26 SUGAR 



as Brazil, the Argentine, and Venezuela, and of their 

 mighty rivers, the Amazon, the La Plata, and the 

 Orinoco, you have, I expect, become fairly familiar 

 with the power and glory of South America. But how 

 many of you had even heard of British Guiana before 

 we started forth on our journey here ? How many of 

 you, knowing it by name, could have said offhand 

 where it is situated ? Yet this least known of all our 

 Colonies, this Imperial Atom of a great Republican 

 Continent, can call to life for us all the dreams which 

 have ever haunted our imagination when we have heard 

 the magic name of South America. And it is this 

 Nature-enchanted little Colony which is the homeland 

 of Demerara sugar. 



The sugar is all grown and made within a narrow 

 coastland strip, which has been called to a state of 

 civilization entirely by the industry. A large pro- 

 portion of the sugar-producing area is situated in the 

 province of Demerara, which has thereby given its 

 name to the Colony's special make of golden crystals. 

 Bounding the sugar-industrial strip on the one side 

 is the sea ; inland, the confines are marked by an 

 irregular curve formed by the margin of unreclaimed 

 forests. 



Let me try to focus this setting for you, and imbue 

 it with life. Demerara sugar-land is very flat, and at 

 high-water times the sea is above the land-level. As 

 a protection against floods a margin of primeval Bush 

 was left along the coast in parts where forests were 

 cleared for sugar cultivation. The very low-lying 

 grassy shores, which occur in patches between the 

 Bush-border, are dotted with pumping-houses, which 

 are fitted with powerful drainage machinery. The 



