Sugar v. Gold. 
LETTER FROM A DEMERARA PLANTER TO HIS PROPRIETOR IN ENGLAND. 
IOU have asked me for my views on the sugar 
prospects of the colony, and I will endeavour 
to put you in possession of at least some of 
the fa6ls relating to our position. 
You tell me that in the City you hear the sugar in- 
dustry spoken of as " now tottering to its fall, although 
mighty in bygone years'' and I gather with great regret, 
that some Demerara proprietors have lost all faith in 
their sugar properties, their one idea seeming to be to 
realize if possible, and tailing this, to crop and abandon. 
From your further remarks, it would also appear that 
complaints direct from the colony are not unknown, that 
the gold-fields have so seriously affected the labour 
market, and that this coupled with adverse seasons and 
low prices, make it now almost impossible to work an 
estate at a profit. 
It is notorious that some estates in the colony continue 
to yield their owners a yearly profit and that some do 
not. I should not like to say that all those which lose 
money could be made to pay, because one may find 
an estate which from poor land, isolated position and 
other circumstances, would be better abandoned in the 
interest of all concerned, but such cases are few, and 
I am satisfied that many estates which do not pay at 
present, can be made to pay. It may be presumed 
that if a man owns a sugar estate, which yields him a 
revenue in spite of bad years, low markets, foreign 
