THE TROPICAL AQRIOOLTURIST, 
[June i, 1892. 
those refineries work, not from the sugarcane, but 
from coarse native sugar. 
" In all the statistics sent us, Mauritius and similar 
sugars are described as refined, but this is altogether 
misleading. There are no refineries in Mauritius, 
where sugar is remelted, and the produce of the 
island is simply raw sugar properly made by modern 
processes. 
"It is such sugar that India ought to make, and 
the Empire, with sufficiently improved cultivation 
and machinery, might readily supply the world with 
sugar. Refining is a secondary process, likely to 
altogether die out, by slow degrees, as cane and beet 
manufacture becomes more prefect. The disappear- 
ance of refining in Bengal, though hard upon indi- 
viduals, is really a sign that there is progress else- 
where, and progress whicli no country is better 
adapted than Bengal to share in. 
" That modern . sugar can be well made in India is 
shown by Messrs. Minchin at Aska, Madras, and it 
is simply absurd that India should have first to 
export the labour to Mauritius, and then to re-import 
sugar from that distant island, which could be as 
well made, and certainly more cheaply, at home. 
India is generally regarded as the home of the sugar- 
cane, and with its teeming population, its climate, 
and (in some districts) its plentiful water and coal 
supply, it should be a large exporter of fine sugar 
instead of an importer. , 
"The manufacture of modern (or, as it is called 
vacuum pan; sugar, to be profitable, must be on a 
large scale, because it involves costly machinery and 
chemical and mechanical supervision impossible for 
ryots, who probably do not extract one-third of the 
sugar that might be extracted from their crops, and 
make that third in a shape that looks more like 
manure than sugar, and which appears to fetch in 
many parts of India as little as 6s. per cwt. on the 
spot, whereas Mauritius sugar in India must net 
double that to pay the grower. 
" Vacuum pan sugar making is, probably, only 
possible on a large scale in India tbrough the central 
factory system, where the raw canes are bought by 
the mill from the growers. A system similar to this 
already prevails in indigo and silk mills in Bengal. 
" We do not knew whether the Government of 
India would be able to start a few model factories in 
suitable districts, or whether they must confine their 
attempts to develop sugar manufacture to the 
collection of information and figures like those in the 
returns forwarded to us. In auy case, the efforts of 
the Government in this direction for some years past 
cannot fail to be of gx-eat value." 
This letter was sent by the Secretary of State to 
the Government of India, and in reply to the points 
there raised, a series of letters were obtained from 
authorities of India. The Director of the Depart- 
ment of Land Records and Agricuiture, North-West 
Provinces and Oudh, wrote : — 
"The suggestions made by Messrs. Travers and 
Sons is that the Government of India might start a 
few model factories for the preparation of sugar by 
modern processes in suitable districts. This appears 
to be the only point of practical import nee in the 
memorandum. In my opinion the Government 
would be ill-advised were it to act on the suggestion. 
I base my opinion on the general ground that private 
enterprise in India is now sufficiently alter and well 
organised to undertake the business of sugar -refining 
on a large scale, and with ample capital if there were 
a reasonable prospect of success. That sugai-refining 
companies working on scientific principles, such as 
the Rosa Company and the Aska Factory, show no 
signs of multiplying in India is to my mind a clear 
pioof that, under existing commercial conditions, the 
prospects of successful trade are small. Nor is the 
explanation why prospects are not encouraging far to 
seek. Jiuropean sugar rcfiiicncs in India have two 
markets, and two only, open to them. They can 
manufacture for export to Jiiurope, in which case they 
have to contend with the bounty-aided sugars of the 
Continent, and are no moro able than the Mauritius 
factors to make a reasonable profit on their capital 
in Huch Vi market. Or they can mauufacture for 
local consumption in India, endeavouring to supplant 
sugars refined by native or crude Europan processes, 
and sugars imported from the Mauritius. Here they 
are met with the great difficulty that the mass of the 
native population regards with dogged suspicion all 
machine-made sugar, holding it to be impure and 
contaminated with bones and blood. The market is 
thus a very small one, and the prices ruling in it are 
by no means improved by the quantities of similar 
sugar thrown in despair upon it by Mauritius 
planters. Assuming that the cost of producing a 
given amount of crystallised sugar by modern 
processes is about the same in India and in the 
Mauritius (and from such information as I have at 
hand, I do not think a sugar refinery in India could 
manufacture cheaper than the Mauritius planter), 
what are probabilities of commercial success ? They 
are bounded, it seems to me, by the actual success 
attained by tlie Mauritius planters, and as we are 
constantly told that sugar in Mauritius does not 
pay, scientific sugar-refining in India is not a hope- 
ful industry. The Rosa Factory in these provinces 
depends more on its rum than on its sugar, and I 
believe this is the case with the few other similar 
concerns existing in other provinces. 
"The memorandum refers in contemptuous terms 
to the quality of the common sugars consumed by 
the Indian public. But they have an almost unli- 
mited and active market, which is at present closed 
to machine-made sugar ; and even if superstitious 
prejudices could be overcome, there would still 
remain the question of national taste. The compost 
known as f/ur has a peculiar flavour which is absent 
from machine-made sugars, and the tastes of a most 
conservative people will require to be changed 
before the local markets of India really open to 
the European sugar manufacturer. 
"I admit all that the memorandum says as to the 
smallness of the yield of sugar per acre in India, 
as to the inferiority of the processes employed to 
extract the juice and make it into sugar, and as 
to the low quality of the so-called ' refined sugars ' 
of India. But it is conceivable that these rude 
processes and this small outturn may yield a profit, 
while scientific processes and high cultivation result 
in a loss. Not only does the Mauritius system 
require a large initial capital expenditure, and a 
large annual outlav, but it also requires a highly 
paid supervising and controlling agency. I do not 
defend the imperfections of the Indian system, but 
I think it is economically explicable. 
" There would be some difficulty in introducing 
the Mauritius system bodily into India, since a 
prominent feature of that system is that planting 
and manufacturing are concentrated in the same 
hands. But as the memorandum points out, a sugar 
refinery migirt easily work in an Indian sugar- 
growing district on the line familiar to indigo 
planters. It would buy cane at the proper season 
from cultivators of the neighbourhood, and would 
restrict its interest in the actual production of the 
crop advances to growers. A large sugar refinery, 
I may point out, would have to face two problems 
which are not easy to solve. The first is the question 
of carriage. Cane soon dries when cut, and cannot 
be carried long distances, A sugar refinery has 
thus to depend for its raw material an a small area 
devoted almost exclusively to the production of 
sugar, and this is opposed to the habits and tra- 
ditions of the Indian agriculturst. The second 
difficulty is that the machinery of the factory would 
stand idle for a great part of the year, and occu- 
pation would not be forthcoming for the hands, 
unless a subsidiary business, such as the maufacture 
of rum, is added to that of sugar refining. The 
market for rum in India is not large, and ia 
probably sufficiently supplied by existing concerns." 
Mr. M. Pinucane, Director, Depatment of Land 
Records and Agriculture, Bengal, wrote: — 
"As regards the question of improvements in 
manufacture suggested by Messrs. Travers and Sons, 
I would remark that it seems not unreasonable to 
suppose that such improvement is t ossible and it 
is uot improbable that the establishment of model 
