Vol. XVI. No. 401. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



275 



In this matter of progress it is sometimes forgot- 

 ten that we cannot stand still, even if we would: the 

 happenings in our surroundings carry us onwards, and, 

 if we fail to respond, we are left behind to perish of 

 neglect and inanition; tins is true alike of individuals 

 and communities. Progress is forced upon us: it is 

 expedient therefore that we take pains to see that our 

 progress is so directed as to bring us the greatest good. 



SUGAR ESTATE ECONOMY. 



In The ^¥est India Committee Circular of 

 July 12, 1917, under the above headinar, there appears a 

 copy of a circular lettei addressed by Colonel the Hon. 

 R. Stapleton Cotton and Messrs. Henckell Du Buisson 

 & Company to the managers of their estates in the 

 West Indies. Between them the signatories of this 

 letter have very large interests in the West Indies, the 

 total output of sugar from their estates and the 

 iactories under their control in various islands being 

 some 50,000 tons per annum. 



This letter seems to inaugurate a far-reaching and 

 straightforward policy on the part of owners and 

 capitalists with regard to the employees in the sugar 

 industry. We deem it so important as to reproduce 

 a large portion of it in the present a,rt,ii;le, in fact, ilid 

 space allow, the whole letter is worth reproducing. 



The following are quotations from the letter 

 referred to: — 



It has always been, as you know, our desire to improve 

 the circumstances of all on our estates when the revenues 

 permitted. ... It has also been a pleasure to us that 

 the estate revenues have ma'ie it possible to give bonu.ie.s to 

 the managers and overseers sufficienito render their ciicum- 

 stances cfnjfoi table for the present, and at the same time 

 to enable them to invest something for the needs of later years. 



In the cise of these bonuses both to managers and 

 overseers, and in the increase in labourers' wages, it has to be 

 understood that they cannot be repeated or continued if the 

 revenues tall back again. The revenues depend on two things, 

 viz , the price of sugar and the croi)s produced. Sugar may 

 continue above the average price for some time, but before 

 very long it will in all probability drop back 



In our opinion, the reasonable view to take of prices is 

 that they will, after some little time, rule much about the 

 average level of the last ten pre-war years, whiihwaa£ll 

 per ton, f.o.b., for 96° Grey Crystals. \\Tienever the price 

 has gone over that it has soon fallen below it again, and 

 whenever it has gone below, it ha.s soon recovered again. 



Now £11 per ton does not, with the past 'average crops, 

 a'lmit of continuing the present higher pay. In England there 

 is general agreement on the part both of employers and 

 employees in the leiding industries, that thereshall be no return 

 to the old low level of rates of pay, and further it is agreed by 

 all on both sides that the only means of securing this is by 

 increased production per man or tvoman And every- 

 one is looking forward with hope, we niig!it say with confi- 

 dence, to tiic industrial production being increased, and to 

 the higher wages being made permanent. The pressure of 

 war proluction has revealed what can be done 



Cannot a similar advance be made in sugar plantations 

 in the West Inc'ies! If not, we see no hope of a continu- 

 ance of the present higher pay to the staff and the labourers. 

 Increased production per man, whether manager, over- 



seer or laboner, is the on'y means of securing tliii It 

 will be difiiculr, but we believe it can be accomplished if 

 everyone does his utm >st and gives his whole mind and 

 energies to the woriv, not going on in the old routine, 

 but looking out continually for a chance of introducing some- 

 improvement here or there 



The establishment of a stock farm on a sound basis 

 on each estate, with the manure resulting therefrom, and 

 the introduction of rotation crops along with mo e liming and 

 more tillage, will, we believe, lead to the improvement of 

 the condition of the soil to such an extent that it will yield 

 a very large increase in the cane crops 



We are quite prepared to consider applications for 

 expenditure required for additional live stock, alterations in 

 stables and cattle sheds, silos, limekilns, and motor drivea 

 implements for the lii^hter tillage, so that the additional 

 tillage may not necessitate an increase in the numbers- 

 employed on the estites. Our aim is to keep the numbers 

 who are at present employed, and to continue the present 

 advanced pay; each one of them in his own sphere to do his 

 utmost to increase the production of the land, so as to make 

 this possible 



It must be borne in mind that we are only prepared to 

 develop stock farms if all the fodder is raised on the estate. 

 Turning part of the cane tops into ensilage will help towards- 

 this, but the chief help will come either from raising better 

 grasses on land that has now only abandoned pastures, or 

 from raising fodder crops on fields that are thrown for their 

 year's rotati:n out of cane. 



THE AFTER-RIPENING OP SUGAR-CANE. 



In th ■ modern factory system which requires a constant 

 supply of large quantities of sugar-cane, any deterioration of 

 the sugar contents of the crop in its passage from the field to 

 the mill may constitute a serious loss. In some districts in 

 India it is a common practice to allow the canes to remain in. 

 heaps for a day or so before crushing, the rei-son given being 

 that the gur obtained from such cane is drier and lighter 

 in colour than if the cane is crushed immediately. Experi- 

 ments, reported in the AgriculUtral Journal of India, 

 Vol. XII, Part 2, have been made in India to see how long 

 the cane may be kept without causing a loss, or, if storage 

 of the cut cane is unavoidable, what are the extent of the 

 losses likely to be incurred. 



The length of time for which cane can be stored without 

 suffering a loss of sugar, and during which an actual increase 

 in the amount of sugar in the juice will take place, will, the 

 journal states, vary with the temperature of the air and the 

 condition of the cane. This period will become shorter 

 as the temperature rises. Excessive cold, on the other hand, 

 including too great a change in temperature, may also bring 

 about losses in sucrose. 



The Java system of covering cut cane with damp trash 

 is to keep the cane stem alive. By this treatment the cane 

 will be maintained at a uniform teiuperature and being in 

 a moist atmosphere will not lose water. On the other hand, 

 moist heat will not only induce the growth of moulds, fungi,, 

 and bacteria, all of which bring about decay by fermentation 

 changes, but will, once the cell is dead, induce rapid decay 

 in the cell contents by hydrolysis an 1 oxidation. 



The after-ripening of cane is a matter of some impor- 

 tance to the factory owner, and the chemical changes will 

 probably be of interest to him as well as to the student of 

 the chemistry of sugar. 



Experience in the West Indies tends to show that in, 

 the conditions here prevailing, cut canes quickly deteriorate. 



