9o6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May I, 1883. 



factorily in British Giiiana by the instrumentality of a 

 vigorous immigaration system. This has not ouiy supplied 

 numbers, but variety; and the consequence is that, with 

 nationality to set off agaiust another, not only is there a 

 potential incentive to all to work, but there comes to 

 e>dst a considerable natiu-al guarantee against riot and 

 labor troubles of all sorts. 'With all these advantages — of 

 tillage, of labor, and of invested capital — the planters here 

 have thus been enabled to produce sugar on a system 

 secure against competition elsewhere. We have spoken of 

 the merits of their method of growing cane and of ex- 

 tracting the sugar; they are equally successful in the con- 

 verting of this rude saccharine matter into portable raw 

 sugar ; and, further, in refining this again into edible sugar. 

 The ordinary boiling-down process is finished off by means 

 of the vacuum pan, and much of the sugar so finished passes 

 through the centrifugal machine, and reaches the home 

 market to be put directly on the table of the consumer, 

 to the great con,sternation of many of our English refiners. 

 In British Guiana the cost of producmg sugar — inclusive, 

 that is, of the capital invested in machinei-y, in laud, in 

 stores, and of the money expended in labor, superintend- 

 ence, and so forth — varies, of course, \vith the particular 

 kind of sugar turned out in the works. There are common- 

 process raw sugars that fetch £20 in the English market, 

 and there are the best Demerara Crystals, the home price 

 of which often approaches £30 the ton. The cost of pro- 

 duction in the colony varies, with the kind of sugar 

 produced, from £S up to £16 the ton. The cost of 

 transference to the English market need never exceed £4. 

 It is certain that beet growers can never destroy the 

 facilities which nature here offers for the production of 

 sugar. There are, of course, great risks here, and the 

 capital invested is great, and some account has to be 

 taken of a dim consciousness that, as Avith cotton and 

 coffee — which were years ago at successive periods the 

 great articles of export — so the day may come when cane 

 sugar shall no longer be exported at a profit, and all 

 capital fixed in machinery and so forth will be sacrificed 

 altogether. But, nevertheless, for the present, with its 

 large espenthture, its large outi^ut, and large profits, the 

 industry of j sugar-growing in British Guiana has, it would 

 seem, attained to a scientific thoroughue.ss which will 

 enable it to outlast any temporary obstacles or compet- 

 ition whatever. — Produce Marl'eVs Review. 



COFFEE CULTIVATION IN EEEBICE, 50 YEARS 

 AGO. 



BY ALEXANDER WINTER. 



Although there is no coffee estate now in Berbice, and 

 has not been for many years past, yet coffee cultivation 

 was at one time a very important industrj' here, eveu more 

 BO than sugar. At the time of the junction of the colony 

 of Berbice with tliose of Demerara and Essequibo, forming 

 the miited colony of British Guiaua, which was in 1831, there 

 were in full operation in Berbice 31 sugar estates, 40 cof- 

 fee estates, and 8 cotton estates. Of the 40 coffee estates, 17 

 were situated on the right bank of the Berbice river, 17 on 

 the left bank, and 6 in Cauje. 



These were owned partly by resident proprietors, living on 

 their own e.states such as the late Wolfart Katz, Esquire, 

 said to have been the most extensive resident proprietor in 

 the AVest Indies,* partly by English merchants residing in 

 London or Liverpool, and partly by Dutch merchants resid- 

 ing in Amsterdam and represented by Dutch planters living 

 in Berbice 



The history of some of these estates is rather curious. 

 Several of them were owned by the once well-known Paul 

 Beufield, a large capitalist, tlie Eothchild of his day, who 

 negotiated loans for Governments, and had advanced large 

 sums to the French Government in the time of the Bour- 



* Mr. Katz Uved in a fine mansion on his Plantation 

 Vryheid, a coffee estate near New Amsterdam ; besides 

 which he was sole owner of Plantations Philadelpliia, Ge- 

 broeders, S'Gravinhague, Cotton Tree, and Belarr or Num- 

 ber six, on all of winch there were large gangs of negros. 

