PREFACE. 



An experience of some years in the West Indies 

 has led me to see the necessity for some simple 

 hand-book for the use of those engaged in the sugar 

 industry — a hand-book containing an outline of the 

 principles of agriculture based on modem scientific 

 discoveries, and also an outline of the principles 

 underlying the manufacture of sugar. 



An attempt is made in the following pages to col- 

 lect together in as simple a manner as possible a 

 series of observations on these points, in the hope 

 that they will serve as a starting-point for young 

 overseers about to begin their training in the sugar- 

 fields and boiling-houses, and also, perhaps, as a 

 means of rendering more easy and accessible to 

 older men the information to be obtained from 

 larger works and from scattered papers and pam- 

 phlets. 



One difficulty which sugar growers experience is 

 that writers on agriculture have rarely "WTitten 

 upon their special subject, but have treated of the 

 methods and productions of temperate climates ; 

 hence there has often been a doubt as to the 

 extent to which the writers' remarks could be with 



