340 
GUATEMALA. 
will pardon me, I trust, if, in briefly discussing the 
present outcome of the soil, I let my imagination, 
trained and curbed by an extended experience, sug¬ 
gest at the same time what the wonderfully fertile 
lands of Guatemala might yield, properly cultivated. 
While I will endeavor to guard myself from all exag¬ 
geration, I cannot conceal from myself the fact that 
those not familiar with tropical luxuriance of growth 
and fruitfulness will not fully acquit me of this fault 
so generally charged to travellers. 
Sugar-cane. — Arranging the products to be described, 
not in a scientific order, but in that sequence which their 
commercial importance seems to suit, sugar-cane easily 
leads; and this in spite of the difficulties of the labor 
supply, which I deem of more importance than the 
artificial competition of the very inferior sugar-beet. 
It is a bold assertion that no country or climate is 
better suited to the culture of sugar-cane. I have 
watched the growth of four of the choicest varieties 1 
of cane side by side with that usually cultivated on 
the Atlantic coast (Bourbon), compared this with the 
growth of cane in Louisiana, the West Indies, Guiana, 
the Hawaiian Islands, India, the East Indies, Egypt, and 
the Mauritius, and I have ascertained the cost of cul¬ 
tivation, expense of living, yield and freight of product 
1 Lahaina, Salangore, Elephant, Ribbon. 
