SUGAR. 



185 



Cheribon, yellow, and ribbon. On some of the estates the sugar is manu- 

 factured bj the common process, viz. flat open battery and Wetzell pan. 

 As an instance of the cheapness of the plant used, that on one estate, 

 J. Johnston and Sons, Helmsfield, cost but 1300Z. beyond their own 

 labour, and consists of mill, two clarifiers, flat battery of four pans, 

 with iron tache and dipper. The liquor is reduced to about 26° Beaume. 

 in the tache, from whence it is skipped into a reservoir ; after sub- 

 siding a short time, it is run into a steam pan and finished. The pan 

 is heated by steam coil, the temperature being kept down to about 

 180° by lathed revolving drums. 



Besides the home consumption, the following figures show the 

 progressive exports of sugar : 



Cwts. 



1860 2-1:, 369 



1865 74,185 



Cwts. 



1870 106,572 



1874 136,656 



Jamaica. — The exports of sugar from this island have varied in the 

 last eight years from 29,000 hogsheads to 37,000 hogsheads ; of rum, 

 from 16,000 puncheons to 20,000 puncheons. There was in 1874 

 47,565 acres under cultivation with sugar-cane in the island. The 

 attention of sugar planters here has been for some years past given 

 rather to improvement of cultivation than to increase of acreage 

 under canes. 



This calculation gives only about three-quarters of a hogshead (or 

 12 cwts.) as the average produce in sugar for an acre of canes in the 

 colony. The extreme smallness of this return is owing to the system 

 of more or less permanent ratooning practised in small parishes, where 

 on some estates a complete field of yearling plants is hardly ever to be 

 seen ; the plants that fail being replaced yearly, plant by plant. Of 

 course the produce is very small, but so also are the expenses and the 

 risk ; and it is the opinion of some that the financial result of this 

 cheap system (which avoids the chance of the loss of a field of young 

 plants from a drought) is good. However that may be, the practice 

 greatly reduces the average produce of an acre of cane throughout the 

 colony. 



The export of sugar in the crop years 1870-71 (37,000 hogsheads) 

 was larger than it had been for nineteen years. The following shows 

 the exports : 



Hhds. 



1866 33,637 



1867 .. .. .. 31,206 



1868 36,259 



1869 29,268 



1870 31,966 



Comparison of progress : 



Hhds. 



1871 37,010 



1872 35,553 



1873 28,428 



1874 28,398 





Year. 



Sugar. 



Eum. 







1854 

 1864 

 1874 



558,571 cwts. 

 522,498 „ 

 29,378 hhds. 



1,665,932 galls. 



1,280,854 „ 

 29,378 „ 

 19,351 puns. 





