32 The Journal of the Royal 
were well versed in matters pertaining to cane 
cultivation, and there would be ever ready a certain 
market for all the canes they could grow. This was a 
very important point, because they had heard very 
often, in connection with the provision crops, that when 
a large crop was reaped there was practically no market 
in which it could be disposed of ; and in consequence 
the farmers had been disappointed generally, and had 
to some extent neuflected the cultivation of orround 
crops. The farmers, he was sorry to say — he had been 
looking at some of their cane plots quite recently — were 
in some cases cultivating them in a very slovenly 
manner, allowing the grass to smother the young canes, 
with the result that dissatisfaction and loss had been 
their lot, which was deplorable from every point of 
view. Another point which it was desirous should be 
impressed upon them was the imperative necessity for 
good tillage, good drainage, and careful attention to 
cultivation, because he felt that if they were 
disappointed it would be a bad thing for them, for the 
estates, and for the oolony generally. All who came 
into contact with them, he considered, should endeavour 
to impress upon them the necessity for careful tillage, 
thorough drainage, and good all-round cultivation. 
The manufacturer, he felt certain, would only be too 
pleased to purchase canes by manufacturing which into 
sugar and rum he could realise a small profit. 
He had seen it stated in the local Press that sugar 
estates were in a flourishing condition and were making 
large profits. If this was so, it was an extraordinary 
thing that when a sugar estate was for sale it was 
impossible, or next to impossible, to find a purchaser, 
except at a ''wreck" price, and that investors steered 
i 