 Although the compensation ;illowed by Government at the 

 time of emancipation, was only Ss. in the £ on the o.])- 

 praised value of the property taken, Katz's share of this 

 was over £63,i50O sterling. 



bons. "When France became a Republic after the revolution 

 of 'i)2, these claims were repudiated ; and Paul Beufield is 

 said to have died a pauper ! At the restoration of the 

 Monarchy however, after the battle of Waterloo, Benfield's 

 claim was acknowledged and honestly paid with interest, 

 and his family then became very wealthy. Two of the heir- 

 esses married members of the Berkeley family, who thus 

 became connected with this colony as owners of what were 

 called the " Benfield's estate." These consisted of plant- 

 ations Ediidturyh, Glasgow, li'elgelegen, Ucntelliny, jVew 

 TVelgelegen, Belmont, Union. Monchoisi, Zeelught and Edder- 

 ton, — in all 6,655 acres. They were not very thriving estates, 

 and Grantley Berkeley, one of the parties interested, u.sed 

 sometimes to get up in Parliament and asked the Colonial 

 Minister how it was, " that he got such small returns from 

 his estates iji the West Indies." These estates have all now 

 been out of cultivation for many years ; and the laud has 

 been sold to villagers ! 



AVhat were called the " Dutch estates" were mostly iu the 

 possession of large mercantile house iu Amsterdam such as 

 Waterloo & Co., Charbon and Zoon, and Westerick and 

 Poole, who held the titles of the estates in their own 

 names and administered them through the agency of thtir 

 attorneys in the colony. They also shipped all the stores 

 and supplies for the estates in their own vessels, which also 

 carried home the crops, which were kept on hand till one 

 of the Dutch ships arrived ; for the crops were bound to 

 be shiijped to Holland, and in Dutch bottoms. These 

 Dutch ships were very awkward clumsy looking vessels, 

 high at the how and stem and low in the middle. They 

 were not very fast sailors, hut very safe. 



Although the merchants of Amsterdam had the entii-e 

 charge of the Dutch coffee estates in their hands, they 

 were not really the owners ; for these wore owned in 

 shares which were transferable and could be bought and 

 sold on the exchange, like shares in any company. This 

 practice is reviving in the colony, several large estates in 

 Demerara being now owned iu transferable share on the 

 old system. This has probably been adopted in con- 

 sequence of the peculiar and inconvenient Dutch law of 

 inheritance. 



These estates were conducted on a different system 

 from the EngU.sh estates. The managers received very 

 small money salaries, but it was made up to them iu other 

 ways. For instauce, their houses were furnished for 

 them, and they were allowed a small share of the plan- 

 tains, rice, salt-fish, tobacco, &c., seut to the estates for 

 the people : then they could help themselves to the osua- 

 burges, saiemporas drill, &c., shipped from Holland for 

 the same purpose, and have them made up into clotliiug 

 by the house servants : so that they liad very httle to 

 buy, and were very comfortably oft' ; besides which, the 

 Dutch ships when they came in always brought the re- 

 sident managers and attorneys supphes of schiedam, 

 claret, hqueui-s and other good things for the table. On 

 aU of these the merchants in Amsterdam had their com- 

 mission. 



All the coffee estates were pleasant places to visit. The 

 managers generally had a good deal of leisure time on 

 their- hands. They kept nice gardens, and had abundance 

 of vegetables and fruit to spare ; the hedges were neatly 

 trimmed ; and atogether these surroundings were very 

 picturesque and attractive, 



The cultivation of the coffee was a kind of gardening, 

 a»d consisted of weeding between the coffee-bushes, and 

 trimming the old branches so as to promote the growth 

 of new wood, from which alone fruit was to be expected. 

 The coffee was planted under the shades of tall trees called 

 in Berbice Saud-Cokers, in Demerara Oronoque-trees, and 

 botanically erytUrina crystayalli. 



Coffee, at the best is a very uncertain crop. It requires 

 peculiar weather; a spell of dry weather to check the growth 

 followed by copious rains to bring out the blossom. If in- 

 stead of this there were continual showers when the 

 trees were " working," as it was called, the result was a 

 development of leaf, instead of flower buds ; and there was 

 no crop. 



Were all things favourable, and there were signs of a good 

 blossom, the news soon spread throughout the colony, and 

 all parties connected with coffee estates were astir, and eager 

 to go and witness the " coffee blossom." It whs best seen iu 

 the early morning, before the sun was high, and you had 

 to start at a very early hour. Some euthusiafltic planters 



