198 



SUGAK. 



this argument, showing that all the profits are in favour of the factory, 

 and the chance of loss for the planter ] but he starts his arguments on 

 a false basis, at least as far as would regard Porto Rico, his calcu- 

 lations being based on the supposition that a fair yield per acre 

 would be 279 cwts. of canes. Such a poor crop of canes would not 

 be tolerated here ; we seldom get less than 500 cwts., more frequently 

 600 cwts., and very often as much as 800 cwts. per acre, so that what 

 the Count makes appear as a loss to the planter would, in our case, be 

 a very handsome profit. 



My opinion is, it should be borne in mind that Usines, at the outset, 

 were very unprofitable speculations ; all their projectors ruined them- 

 selves — an evident sign they were paying the planters too heavy a 

 price for their canes in proportion to the power of extraction of their 

 machinery, though this machinery was admitted to be far superior to 

 that on any sugar estate ; therefore the planter, at 5 per cent., was 

 receiving a greater value for his canes than that on the sugar, &c., he, 

 with his own machinery, would have extracted from them, and minus 

 the expense of manufacture. 



Formerly few estates' mills, driven by steam or water power, ex- 

 tracted more than 50 per cent, weight of juice from canes ground : 

 windmills and cattle mills seldom or never did this ; and under the 

 bad system of defecation and concentration generally practised on 

 small estates, one pound of dry sugar per gallon of juice was con- 

 sidered the average yield. Under such circumstances, the planter 

 who is relieved from the trouble and expense of manufacture, and 

 receives for his canes the value of 5 per cent, of dry sugar, — good 

 4ths, — drives a profitable business, unless he can have at his disposal 

 capital sufficient to erect a good plant. 



Certainly, an old-established factory could afibrd to be more liberal, 

 but in a country where central factories were being introduced for the 

 first time, where, of course, incidental and unforeseen expenses are liable 

 to occur, it would not be prudent for a company to start such an 

 establishment on any other basis ; neither would it tend to the advan- 

 tage of the cane-planter that it should do so ; for the failure to the 

 company would be ruin to the man who might have spent more than 

 his all in planting and cultivating his cane-fields, and the percentage 

 might Le increased after the second or third year, when there would no 

 longer be fear of failure. That some Usines have extracted upwards 

 of 8 per cent., there is no doubt*; but that many have not obtained 

 6, is also a recognized fact. Moreover, with any percentage of 

 extraction, a factory, to pay a good premium on capital employed, 

 must be supplied with canes for at least one hundred and twenty 

 days' full work. This can scarcely be expected in a new factory, 

 established, as probably it would be, in a district not yet fully culti- 

 vated. 



There were many causes which tended to the failure of the first 

 factories established. The difficulty of transporting the canes to a 

 distance, and the loss of time in the factories from their irregular 

 supply : it is impossible to work satisfactorily a sugar manufactory, 

 where the work is interrupted for want of material, imperfect defeca- 

 tion and concentration producing an excess of glucose, causing a 



