A CHAT ABOUT SUGAR-BEET 25 



tude. At all times of the year there is a sugar-cane 

 harvest being gathered m somewhere. 



I hope I have now silenced the most tiresome ques- 

 tions that were worrying you when we started our 

 journey. No, possibly there is one other thing that 

 many of you would particularly like to ask me. What 

 does a field of sugar-beet look like ? Of a truth, in 

 itself it makes a very poor show in comparison with 

 a field of stately sugar-canes ; the crop is under the 

 ground, you know, and all you can see is a dwarf array 

 of leaves. You might very well be looking at a field 

 of mangel- wurzels. But the labourers, in their various 

 peasant costumes, dot the sugar-beet farms with quaint 

 and pretty pictures, which are vivid with colour. 

 And there is much that is entertaining in the scenes 

 provided by the factories, whilst some of the most 

 beautiful European scenery forms a setting to the 

 industry. 



But for the present, we must think no more of beet- 

 root sugar. We are about to land in Demerara, which 

 gives its name to the cane-sugar you have all known 

 and loved from childhood days. 



CHAPTER VII 



DEMERARA SUGAR AT HOME 



We have set foot on British Imperial soil, in a north- 

 eastern corner of South America. We are in the 

 country called British Guiana, the little land which 

 constitutes our only Colony in a vast Republican 

 stronghold. Through stories of such famous republics 



4 



