302 : QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Aprin, 1899. 
GRENADA. 
The area under sugar here is placed at about 1,000 acres, and the sugar 
works are kept up chiefly for the distillation of rum. The island does not 
produce sufficient sugar for its own consumption. 
ST. LUCIA. 
There are several large estates here where the machinery is all of modern 
construction. The St. Lucia Mines and Estates Company, Limited, own or 
lease 13 estates, with a total area of 5,925 acres (2,086 acres in canes). 
The Dennery factory has a total of 560 acres in canes. The Central factory 
has a total area of 2,000 acres, with 550 acres planted in cane. Besides these, 
there are about 70 small areas owned by peasant proprietors, who sell to the 
neighbouring factories. Hardly any open-pan sugar is made in the island. 
ST. VINCENT. 
The position of the sugar industry in St. Vincent has been in a gradually 
decaying condition during the last fifteen years. Probably there are some 
60 estates working. The largest proprietor owns 21 estates, having a total 
area of 11,826 acres. 
The area under canes now is only 1,201 acres. 
Cane diseases, both borer and fungus, have also been more prevalent in 
St. Vincent than in any other part of the West Indies. Professor Harrison 
describes the manufacture “as in a most deplorably backward state.’’ He 
points out that “the crushing power of the water-mills (almost universally 
used) is very deficient . . . . inthe boiling-house, little care seems to be 
taken with the classification of the juice, and the sugar produced is of low 
quality.” All the sugar is open-pan or muscovado sugar. The total value of 
the produce under the present system is estimated at £20,400, whilst with a 
central factory it would probably be £29,650. 
In Dominica only 975 acres are under cane. Rum is distilled on five 
properties. Most of the large estates belong to absentee proprietors, and both 
the cultivation of the cane and the manufacture of its products are carried on 
in a primitive and wasteful manner. Only common muscovado sugar is made, 
and the largest properties do not turn out on an average more than 200 
hogsheads (about 178 tons). 
The same story is told of the sugar industry at Montserrat and Antigua, 
In the latter island over 13 tons of cane are required to make a ton of sugar, 
and from 60 to 70 gallons of molasses are yielded for each ton. The methods 
of manufacture have undergone little change for the past 200 years. 
On St. Kitts and Nevis the cost of producing a ton of raw sugar is stated 
to average £9 9s. 42d. 
The mean expression of the sugar-mills is 60 per cent. of juice from the 
weight of cane, and the return of sugar 6°32 percent. If the molasses were 
reboiled, a return of about 7:25 per cent. of sugar would be obtained. In the © 
former case it will be seen that it would require 16 tons of cane to produce 
1 ton of sugar, and in the latter 13°79 tons. 
Molasses is only worth 5 cents per gallon, and cannot be disposed of even 
at that price. 
JAMAICA, 
The area under cultivation in sugar-cane is 30,036 acres. The amount of 
capital invested in the industry is stated to be £ 1,167,000. 
The largest estate 1s not over 500 acres. 
Steam power is employed on 95 estates, water power on 88, water and 
steam on 3, and cattle on 4. 
Only 2 estates employ a vacuum pan and a triple effet. Rum is distilled 
on 138 out of 140 estates. The rum crop, of late years, has been often more 
valuable than the sugar crop. There is usually produced a cask of rum’ 
(100 gallons) for every ton of sugar. The average cost of producing 1 ton of 
sugar and 100 gallons of rum is £20; 
