Our PEASANT POPULATION. 289 
If—or may I say when—quartz crushing is established 
the:gold industry will be on a very different footing, but. 
up to the present it has not proved the universal panacea 
that. was expe€ted. 
If gold does. not fill the pockets of our peasantry what 
else will: ? 
Cane-farming has been suggested, but the ideas of our 
people must be less exalted than they are, at present 
before they will take to Cane-farming,. The ordinary 
labourer does. not like planting canes if at the time he: 
plants he does not know what he will get for his crop when 
he» reaps it. He will tell you. that it jis different with 
plantains and such things, if he is not satisfied with what 
SMITH offers he:can sell to JONES, but with Cane-farming 
he is obliged.to sell to the Manager of the Faétory to 
which he jis attached, and he thinks, to use his own Jan-, 
guage, that the Manager ‘ will take advantage, of him,’ 
A man having canes at—say—Beterverwagting must. sell 
them to La Bonne Intention, and.a man at Plaisance 
must, sell. ito Vryhezd’s Lust, but even if the peasant 
would learn to believe that he would be fairly dealt. with, 
the: prospeéts are not very encouraging in the present 
state of the. sugar market. Even, by combination 100 
men could scarcely manage to tackle, 400 acres, that is a 
man to 4 acres; these 4 acres would only produce 6 tons 
of sugar. Many people talk glibly of two or more tons 
to the acre but the, statistics of the colony do not bear. 
out these figures. The acres under cane, cultivation in 
1894. were Officially declared to be 70,012 and the ex- 
ported crop, was. 102,502 tons of sugar, less than a ton 
and ahalf tothe acre. If 2,516 tons were consumed locally 
the production would be exaétly a ton anda half to the 
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