, 1875-04-07

the canes are paid Tor, Is Diminished III
price in other words, the currency, IN q
fned q~uantitg of uhich payment for tie canes
IS male, IS dcbased. The effect Of these
artificial advantages enjoyed by the French
Usine over a similar English Usine (there
being no English duties) was shown by a
Paris correspondent 1.-THE Sugar Cane,
vol. 4, p. 38O) to be three pounds sterling
10 each ton of Usine sugar made!
The concluding paragraph of the letter
referred to may be appropriately inserted
here =
"The Central Factory system may be
sound in itself, and prove successful IN
English colonies, but it will be needtul to
separate the true success from the false,
derived from bounties and projections;
and it will be well to consider when these
are Withdrawn (and thus the premium on
the make of white crystals is withhe!d) in
what method Of manufacture real progress
consists"
There are two radical defects in the
French Central Factory system which the
planters of Jamaica would do well to con-
slider and arrange to amend.
The first IS the payment for the canes
by weight; with little or no interest in
the financial success of the factory, it be-
comes the interest of the planter to sell
the heaUiest canes, and theinterest Of the
Usine is to buy the sueetest canes. Hither-
to the object Of the planter has been to
produce the most su9ar from his land, and
no proverb is more true than that ''the
sugar is made in the field" Now, his
skill is exercised in producing the greatest
weight of canes, and there are methods Of
planting and manuring that will result in
large crops of watery canes. The steadily
diminished yields Of sugar obtained by
some of the French factories are attributed
to the skill with which the French plant
ers have solved the problem to produce
the heaviest crop Of watery canes, in
which process they will at least be pro
tected until the end Of their ten years
contract.
The second d)etectis, that the Usine over
steps or mistakes ms duty, and, Instead Of
limiting its competition to one with the
old and weak mills and the rude and des.
t|ructive processes of the small planter, it
endeavours to compete with the European
refner. The manufacture on an extensive
scale, and the use Of very powerful mills,
are certain to be profitable, and the avoid
ance of the destructive method Of the open
battery will yield a still greater profit;
but the attempt to use the very costly and
complicated processes of the European re-
fners fo~ a few months Of each year in
competition with those who will use them
more efficiently all the year round, must
fail, and the profits upon better expression
and non-injury to the juice must be very
great indeed to make good the loss upon
tropical refining, and to pay a reasonable
dividend to the shareholders. In the
French colonies the profits have been
boIstered up in the manner indicated, but
the days of this protection are numbered,
and will disappear when France adopts an
honest system of refining in bond. The
Central Factory of the future, I venture
to think, will be provided with the mos
massive cane mills, and will extract The
largest percentage of juice from the canes.
The megass will have the greater part Of
the sugar left in it removed by means of
the Afusor, aud the clarified Juice will be
converted into Concrete. The contribu-
tors of the canes, in the first instance, will
only receive d very small sum for them to
cover the cost Of agricultural labour; and
next, the expenses of manufacture will be
paid afterwards, q low rate of interest to