerara crystals are thus indictable for in- 

 fluences hitherto attributable solely to bounties, these 

 crystals are acting most prejudicially on these obnoxious 

 bounties themselves. It is not merely a matter of sup- 

 plyuig sugar at the cheapest scientific cost, but a system 

 is now being inti-oduced here, the "AVeinrich" system, 

 which puts in the market what is practically a Loaf-sugar. 

 Aud, as we are told that loaf sugar has almost enturely 

 gone out in England, this is an item of news of signific- 

 ant interest to our bounty-fed continental competitors. 

 There is thus much reason for detailing the present 

 condition and the prospects of the sugar industry in this 

 thriving colony. 



British Guiana is a business-like colony. Others, envious 

 of its success, term it the "mud-colouy." But this "mud" 

 is the staple basis of its high prosperity. It is reported 

 to be "an alluvial deposit composed chiefly of blue clay, 

 impregnated with submarine salt and rich in decomposed 

 vegetable matter." This mud extends far; the great 

 majority of the 70,000 acres planted \vith sugar cane are 

 actually below the level of the sea, fenced round and 

 about with sea-walls and tlams, and yieldmg an area of 

 soil, all alluvial, for 100 feet in tlepth, that is practically 

 inexhaustible, and yet most easily worked. The area, so 

 utilised, is comparatively a mere strip along the coast, 

 reaching never more than a few miles mland, to the 

 belt of "tropical forest" which interposes the barrier of 

 a soil that is nothing else but a loose piling up of veget- 

 able th'hri^, nowhere sufficiently compressed to be even 

 good peat. But beyond this, again, when higher land is 

 reached up the rivers, there are reports of experimental 

 yields of enormous growth; of sugar-cane attaining a cir- 

 cumstaupf of seven inches. Only to utilise this alluvial 

 area considerable capital has been needed; £80,000 for a 

 sea-waU on one single estate was considered a mere 

 incidental expense. But this habitual investing of capital 

 has. in the course of years, produced an artificial sugar- 

 growing area that gives facihties for the production of 

 sugar that must strike dismay into the hearts of Beet 

 sugar-growers. 



It mil be valuable briefly to point out the advantages 

 enjoyed here in the different processes by which .sugar- 

 cane is transformed into sugar fit for the table. First, 

 then, m regard to the growing of the cane itself, it is 

 found that the variety of cane has far less to do with 

 the percentage of sugar yielded than the soil and mode 

 of tillage, combined with the season. The question of 

 water is being here set to rights by an elaborate system 

 of drainage, which, as it becomes realised, so lessens 

 consiilerably the cost of cultivation. Even now fresh 

 water is always to be had in sufficient quantities. As a 

 sign of the progi'ess and improvement in this direction, 

 it may be well to notice that, by skilful levelling, natural 

 drainage has been in gi-eat measure to supersede pump- 

 ing — a task of no little expense where neither coal nor 

 labor is cheap. Most estates lie between the high and 

 the low water level, and this substitution has been highly 

 feasible. It has been estimated that on some estates this 

 sub.stitutiou of natural for artificial drainage has reduced 

 the cost of producing a ton of sugar by no less than £2. 

 But, besides this, these irrigation schemes have aided in 

 developing the system of water carriage, which already 

 forms the main feature of every estate in this colony 



Small canals regularly intersect the cane fields, and on 

 these ply light barges towed by mules. 



The (juestion of tillage has been gone into with corre- 

 sponding vigor. Plough and spade work and every dreamt- 

 of system of drainage or ridging have had due attention 

 paid to them. The general result has been a very heavy 

 crop of crystalhsable sugar per acre, which is transferred 

 cheaply and readily by this water carriage to the works; 

 and nearly all these works are connected by further 

 irrigation outlets with the shipping in the ports. 



The works themselves ai-e of remarkable magnitude and 

 finish. The plant and machinery actually in work boast 

 a present value for the whole colony pf not less than 

 £2,000,111.10, and the various processes fall nothing short 

 of the most advanced discoveries of the day — even to 

 the apphcation of the electric hght, should night work 

 be desirable. After this scientific cidtivation and scientific 

 hauling there remain those great divisions of process 

 before sugar in the cane becomes sugar on the table, and 

 hi each of these British Guiana exhibits a height of science 

 rarely attained elsewhere. 



Considerable improvement has of late taken place in 

 the extracting of sugar from the cane. In 100 parts of 

 cane there are, on the average, 17 pai-ts of saccharine 

 matter. By the common method of extracting tliis the 

 cane is crushed between heavy rollers, and most of the 

 saccharine matter squeezed out in a juice or sjtuj). This 

 was long thought the oidy possible process, thought it was 

 well known that eight to ten of these original parts of 

 saccharine matter remained a fixtiu-e hi the cane. West 

 Indian planters have to thank the much-abused bounties 

 for discovering a remedy for this evil. The excise tax on 

 beet sugar in Austria was levied on the amount of sugar 

 a ton of beet coidd yield by crushing; this was, say, five 

 parts in every himtlred. The drawback system paid to the 

 refiner the amount of this excise tax on every five parts 

 per hundred he exported. He thus secured back the amount 

 he had paid away, but he found enormous profits in the 

 substitution of other methods which obtained from the 

 beet more parts of sugar than the five he could get by 

 crushing. He found that if, instead of crusliing and squeez- 

 ing, he simply sliced his beet and allowed it to become 

 well steeped m warm water, he extracted from the beet 

 12 of the 13 parts of saccharine matter in each 100. Cane- 

 growers "have not yet adopted generally any actual 

 "duffusion" process, the only difficulty that yet retards 

 such action being the difficulty of cutting up the cane. 

 But they have adopted in Demerara an intermediate pro- 

 cess, known as "maceration," by which the cane, after 

 one severe crushing, is passed over steam, grailually in- 

 creasing to a heat of 180 deg. Fahrenheit, It is then 

 crushed again, and, iu the end, it has yielded up in the 

 various processes 15, at least of the 17 parts of sacchar- 

 ine matter it originally contained. The exact results of 

 this process are, however, in debate, and more important 

 even than these is the question of pounds, .shillings and 

 pence. Does this extra yield of a few parts of sugar repay 

 the extra expenditm-e in plant, machinery, fuel, labor, and 

 time? It is also asserted that the cane-refuse, after this 

 double crushing, is greatly deteriorated in value as fuel; 

 and m many works this refuse or megass, is the sole 

 fuel used in boiling the sugar. 



It is, however, not at all improbable that the diffusion 

 process, pm-e and simple, may in the futvu-e sepersede 

 both the crushing and the "maceration" processes. The 

 only difficulty is the dividing the cane into layers suffici- 

 ently thin for each sugar-holding all to come into open 

 contact with the water. This being accomplished, the 

 cane is automatically soaked in sixteen fresh liquors for 

 ten mirmtes, each soaking in water gradually rising to a 

 temperature of 180 deg. Fahrenheit. The machinery 

 necessary is not e.vpcnsive, no steam power is requu-ed 

 and the proportion.al amount of labor is largely reduced 

 — a fact of the first importance in the AVest Indies. There 

 is no doubt that if diffusion can be applied to cjime more 

 generally, it will agam considerably lower the cost of 

 production, even to the extent of one-third, if we are to 

 believe that it woidd free for clarifjing si.xteen of the 

 seventeen parts of sacch.arine matter, only eight or nine 

 of which are obtained by the crushing process. 



The question of labor — the greatest of questions in the 

 AVest Indian colonies — has been settled more or lees satis- 



