, 1881-06-29

WEDNESDAY, 18th JUNE 1881.

Our readers will find elsewhere q letter
On the subject Of the Central Factory, and
they will observe that our correspondent has
no confidence at all in the pipesystem, and
contends that no body here has any. This
certainly is true, but if only the system were
in reality good, then it would not matter
what people thought or said about it.
However it is but too true that the vacu-
um pan has boiled much too slow during
this campaign and much slower than last
year, and that everybody, the sugarbOilers
included, stand before an incomprehensi-
bile thing, before q riddle which none has
as yet been able to SOlye-except by
ascribing the defect to the pipesystem. 1t
Is impossible to find any reason for the
defect outside Of the Factory such reasons
as formerly have been alleged for the
forthcoming sea of previous UuuIpafgrs, tltut
the Factory could not get canes enough,
that the canes were bad, Or that there had
been no wind to bring out the coal vessels
III due time do not exist this year the
factory has not been able to take the canes
quicker than the planters have delivered
them, has not been able to manufacture
more canes in the time the campaign has
lasted, than it has in reality received, and
with regard TO the quality of the canes it
is an acknowledged fact that the juice has
never been sWceter than this year. Goals
have been abundant from the beginning,
thanks to the foresight of the manager,
who had kept a supply from last year, else
1t would have been the same thing as
then, for the first coal vessels came in
very late. The pipesystem III a hot climate
is an experiment and like most other ex.
periments must necessarily swallow time
and money before it can succeed.
1t it succeeds, if it realizes the idea on
which 1t was started, that planters should
be enabled to spare their works and devote
all their labour to the cultivation of the soil,
then st. Croix will haye reason to be happy
& glad for the Factory, provided only that
the success does not come too late and
after the Colonial Treasury has sunk too
deeply in debt by the guarantee for inter
est.
Last year it is true the factory worked
better than this year, and it was stated at
the General Meeting i'll Copenhagen that
If it had been able to begin earlier and had
got moro canes the surplus would have
been larger. But this year it has worked
very slow, and, as our correspondent
remarks, must have used a vast amount of
Goals n labour in proportion to the
produce made, although the conditions
under which it has worked have been
more favorable. This is one link in that
chain ofdoleful surprises which has attend
ed the history of our Factory.
AS far as we know two experiments
have been tried in this campaign, the one
in the beginning, when it was tried to do
without letting the Juice pass through the
animal charcoal; the other later, by
taking juice from the nearest station only,
the one at Princess. The first experiment
failed. giving a bad produce, but the
second gave the result that the strike was
successfully finished in half the time
which has usually been required this year.
This last experiment seems to indicatesthat
the usual delay in the pipes is in fact
injurious to the juice.
Our readers will see that the tendency
of our correspondents article is that a