344 
SUGAR CROP AND RAIN IN BARBADOS. 
Sir R. W. Rawson, as governor of the British colonies at Barba- 
dos, published (1874) a colonial report, printed by the house of 
assembly, giving an elaborate study of the dependence of the cane- 
sugar crop upon the monthly and annual rainfall. Barbados offers 
an exceptional opportunity for such study, since the cane is the only 
staple and is nearly all exported, so that the records of the crop are 
accessible in the customs’ returns. Moreover, the number of rainfall 
records averaged more than 1 to a square mile, being 178 for the 
whole island and for a period of about twenty-five years, this re- 
markable system of observations being due largely to the labors of 
Dr. R. Bowie Walcott, who still resides in the parish of St. Joseph, 
and was, in May, 1890, on the occasion of my recent visit to him, 
still active in collecting rainfall data. To his devotion and Governor 
Rawson’s assistance we owe this unique study of rainfall and sugar 
crop. It is impossible for me at present to do more than give the 
accompanying Tables I, II, and IIT of monthly rainfalls and annual 
crops. The crops, as given in Tables IT and III, in hogsheads, are 
credited to the years in which they passed through the custom-house. 
The cane is usually gathered and the sugar and molasses shipped 
between January and May; after the latter date the fields are newly 
planted and in eighteen months are again ready for cutting, so that 
the crop of any year has been grown under the influence of the rain 
of the preceding year and the latter half of the year preceding that. 
In the second table I give the dates of the first shipment of sugar 
each year, thus showing whether the crop was gathered early or late, 
and also the general character of the crop as credited to that year. 
Table III illustrates Governor Rawson’s conclusion that the crop 
of any year is influenced only in a slight degree by the rainfall of 
that year, but depends upon the rainfall of the preceding year. Thus 
it is arranged according to the quantity of rainfall, and the crop of 
the following year is compared with the rain of the current year; the 
wet years are followed by large crops the next year, while the dry 
years are followed by small crops; the increase being 10 per cent 
after a wet year and the decrease being 12 per cent after a dry year. 
The genera! development of the sugar plant is illustrated in the 
following extract (see p. 33, Rawson’s Report) : 
The influence of the rainfall in particular months and seasons 
upon the coming crop is generally felt and admitted, but not known 
with any certainty. It is believed, writes an experienced agricul- 
turist, that any marked excess of rain during the first six months of 
the year is injurious both to the crop that is being reaped and to 
that which is to follow. The cane plant during the early stages of 
its growth is very hardy and requires but little moisture; the small 
