342 TIMEHRI. 
the past year. The trade in this staple has been affeéted 
by the enhanced sugar bounties of Germany. The effeét 
of the bounty has been to materially lower the cost of 
beet sugar, and, assisted by a higher and steadier ex- 
change, it has enabled the German manufacturer to 
place his sugar on the Indian Market at a rate with 
which Mauritius cannot compete, The planters have, 
therefore petitioned the Home Government to come to 
their relief. The total import of cane sugar from Mauri- 
tius into all India during the past year advanced by 
94,852 cwt., and this, combined with a certain heavy 
deficit in the outturn from Cuba, should furnish some 
relief to the island.” 
The price of Jute, is 1 believe about the same as ordi- 
nary refined sugar, about £12 per ton, I hope to send 
samples of the fibre to the Colony shortly. 
I have ascertained by enquiry that some varieties of 
Jute can be got to grow successfully on high ground, but 
the plant thrives best on low lying lands. 
The ground should be thoroughly prepared as for 
other cultivation, when the seed may be sown broadcast, 
and after the plants have attained a few inches in height, 
they are thinned out to five or six inches apart and soon 
cover the ground to the exclusion of any other growth. 
The cultivation is therefore simple and by no means 
costly. 
I have made several attempts to obtain a treatise on 
the cultivation of the plant, but unsuccessfully hitherto ; 
the only article being one contained in a voluminous 
report to Government on fibres generally and to which I 
have not yet obtained access. 
The cultivation of the plant and preparation of the 
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