66 
TRINIDAD. 
molasses sufficiently drained out of it, the hogshead is- 
headed up and carted to the shipping place, shij^ped, and 
after crossing the blue sea, it reaches its destination in 
the West India Docks, or whatever other port the yessel 
may be hound for. 
It will be seen from the above brief description that 
the planter is both an agriculturist and a manufacturer. 
Now, there is nothing in common between these tw'o 
occupations ; they are distinct, and it may he said that 
tlie one occupation is apt to unfit a man for the pursuit 
of the other. But however this may be, the manager of 
an estate must he equally conversant with the cultivation 
of the cane as witli the manufacturing of sugar. Tlie 
division of labour is certainly productiA'e of great and 
good results, in whatever branch of industry it is earned 
out, and one cannot but thiidc that if one class of men 
cultivated the cane, and another made the sugar, there 
would be more canes grown, and better sugar made, than 
on the present plan. And certainly, 'under such an 
arrangement, more and better sugar would be shipped 
at the same outlay. I can imagine some old planter 
reading this, and either being amused at the chimerical 
Utopian ideas of the writer, or, more prol)ably, being 
vexed and angry at this foolish notion. But whether 
planters arc vexed or amused at such ideas, the one 
thing for the West Indian proprietor is to learn to make 
suqar better and at a less cost than has hitherto been 
done. It is easy enough to find fault, but difficult 
enough to know how to mend matters. Any one familiar 
with the West Indies can see many things which make 
it so difficult, if not impossible, to manufacture sugar at 
a remunerative price. It is astonishing the amount of 
elasticity there is in the article. It rebounds and rights 
itself in si)ite of the heavy weight thrown u])on it. 
Indeed, it may be questioned whether any other article 
could stand the pressure that is put on sugar. 
The proprietor is generally an absentee, and expects 
to live comfortably upon the profits of his sugar estate. 
