20 SUGAR 



throw out another but inferior crop of canes. This 

 is called the " ratoon " crop, and may amount to 

 about twenty tons of canes to the acre. In the West 

 Indies, and in other parts, several ratoon crops are 

 sometimes grown ; but in countries like Java, where 

 labour is plentiful and cheap, the crop is freshly planted 

 every year. In Java, sugar is, in fact, a rotation crop, 

 other crops being grown in alternate years. This is 

 a governmental regulation which must be observed. 

 This system, coupled with great perfection in cultivation 

 and manufacture, has had the result of realizing, as 

 the average crop for the whole of Java, the almost 

 incredible quantity of more than four tons of sugar 

 to the acre. This means that many of the best estates 

 and factories turn out at least five tons to the acre, 

 a truly marvellous performance when we recollect 

 what was considered a good yield in the West Indies 

 fifty years ago. Two hogsheads of muscovado sugar 

 to the acre was considered in those days a thing to boast 

 about. As a hogshead weighed from sixteen to eighteen 

 hundredweight this was only a yield of a ton and a 

 half to the acre, about the average yield of the European 

 beetroot. 



There is another important variation in the agri- 

 cultural system of different cane sugar countries. The 

 sugar cane must have water, if it is to grow properly 

 and give its customary yield. Very often it gets too 

 much water and, therefore, good drainage is essential. 

 In British Guiana, where the cane fields lie below the 

 level of the sea, the superfluity of water has some- 

 times to be pumped off the land. But, on the other 

 hand, there is often a terrible spell of dry, hot weather, 

 and then water has to be pumped on to the land. Many 

 countries have to grow their canes almost entirely by 

 irrigation. Peru is the most remarkable case, for in 



