SUGAR. 



145 



is much prized. The average of the exports of rum in periods of 

 six years was as follows : 



Canadas of about | 

 I of a gallon. 



1841-46 2,526,200 



1847-52 2,503,373 I 



Canadas of about 

 f of a gallon. 



1853-58 2,709,501 



1859-63 (five years) 2 , 569 , 308 



The variety of cane grown by preference now in this country is 

 the Salangore, as the Cayenne cane, so long in use, from the negli- 

 gence exhibited in its culture, became a victim to the epidemic 

 that attacked it, whereby it lost all its saccharine qualities. It is 

 said that the Salangore cane gives an amount of saccharine almost 

 fabulous ; its vegetation is most luxuriant, requiring little care. But 

 all recent introductions in Brazil present the same phenomena at the 

 onset, as was the case with the Cayenne cane ; and such new substi- 

 tutes will be of little avail if the method and care in its cultivation be 

 carried out in the old fashion. 



About seventeen varieties of this plant have been acclimatized and 

 cultivated in Brazil, and considerable quantities of plants are an- 

 nually distributed to planters by the Imperial Institute of Agri- 

 culture here. 



The Salangore cane is now more attacked by the disease than its 

 predecessor, and to such a degree that very few districts are exempted 

 from that plague. 



The whole belt of soil from the Amazon to San Paulo is suitable 

 to the cultivation of the sugar-cane, although it is more fully de- 

 veloped in the northern provinces of Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, 

 Bahia, and Eio Janeii'o. 



Its cultivation is remunerative, especially the species called Salan- 

 gore, which yields 11 to 14 per cent, of juice. In new lands a single 

 hectare yields 100,000 kilos, during fifteen months. An active, intel- 

 ligent labom'er is supposed to take care of two hectares, which would 

 produce 1000 kilos, of sugar, worth 150Z. The cost of production in 

 Rio, where wages are high, is about 14/. per hectare, leaving a net 

 profit on two hectares of 601. But the profit is greater when the 

 condition of the land admits of the use of the plough and other 

 improvements. In the manufactui'e of sugar great advantage has 

 attended the use of steam as the boiling medium of liquids at a low 

 temperature, and that of turbines for the forced clearing of the crys- 

 tallized materials. 



The exports of sugar from the port of Bahia in 1866 were about 

 48,000 tons, and the average of the preceding twenty-five years was 

 only 41,000 tons. The cultivation of sugar in Bahia, incontestably 

 at one time the most flourishing in the province, has of late years, 

 from the invasion of a malady in the cane, given unsatisfactory 

 results, probably through the exhaustion of the soil, upon which crop 

 after crop was cultivated, without system or science. There were in 

 1871, 1010 registered sugar mills and 700 not registered in the 

 province of Bahia. In the adjoining province of Sergipe there were 

 700 sugar mills. The production in the province of Bahia in 1870 

 was 70,000,000 lbs. of sugar, and over 2,000,000 litres of rum. 



