The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-02-03
THE PACIFIC
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 3.
a QueensIander ia America
CANE-FIELDs OF THE UNITED STATES AND
WEST INDIES.
&c J.

o. CdUe HUH TaEItFs auu RTO"cEst - = N-~--
facture sugar from canes grown 10 this way:
This they did By applying the principle followed
10 beet sugar countries 10 cane farming Inc
islands Of Guadelonpe and Martinique are pecu-
liarly well fitted for an experiment of the kind.
Each Of the islands is tbiekly populated. large
sections of the land are held by small owners
a steady, contented. remarkably weIl-to-do peo-
pie. At the present day these small land owners
are well supplied with excellent cattle. The
first factory was commenced some thirty years
ago and by an Englishman. according to the ro-
mantle tales of early sugar growing Of the cOun-
try. At that time the French islands exported
fruits and grain, and vessels trading in the West
Indies found supplies this was while voyages
were long, AID steam less common than now.
The plantations were then all large bat this
EnglIshman thought he could induce the farming
class OF land owners TO grow cane. He offered
to purchase ard in order to make the cane into
sugar he built the factory now known as Pointe
Simone. He did not succeed. After a strug-
gle he dropped out of the business but ere that
time others had commenced to purchase cane.
From all / can gather. it would seem that the
system made but little head way until the French
firm Of Gail & Co., of Paris, took the factories
in hand. 1t appears that this firm were, aud are
still, manufacturers Of sugar machinery. They
introduced into Martinique the much-improyed
system followed in the French beet sugar fac
tories. Still success came. but slowly. Ere 1t
was secured, Gail Il Co. had taken over several
of the sugar estates into their own hands. and
placed them under the control of what proved to
be a very superior class of Woodworking me-
chanical engineers, mostly, l believe, trained 10
their own works in France.
Gail IL Co. set to work as though satisfied
that the way to make sugar pay was to separate
cane-growing from sugar making. They were
aided by the French Government and officials
in the effort to encourage the smaller land owners
to grow cane for sale. They went further, and
induced persons who did not own land. or who
had not q suficiency OF their own, to lease or
rent portions of the estates that had fallen into
their hands, to grow cane at stipulated prices,
and to dispose of It at their factories only. This
appears to have been the successful commence
meut of the usine" or central factory system
in the French islands. At the present day that
| system is admittedly a long way ahead of any
thing seen in the Australian colonies, yet it is
almost matter of surprise, on seeing these gigan-
tic French works for the first time, and on learn
ing the details of the system, to find how closely
| they approximate to what has been done in the
| Logan district by Messrs. Fryar and StrachaD,
and other gentlemen.
1t seems TO me a fortunate circumstance that
the first decisive efforts to assimilate the pro-
| ductfon of sugar cane to that of the beet sugar
factory system were made in the French West
Indies. Holders of small areas of land were at
! that time more numerous in these French islands
than in any other sugar producing country
tralia being unknown as a sugar-prOducer Tor
| many years afterwards. And the people are of
a fixed type they do not appear to have any
desire to leave their islands they seem quite
satisfied when O living is earned for the main
| tenance of their families. They are the most
cOntented people | have seen yet and, as a
| whole, are better of-have more of the real plea
surers and eDjoyments of life-than any others
met up to date.
From the outset of the attempt to separate
cane-growing from sugar making, the French Go
vernment and officials have encouraged the sys-
TEN. They have aided the subdivision of plan
i tatiOne into farms Whara nrOnprtV of tlIa kind
was owned by or under Government control,
every inducement was held out for the growing
of cane by tenant farmers and this, too, during
a long series of years., while planters in the other
islands, and the executive of the islands as well
ESQ 1 am told), sueered and laughed at their
French neighbors for their romantic notions of
cane farming.
It was fortunate, too, that the house of Gail
& Co. took the business in hand. This firm. as
l believe, have had long experience in the beet
root sugar business, both as manufacturers of ma
chinery and as owners of factories in Europe.
They sent, and have continued to send, the very
best class of machinery to Guadeloupe and Mar
Unique. They also sent irst-class men as man.
ayers. The huge mills in use there, the triple
effect apparatus for reducing the liquor to syrup.
the filters, vacuum pans, and centrifugals are all
of the best kind that European beet sugar-makers
employ. and although the appliances are not
each and all the best ~ their kind known to and
seen upon the sugar plantations OF the present
day, they are still, as a whole, ahead of any sin.
| pie system seen during the whole of this trip.
Small holdings are common IN the French is
lands. In Martinique there are independent
cane farmers who have not more than a few, say
twelve, acres, and even this small holding the
owner, if he is a family man, is disposed to sub
divide. All over the territory colonized by the
French, in Louisiana as we'll as the islands, we
see that the parents will subdivide and subdivide,
in their desire to have their families settle near
them. 1t is quite q common thing to see 81 the
old HON arfaal ~ and ornrn6 ~ 4 ruou ho uoN1o
or rods. or acres apart, according to the size of
the holding-groups of cottages occupied by the
sons and daughters OF the old folks, and their
families. Perhaps there is not much to admire
in this system, beyond the remarkably domestic
character of the people. But we do not see the
poverty and squalor that might be expected were
the system followed by others than French and
like water that becomes too much muddied, it
works its own cure. In travelling over the ls-
lands, one is constantly hearing of numbers of
small holdings that have come into the care of
large proprietors, and been by them converted
into canefelds for here the end and aim of
everyone. even close to the towns, is to have as
much land as possible under cane.
The French usine system has a double aspect.
Several OF the factories purchase all, or very
nearly all, their cane from land owners in their
neighborhood. Others own the land, and rent or
lease it out to contributory tenants. From the
former class OF farmers, or those who own the
land they work, the factory agrees to purchase
the whole crop and the law, while it compels
the factory to take or pay for all the cane grown
under agreement, provides for the infection of q
severe penalty should the grower sell his cane to
another manufacturer. There is, l should say,
considerable competition between the factories
but there does not appear to be much disturbance
through breaking of contracts by either grow
ers or manufacturers. In this respect the
French have evidently reached a degree of per-
lection that accounts largely for the comparative
prosperity of their islands, even at the present
time, when we hear everywhere else that sugar
is a poor investment-that neither industry nor
capital prevent ruin in this business. All the
parties in the sugar industry in these islands,
growers, manufacturers, agents, merchants,
bankers, evidently act and work as though aware