November i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



^7 



TROPICAL CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND: 

 THE SUGAR ENTERPKIZE THERE 

 AND IN CEYLON. 

 Before taking up our specific subject, we may ad- 

 vert to and discuss today the Governor's suggestion, in 

 his Speecli to the Legislative Council, of tlie possible 

 revival of sugar cultivation on a large scale in Cey- 

 lon, aud the remarks of a correspondent on the subject. 

 Our impression always has been that the sugar enterprize 

 in Ceylon failed, not liecause the soil and climate were 

 not equal to the prodiiction of crops . of luxuriant 

 cane, but because the proportion of saccharine matter 

 in the canes produced was so small in proportion to 

 the watery moisture as to render manufacture un- 

 profitable : often unpossible. We remember seeing a 

 Mr. Allan in the neighbourhood of Negombo, ladling 

 up a mass of bubbling molasses-looking stuflf from a 

 cauldron, and declaring, in a tone of despair that, boil 

 as he would. 



Double, double, toil and trouble, 

 Fii-e boil and cauldron bubble, 

 he could not get the sugai-cane juice to gi-anulate. 

 That, we believe was, more or less the reason why all 

 the plantations, from the Dumbera one on which the 

 late Mr. R. B. Tytler began life in Ceylon, on to the 

 close of the late Lord Elphinstone's persevering 

 efforts at Paraduwa were abandoned, — as sugar 

 plantations. It is very tiiie that all was not failure. 

 We well remember Mr. MacGregor, who managed 

 Lord Elphinstone's place (now Likely to be a success 

 with such "now products" as Liberian coffee, cocoa, 

 tea, etc.,) bringing a loaf of refined sugar to the 

 Observer Office, such as could scarcely be excelled. 

 But mere occasional successes, due, perhaps, to 

 abnonnally dry seasons, did not enable the 

 •nterprize to pay, and so sugar plantations and 

 manufactories with their expensive machineiy, were 

 abandoned, all but tliat on which some of the earliest 

 experiments were made, by the late Mr. George 

 Whiter and continued by his son-ui-law, Mr. Bownnau, 

 in the vaUey of the Baddegama or Gintara river, 

 above Galle. The near contiguity of tliis estate (formed 

 maudy of paddy lands), to a steady market for the 

 inferior kinds of sugar, amongst the shipping 

 resorting to Galle, was m the early stages much 

 in its favour, and before Mr. Bowman's lamented 

 death he felt encouraged to import improved appli- 

 ances, the results of which are tlie fine crystals now 

 for sale in the local markets. But altliough the local 

 markets — first of Galle aud then of Colombo, 

 — have suificed to support tlie comparatively 

 limited experiment at Baddegama, it is clear 

 that operations on a more extended scale could 

 only command success by the growers being able to 

 compete in the markets of the world with the sugars 

 grown on volcanic deltas and m deep rich alluvials 

 in Cuba, Jamaica, Java, Demerara, Mauritius, and otiier 

 moi'c favoured countries. What the Ceylon rivers 

 wash down in the shape of mineral matter is mainly 

 disintegrated gneiss, and the alluvial matter, apart 

 from the decayed vegetatiou whicli it contains, is fertile 

 mainly because of the influence of tropical heat aud 

 hea\-y rainfall. It will grow luxuriant crops of stalks 

 and leave ;, but after a few crops are removed, its 

 power to mature fruit or to elaborate saccharine 

 matter is largely exhausted. Fertilizing substances 

 must then be apiilied and the ([ucstion now is, can 

 sugarcanes in Ceylon, which arc conunon enough as 

 an article of refreshing diet in the raw state amongst 

 the natives, being sweet euough for that pui^pose, 

 51 



be so improved by the use of guano and 

 phosphates, as to gi-anulate well and yield paying 

 returns? Even the richest soils of volcanic origin re- 

 quire manuring after half-a-dozen crops are taken oil 

 the ground. The competition, therefore, would be 

 unequal only against those who have large areas of 

 virgin soil to operate on. Tliis is the case with the 

 Queensland sugar-growers at present. The river deltas 

 are by no means so extensive as they are in many 

 other countries, but still the areas are large. For 

 instance, in the Mackay district alone it is computed 

 that there are over 300,000 acres of land suited for 

 sugar cultivation. The other great' consideration 

 is the enoiTnous cost of the machinery re- 

 quired in the scientific manufacture of sugar. 

 To take in canes sufficient to yield 200 tons 

 of sugar, machinery, including vacuum pans and triple 

 effet appliances, would have to be erected which would 

 cost £'20,000 ; while this sum must be doubled if 500 

 to 600 tons are manufactured. When we were in th« 

 Mackay district we travelled with a Mr. Mackinnon, 

 who paid £90,000 for the pioneer estate, aud, besides 

 the machinery which he found ready to his hand, 

 we believe he has made additions at a cost equal to 

 half the money which he paid for the property. 

 Operations on such a scale are, evidently, not to be 

 thought of at present in Ceylon. If experiments are 

 to be tried, they must be tentative and modest. 

 We should not like to speak dogmatically, but we 

 must repeat our belief that (visitations of insect and 

 fungoid plagues excepted), in our soil and witli our 

 climate, we can grotr luxuriant canes of all the best 

 descriptions. The question is not gi-owth but chemical 

 constituents. If our canes could be brought to yield 

 juice, of which ten per cent would shew sugar by 

 the test of Beaume's saccharometer, and if we could 

 get 20 to 30 tons of su('h canes for each acre, then 

 we might go ahead. But as a preliminary experi- 

 ment, it would be well to have specimens of the 

 canes giown in tlie wetter and the drier parts of C!ey 

 Ion analyzed and tested for sugar. Sugarcanes which 

 taste sweet enough when sucked for the sake of the juice, 

 might be found woefully wanting in the saccharine consti- 

 tuent when so proved. If, on the other Iiand, they stood 

 the test, then it would be clear that the cause of former 

 failures must be looked for mainly in tlie superabundant 

 moisture in our atmosphere, and a remedy might be dis- 

 covered in the modification of buildings and machinery. 

 We are by no means sanguine that Ceylon will ever 

 take her place amongst the sugar countries of the 

 world, but, as we can remember the time when the 

 successful gro\vth and manufacture of tea m our island 

 was believed to be impossible, because, amongt other 

 reasons, tea prepared for the Slessrs. Worms, 

 cost £5 sterling per lb., we certainly feel that 

 the interesting <piestion started by Governor Longden, in 

 consequence of his past connection witli sugar colonies, 

 ought to be fully considered and in\-e3tigated. 



In order that at this juncture of renewed discus- 

 sion of the subject our readers shoidd be placed in 

 possession of all available information on tlie subject, 

 we extract from Fergusons' Handbook of Information 

 for 1876-78, the carefully compiled summary of the 

 history of Sugarcane Cultiration in Ceylon, a history 

 marked by failure and disaster apparently in every 

 case save that of the carefully conducted and longcon- 

 tinucd experiment by the Alessrs. Whiter and Bowman 

 near Galle. It would be interesting to know to what 

 extent they liave used fertilizing sulistauces and of 

 what kind : — 



SUGAE IN CEYLON. 

 The sysU'iaatic cultivation of the sugarcane was, previous to 

 the present century, attenaptel twice ou a l.-ir^e scale in Ceylon, 

 in tile neiglibonrhood of Kalutara, and both times occiL'iionetl great 

 loss to those engaged. The late Mr. Winter IT-t, in tlie present 

 century, introduced cane, planting a litUc uc u- Kalutura in 1826, 

 and growing it aud manufacturmg sugar, I ub abaudoniug the 



