CHAP, v SUGAR CANE 133 



with success. To expect the English farmer to raise com 

 and then to make it into flour and bread, would be regarded 

 as absurd. The farmer is the cultivator, and he confines his 

 attention to matters agricultural ; the miller is a manufac- 

 turer, and it is for him to prepare what the farmer has 

 grown. The same argument applies to the West Indian 

 sugar planter. He should be content to raise the canes on Advantages 

 his land, and to allow the manufacturer to make the sugar, system"*" 

 The planter will then raise better and more abundant crops, 

 and the manufacturer will make better and cheaper sugar. 

 In a larere factory, scientific matters can receive due atten- Economy 



and efti- 



tion, and the management must be cheaper and more effec- ciency in the 



i -111- e i 11 a management 



tive than it can possibly be in any of the many small " sugar O f the can ral 

 works." fac:ories ' 



SOIL. The sugar cane will grow upon almost any soil. Most Foil 

 Clays, loam, marls, and calcareous soils, are all suitable, ' 

 more or less, for cane cultivation. Indeed, considering that 

 canes are grown in all the principal West Indian colonies, 

 with their wide diversity of soils, one might feel inclined to 

 come to the conclusion that the nature of the soil was of no 

 account in the cultivation. And neither was it of great Lar 3 e profits 

 moment when large profits were made by the sugar planters, day*, 

 but now that such low prices are got for the produce, the 

 canes can be cultivated profitably only on land that is best 

 suited for them. Rich, porous clays, and alluvial soils onTheb.st 

 low lands through which rivers run, are the most favourable 

 for cane cultivation, with the exception, perhaps, of loams 

 formed by the decomposition of volcanic rocks. Such a The *oi! of 

 soil as the last mentioned is found in St. Kitts, and sugar can St ' Kltt ~" 

 be produced in that island cheaper than in any other part of 

 the West Indies. 



Lime is a necessary ingredient in all cane lands, and thus 

 when there is a deficiency of it in the soil, it must be added 

 as a manure. A writer on the sugar cane says, " Lime is Lime in ths 

 beneficial to almost any soil, particularly new, and especially JJy" r 

 where the salts of iron are found : " but, of course, this does 



