CHAPTER II 



SUGAR 



Cane Sugar. This is the classic tropical cultivation, so 

 extensively engaged in in the West Indies in the days of 

 slavery, and is still one of the largest industries in the tropics, 

 in spite of the competition of European and American beet 

 sugar. It is most extensively pursued in Java, the Sandwich 

 Islands, Brazil, Guiana, the Malay Peninsula, Cuba, and in the 

 British West Indies, while in India there are about 2,850,000 

 acres devoted to cane, though all but about 200,000 acres are 

 in the northern non-tropical parts. 



In the early days of the European occupation of the West 

 Indies, this cultivation was practically the only one engaged 

 in, and owing to the great profits made in it, thanks to 

 absence of competition, slave labour, and other things, it 

 gradually took up a great part of the country, including large 

 areas of soils which were in reality unsuited to it. The first 

 blow to this prosperity was of course the abolition of slavery. 

 The second was the competition of beet sugar grown in Europe, 

 the yield of sugar from the beet being continually improved by 

 scientific selection. The third was the continuance of the West 

 Indian planters in the old ways, suitable enough for the past 

 generation, but out of keeping with modern progress. They 

 continued to grow sugar in small areas and to have a factory for 

 each small estate. With all these factors against it, cane 

 cultivation in the British West Indies has in recent years sunk 

 to a very low level of prosperity. From a modern point of 

 view, the third disadvantage named above is probably the most 

 important. In Cuba, Java, Hawaii, and elsewhere, sugar is 

 cultivated on a very large scale, and enormous factories are 



