32 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



the wood of the orange tree is used for sugar boiling,) the 

 thicker arid more woody stalk of the Tahitian cane is an 

 important advantage. If the introduction of this plant had 

 not taken place almost at the same time as the commence- 

 ment of the bloody negro war in St. Domingo, the prices of 

 sugar in Europe would have risen still higher than they did, 

 in consequence of the ruinous effects of those troubles on 

 agriculture and trade. It was an important question, 

 whether the cane of the Pacific, when removed from its 

 native soil, would gradually degenerate and become the 

 same as the common cane. Experience hitherto has de- 

 cided against any such degeneration. In Cuba a caballeria 

 (nearly 33 English acres) planted with Tahitian sugar-cane 

 produces 870 hundred weight of sugar. It is singular that 

 this important production of the islands of the Pacific is only 

 cultivated in those parts of the Spanish colonies which are 

 farthest from the Pacific. The Peruvian coast is only 

 twenty-five days' sail from Tahiti, and yet, at the period of 

 my travels in Peru and Chili, the Tahitian cane was unknown 

 there. The inhabitants of Easter Island, who suffer much 

 from deficiency of fresh water, drink the juice of the sugar- 

 cane, and (a very remarkable physiological fact) also sea water. 

 In the Society, Friendly, and Sandwich Islands, the light 

 green, thick-stalked sugar-cane is always the one cultivated. 

 Besides the Cana de Otaheiti and the Cana Criolla, a 

 reddish African variety, called Cana de Guinea, is cultivated 

 in the West Indies : its juice is less in quantity than that 

 of the common Asiatic cane, but is said to be better suited 

 for making rum. 



