Vol. V. No. 110. 



THE AGRICULTUKAL NEWS. 



211 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



Naudet Diffusion Process in Cuba. 



The Louisiana Planter publishes the substance 

 of a report by the delegate of the Agrarian League, 

 who has been investigating the working of the Naudet 

 diffusion process at the San Jose factory in Cuba. This 

 gentleman is of opinion that the Naudet process is 

 likely to prove beneficial to Cuban sugar planters. 

 He says :— 



It is certain that the results heretofore obtained are as 

 yet inferior to those promised by the inventor, but the errors 

 incurred and the contrarieties experienced have been so 

 numerous and so important that it would be unjust to 

 proclaim as a failure a process that, notwithstanding the 

 adverse conditions under which it has been operated, offers .so 

 brilliant a prospect to the sugar industry. 



I am profoundly convinced of the final success of the 

 Naudet process, and Cuba will owe this benefit to the 

 manager of one of the best-managed central factories in the 

 island, to whose energy it will be due that the said process 

 has not experienced a noisy failure. 



The article concludes : — - 



A few days after the publication of the report of the 

 delegate of the Agrarian League, a Cardenas paper announced 

 that the Naudet process was affording splendid results on 

 the plantation San .Jos(5, the yield for the past week having 

 been 11 ■42 per cent, of the weight of the cane, whose 

 saccharine richness does not exceed 13"16 per cent., the loss 

 being thus only I'Ti per cent., and, were the cane to have 

 a saccharine richness of 15'20 per cent., as last year, the 

 yield would reach 12'80 per cent, in pure sugar, equivalent 

 to a commercial yield of 13".30 or 13'-10 per cent., of sugar 

 testin" 95°. 



Varieties of Sugar-cane in British Guiana. 



The following is extracted from a report published 

 by the Board of Agriculture on the area under cultiva- 

 tion in British Guiana with varieties of sugar-cane 

 other than the Bourbon, for the year 1906-7 : — 



Returns have been furnished by every estate in the 

 colony on which varieties of canes are being cultivated. 



Varieties of canes other than Bourbon are being grown 

 on areas of more than 1 acre on twenty-six plantations in 

 the county of Demerara, five in the county of Essequibo, and 

 nine in the county of Berbice ; or on forty plantations in 

 British Guiana. 



Many of the plantations which are growing varieties of 

 canes on a relatively large scale have nurseries of several or 

 of many varieties, the cultivation of which it is intended 

 gradually to extend. 



The areas used for the cultivation of the varieties other 

 than Bourbon on the estates participating in the inquiry vary 

 very greatly, from about 1 acre as the minimum to about 

 4,150 acres as the maximum. 



One plantation in Demerara has an area of about 4,150 

 acres occupied by seedling varieties of canes, while one in 

 IBerbice has about 2,380 acres similarly occupied. 



The returns .show that in British Guiana 21,481 acres 

 are occupied with varieties of sugar-cane other than Bourbon, 

 14,736 acres being in Demerara, 5,251 in Berbice, and 1,494 

 in Essequibo. 



The total area of 21,481 acres, when compared with 

 14,743 acres in 1905-6, with 12,860 acres in 1904-5, and 

 with 9,518 ia 1903-4, shows an increase upon them at the- 

 rates of 45-7, 67'0, and 125'6 per cent., respectively. 



The following shows the varieties other than Bourbon 

 which are at present being cultivated on sugar plantations. 

 in British Guiana on areas of more than 1 acre in extent : — • 



The area returned as being under seedling varieties has- 

 increased from 12,942 acres in 1905 to 20,065 acres for 1906, 

 or at the rate of 55 per cent. The area so occupied in 1902 

 was 4,329 acres; in 190.3, 6,321 acres, and in 1904, 9,289' 

 acres. There is, therefore, 363 5 per cent, greater than in 

 1902, 217'4 per cent, greater than in 1903, and 116 percent, 

 greater than in 1904. 



The successive rates of increase have been : — 



For crop of 1903 ... 46'0 percent. 



„ „ „ 1904 ... 46-9 „ „ 



,, ,, ,, IJyJO ... ov'o ,, ,, 



„ „ ,, 1906 ... _ 55-0 „ „ 



As the Imperial grant-in-aid for sugar-cane experi- 

 ments which commenced to be available in this colony in 

 October 1899, ceased to be payable on March 31, 1906, it 

 may be of some interest to record here the extension of the 

 area occupied by .seedling varieties of canes since that date. 

 I have not been able to get absolutely reliable figures for 

 the year 1899, but the area then occupied by seedling canes- 

 was approximately 550 acres ; now it is 20,065 acres, 

 an increase in round figures of 19,500 acres during the 

 existence of the grant. The former area was mainly, if not 

 almost entirely, occupied with seedling varieties raised in 

 British Guiana, while at present over 4,000 acres are occupied 

 by seedling varieties raised in Barbados, and about 16,000 

 acres with those raised locally. The colony, therefore, has 

 largely benefited from the expenditure on sugar-cane experi- 

 ments in Barbados as well as from that in British Guiana. 



