90 BRITISH HONDURAS. 



" Twelve large estates were started, involving an outlay of 

 capital of 300,000. Only five are now in working order, and 

 two of the largest of these are in the market. 



" Keliable experience proves that sugar can be easily produced 

 here for about 10 per ton, and at the rate of two tons to the 

 acre. One planter informs me that on actual experiment one acre 

 of picked canes yielded four tons of drained sugar. No artificial 

 manure is required, nor any drainage, beyond mere surface drains, 

 and hardly any cultivation beyond a couple of ploughings to 

 clean the canes. Canes ratoon for ten or twelve years without 

 deterioration, and instances have been quoted to me of some 

 cut for this year's crop that have been ratooning for twenty 

 years. From all I have been able to gather on the subject I 

 think it can be demonstrated that well-managed estates in the 

 colony have been able to pay their way, and persons judiciously 

 managing their own estates have been able to make a good 

 general living out of them, besides adding to a reserve fund, or 

 reimbursing a fair portion of the purchase-money, within a very 

 short time, even under recent adverse circumstances affecting 

 the sugar trade. Whether estates can be continued with the 

 same results will of course depend upon the state of the market, 

 and steps taken to counteract the operation of sugar bounties, 

 without which it is considered by those most competent to 

 judge it will be impossible to grow sugar to a profit in any 

 British colony." 



Possibly one of the chief causes of the decline of sugar 

 estates in this colony, is attributable to the uncertainty of the 

 labour supply, and to the competition which must ensue (in years 

 when mahogany and logwood are fetching remunerative prices) 

 between mahogany cutters and the planters. 



When mahogany and logwood are commanding higher prices 

 the greater proportion of the available labour supply of the 



