SUGAR. 



133 



Molasses. — Besides sugar we receive much syrup or molasses. The 

 largest quantity now comes from the United States. The following 

 were the countries which furnished us supplies in 1875 : 



Cwts. 



France 103,089 



Egypt 36,762 



United States of America 366,916 



Spanish West India Islands 75 , 569 



Australia .. .. 55,549 



British West India Islands 113,187 



British Guiana 2,897 



Other countries 14,444 



Total .. 768,410 



It is a remarkable fact that the West Indians should export their 

 molasses in such a state that it contains large quantities of extract- 

 able crystallizable sugar, and that a large and profitable trade 

 should be carried on in its extraction both here and in the United 

 States. Molasses proper ought to contain no extractable crystallizable 

 sugar, and if it does contain any it ought to be called syrup, and not 

 molasses. By cutting the canes at the wrong period, by keeping 

 them till acids form, by boiling the juice in such a way as to ensure 

 the acidity spreading as far as possible, the planter creates very much 

 more than the unavoidable amount of molasses, worth from half to one- 

 third the price of sugar; and he still further carelessly wastes his 

 resources by letting large quantities of extractable sugar remain in the 

 molasses. The colonial planter ought to study what is done on the 

 Continent, in order to extract the last possible fraction of sugar from 

 molasses. For instance, his attention should be directed to applying 

 to the cane some modification of the supersaturation process of 

 M. Marguerite, or of the osmogene process of M. Dubrunfaut, both 

 of which processes are founded on strictly scientific principles. 



Bum, another prodact from the sugar-cane, which we require largely 

 for the supply of our navy, is furnished almost entirely from our 

 own colonies. The imports from these in 1875 having been, from 



Galls, 



Mauritius 583,365 



British West India Islands 3,445,566 



British Guiana 3,624,294 



Total 7,653,225 



Of this quantity, 5,386,843 gallons were taken for consumption. 



A little over 1,000,000 gallons of rum from foreign colonies was 

 also received, but re-exported. 



Varieties of the Sugar-cane. — In most of the torrid parts of the New 

 World, and in many of the islands of the West Indian group, species of 

 the genus Saccliarum have been found in an indigenous state. In the 

 uncultivated parts of Trinidad three species were met with : S. con- 

 tractum, Poit ; S. polystachyum, Sw. ; and S. duhium, H. B. The 

 variety denominated the ribbon-cane, from its vaHegated coloured 



