88 TiMEHRI. 



source we can get the quantity of sugar exported, but as 

 very few estates cut off their entire acreage in any year 

 and as on the other hand the hhds. or tons exported 

 do not give sufficiently corre6l data on which to base 

 statistics seeing much more sugar may remain unshipped 

 at the end of one year than another, it follows that there is 

 no reliable information from this source, and I know of 

 no other that can be laid before you showing how much 

 these 5 years under notice have come short of the average 

 yield. The following figures however, though not to be 

 absolutely relied on, are still of some value, vizt., in 1887, 

 mentioned above as Demerara's best year, with a rainfall 

 of 88'63, the sugar exported shewed an average of 1.95 

 hhds. per acre cultivated, as against 1879 with 107*91 and 

 1*39 hhds. per acre ; 1890 with 118-45 ^^^ 1*47 hhds; 

 the years 1892-93, when the colony's financial year was 

 changed, appear to show an export of r66 hhds. per 

 acre cultivated ; these hgures shew the decided tendency 

 of the yield per acre for decreasmg when the rainfall is 

 much above the normal. 



It is well-known that the evil effects of continuous 

 heavy rains are far more apparent in stiff clay soils than 

 on rich porous land, such as is to be seen at the back 

 of East Coast estates and elsewhere in the colony, 

 and it is in proportion as individual estates have more or 

 less of the former in cultivation that they do compara- 

 tively ill or well in such times as we have had lately. 

 In former years we used to expe6l two dry and two wet 

 seasons inside every 1 2 months, the former being from the 

 middle of February to the beginning of May and the latter 

 from the middle of August to middle of November ; the wet 

 seasons occupying the remaining months. Now-a-days, 



