BEITISH GUIANA. 53 



Material Condition of British Guiana. 



As in other regions exploited by slave labour, field operations, performed by 

 men like machines, controlled by overseers armed with the lash or the stick, were 

 incompatible with the cultivation of any great variety of crops in British Guiana. 

 Simple processes carried out in a mechanical way were alone possible ; hence the 

 products of the sugar-cane — rum, *' foots," molasses — besides cotton and coffee, 

 were the only articles of export during the plantation days. Even still, despite 

 the abolition of slavery, the crude old agricultural systems linger on, and land 

 tenure has undergone no change, large domains still everywhere prevailing. Only 

 the gangs of black slaves are now replaced by contract labour, though the Hindoo 

 coolies have to conform to the same old rigid methods of routine work. A 

 single estate on the left bank of the Demerara comprises as many as 5,600 acres, 

 and yields 5,500 tons of sugar, employing altogether 3,730 coolies and freedmen. 



The administration, however, has at last discovered that it would be unwise to 

 dispose of the remaining unallotted lands in great domains. With a view to 

 attracting settlers, efforts are being made to create a numerous class of small free- 

 holders by limiting to 50 acres the lots granted to new arrivals. 



The Sugar Industry. 



As in the slave days, sugar continues to be the staple crop. About half of all 

 the cultivated land is under cane, and this single item rejjresents on an average 

 over nine-tenths of all the colonial exports. Thanks to the fertility of the soil, 

 improved processes of production, and the excellent quality of the sugar, the 

 Demerara planters have hitherto been able to hold their own against the fierce 

 competition of the European beet-sugar growers. But to maintain their ground 

 they shrink from no necessary outlay. While utilising the upheaved strip of 

 coastlands, they have encroached on the sea itself, by the construction of an ex- 

 ceedingly costly system of dykes, which at the same time serve as roads. 



The land has been cut up by a network of canals and trenches, by which the 

 surface is drained, while facilities are afforded for the transport of the cane. The 

 soil is renovated by a liberal employment of chemical manures, and the mills have 

 been provided with the most improved machinery and general plant for crystal- 

 lising the sap to the best advantage. The cane, containing on an average 17 per 

 cent, of sugar, is thus made to yield as much as 16 per cent., whereas by the old 

 processes of crushing scarcely one-half could be extracted. The best " Deme- 

 rara " commands on the English markets prices far higher than the product of all 

 other sugar-canes. It is also exported to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and other 

 British colonies, and, despite the heavy protective tariffs, it competes successfully 

 with the sugars of Louisiana and of Cuba in the United States markets. The 

 Demerara rum, which is greatly inferior to that of Jamaica, is exported chiefly to 

 Great Britain ; while the Georgetown molasses are highly appreciated in the French 

 Antilles. 



The Berbice coffee plantations, which formerly yielded a choice variety of the 

 berry, have now been almost everywhere replaced by cane ; in fact, the shrub is 

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