THE CANE INDUSTRY 95 



they do now. The islands of Grenada, St. Vincent, 

 and Dominica seem almost to have abandoned the 

 crop, and Jamaica to have considerably reduced it. 

 This last island is of special interest to those who, like 

 the present writer, recollect its fine muscovado sugar 

 in the good old days before the flood of bounty-fed 

 sugar set in. The sugar produced by Jamaica was, 

 from the point of view of the British refiner, very 

 superior to any other raw muscovado sugar, except 

 perhaps that from St. Kitts. The juice must have 

 been very pure to produce such sugar, or else the 

 method of manufacture must have been very superior. 

 But now Jamaica is going to launch out into the modern 

 central factory system and to produce the usual " centri- 

 fugal sugar, basis 96 polarization." The island's pro- 

 duction used to range from 25,000 to 35,000 tons. 

 After the great fall in price in 1884-5, it gradually 

 dwindled down to 18,000 to 20,000 tons. Its future 

 progress will be interesting. 



The French West Indies were once in the first rank, 

 but they have not kept pace with the times. They 

 were at one time well equipped, but now their 

 machinery, especially in the evaporating department, 

 is out of date. They have for a very long time turned 

 out a kind of white sugar, the kind for which there is 

 a demand from the refiners in France. Their working 

 expenses are high, and labour is scarce and indolent. 

 They stand still at a production of about 30,000 to 

 40,000 tons from each island. 



The small French island of Reunion, a neighbour of 

 Mauritius, suffers from want of labour. If that could 

 be obtained, the industry would flourish. 



The island of St. Domingo seems to be progressing, 

 though not favoured with any artificial stimulus. 

 They made 60,000 tons in 1907-S, 80,000 tons in 1908-9, 



