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maunds of molasses imported annually from this island. Con- 

 sidering the proportion between the quantity of sugar import- 

 ed into the country and the vast quantity actually produced, 

 it cannot be said there is much room for expansion of this 

 industry. A slightly increased local produce, the general 

 introduction among cultivators of the knowledge of making 

 white sugar (good enough for all ordinary use), and some im 

 provement on the existing position of the European sugar 

 factories in India, may altogether kill the import trade in sugar, 

 which though large, is relatively not so. By instituting im- 

 provements in the cultivation and specially in the manufacture 

 ol sugar, in the principal sugar-cane-growing localities of India 

 a vast impetus can be given to this industry. Such encour- 

 agement can have but one result, the lowering of prices of the 

 raw article while the raw article itself will be of a very supe- 

 rior quality, that is, to all intents and purposes sugar, and not 

 Gur. If the European sugar factories in India can secure 

 such gur at a cheap price, they can not only stop the import 

 of beet and other sugars, but actually invade the markets of 

 Europe and America. In Bengal, the districts where the art 

 of making a superior raw-sugar can be taught are, Rangpur 

 (with nearly 5 per cent, of its cultivated area under this ' 

 crop), Pabna, Darbhanga, Bhagalpur, Manbhum (with 6J per 

 cent, of its cultivated area under this crop), Saran, Faridpur, 

 Mymensingh, Hazaribagh, Shahabad, Dacca, Gaya Dinajpur, 

 Muzufferpur, Burdwan and Backergunge. Each of these 

 districts has more than 20,000 acres under sugar-cane. 



605. .5W/. The enumeration of the principal sugar-grow- 

 ing districts in Bengal, should lead one to infer, that all kinds 

 of soils answer for growing sugar-cane, the rough archafean 

 soils of the Chhotanagpur Division, the old alluvium of Bihar, 

 and the new alluvium of Eastern Bengal. The best canes 

 grow at the junction of old and new alluvia on the sides of 

 streams and rivulets. These are red clay loam soils specially 

 rich in mineral matters. For growing the superior varieties 



