164 



SUGAR. 



each variety have been planted in reserve ground in the gardens, 

 in order that none of them should be lost to the colony. A 

 great matter is the choice of healthy cane tops for planting. 

 None but tops of the most vigorous and healthiest canes should be 

 selected. Through neglect of this, the canes deteriorate, till at last 

 whole fields come to be planted with cane tops which are unhealthy 

 and positively diseased. The Sandwich Islands, and perhaps New 

 Guinea, are the places to which the planters of Mauritius will have 

 to look for new varieties, more prolific, hardy, and healthy than 

 those they now possess. In the Sandwich Islands the sugar-cane is 

 said to be indigenous, and there are thirty-five to forty varieties, of 

 which only two are in Mauritius. One variety, called " Puol- 

 lese," has been known to yield an average, per acre, of 12,000 lbs. = 

 6 hhds. of No. 16 sugar, on an extent of 30 acres of good land, which 

 had been irrigated. It is reported to be hardy and to grow freely, in 

 its native country, at an elevation of 2000 feet above the sea. 



The principal improvements made in the manufacture are the 

 vacuum pan, of which two are now at work, and the centrifugal 

 drying machines, of which there are many at work, particularly in 

 the higher parts of the district, where, from the nature of the 

 climate, they are indispensable. The advantages of both are un- 

 deniably great. Samples of sugar made with the two improvements 

 combined show that sugar can be made directly from the cane juice 

 which will bear comparison with the best refined sugars : the crystals 

 are larger, better defined, and when "clairced" are perfectly white, even 

 without the aid of animal charcoal. The superiority of these methods 

 over all others is incontestable. The sugar far exceeds in quality 

 sugar made in any other way : it is made, dried, and is ready for 

 shipment the day after the operation is commenced. All the incon- 

 veniences of the old system, which required at least fifteen days 

 to perform what is now done in forty-eight hours, have vanished. 

 Enormous purging houses with all the necessary encumbrances of 

 casks, " caissons," &c., are no longer required. The syrup, which 

 formerly remained in large tanks till it was fermented and unfit for 

 any other purpose than to make rum, is now converted into sugar im- 

 mediately, and almost all the crystallizable portion at once obtained. 



The improvement next in importance is the process of making 

 sugar called Wetzell's, from the name of the inventor. The operation 

 is not so perfectly performed as in the vacuum pan. The quality of 

 the sugar is consequently inferior ; but still it is a great improvement 

 on the old method, — the apparatus is less expensive, can be made in 

 the colony, and with the aid of " turbines " sugar of fine quality is 

 produced. The crystals are however smaller and not so clear and 

 well defined as in vacuum-pan sugar. These machines are employed 

 on many estates and the result obtained is satisfactory. 



In a report by Sir Henry Barkly, he states: Some allege that 

 Mauritius has seen its brightest days ; that sugar cultivation reached 

 its maximum limit several years ago ; that the soil is in many 

 districts exhausted, and the cane plant in consequence subject to the 

 attacks of insects and other diseases, &c., &c. In my opinion there 

 are no adequate grounds for any of these forebodings, though they 

 are not surprising after the series of ordeals through which the 



