CHAPTER V 



SUGAR CANE. Saccharum (fficinarutn 



\vStindlK UNTIL within recent years, the greatest attention of West 

 Indian agriculturists has been directed towards the produc- 

 tion of sugar, which has been, in most instances, made on 

 estates of considerable size employing a great number of la- 

 bourers. Of late, however, the increased production of beet 

 root sugar (the export of which from foreign countries has 

 ^ een f stere( i by the granting of bounties), has caused such 

 a decline in prices as to make the cultivation of the cane and 



Low prices, the manufacture of sugar, operations attended with but little 

 profit. 



The smaller sugar planters have been in most cases com- 

 pelled to give up the production, and it would appear that 



not S pay o e n a su g ar can now be made to pay well only when the manufac- 



smali scale. ture j s conducted on so large a scale as to require enormous 

 expenditure and very complicated machinery. The system 



SctolSs of usines, or central factories, is being introduced into various 

 parts of the West Indies, and it promises to do much good, 

 in a general way, to those tropical planters who, without 

 much capital, are desirous of cultivating the cane. The 

 usines buy the canes from planters at remunerative prices, 

 and so the agriculturist has only to confine his attention to 



Planting and proper agricultural matters. This is as it should be, for the 



manufactur- , , -. f . . _ , -. 



ing incom- double system of carrying on the businesses of a cultivator 

 pauble. and a manu f ac t ur er, is not likely, in these days, to be followed 



