, 1890-08-20
Cooperation and Cane Farm.
ing in the West Indies.

might yet be the salvation of the West
Indian sugar industry, and that both en-
ployers and employed might yet see brighter
days. In one Of the English newspapers
by this mail there is also a very interesting
letter by Mr.. Samuel J, Capper on this
solution OF the labor question. Mr., Capper
wrote from Mecklenberg, where he was the
guest OF the Baron Anton Won Butcher.
The Baron, who is a descendant of the
Waterloo hero. was trying the experiment
Of cooperation on his own estate.
profit sharing is no new thing, and has
leen tried both in England and France in
manufactures, work shops, and great print
ing houses, but never, 50 far as we know,
in the case of a great land owner and his
peasantry. On the baron's estate there is
q village of 300 inhabitants, the men of
which are employed as laborers. He placed
q moderate estimate on the value Of his es.
tate, and upon that / per cent at the end
of the year is reckoned as a first charge due
to capital. But on any profit beyond that
6 per cent is allotted to the laborers, and
shared among them at the end Of each ten
years. If any man leave the estate he IS
paid in a lump sum the amount that may
have accrued to him. The scheme, it will
be seen, is, so far one Of ingenious cooper
alton. The Market price Of labor is paid,
OF COURSE, i'll dlQlulOu " ll6 pEOuU hlldlIlIS
in the annual produce OF the estate"
In Martinique we may study its opera
ton perhaps more proitably than with the
rhiIanthropic baron. There cooperation, or
Is it is more properly described, cane farm
ing, is carried out in a very equitable manner,
and is said to be aperfect success. The
cane farmer receives payment for q certain
portion Of the proceeds-one-thlrd This
PAYMENT is always prompt, and regulated
every fortnight according to the markets
by an officer especially appointed by gov
ernment for that purpose. The shareholders
in the usine are paid IN the same manner,
and after they have received their dividends
the cane planter receives o bonus Of other
profits remain). 1t may be roughly calcu-
ated that the planter receives from SIS. to
los a ton net, L.. e., 81 to $3.50.
Sir John Gorrie also referred in his speech
to the colonial company, who have long since
farmed out cane fields on a small scale. The
objection on their part has been mostly that
it entailed poor cultivation, and the exhaus-
ton of the soil, etc., but Harmony Hall
last crop showed exceptionally brilliant re.
suits from the system, and that was partly
due. no doubt, to the wise policy PURSUED
of advancing the farmers sufficient to carry
on the cultivation properly. The return
was 400 ~hogsheads of sugar from the far
mers, for which Is. GID q ton was paid
standing canesl, At first the company's
lands were given free, but subsequently a
small rent was demanded; in other cases the
farmers grew the canes on their own lar7s.
The peasant farmers, in addition to ~cultivat-
ing their own canes, worked cheerfully on
the estate, and thus demonstrated that the
African laborer is not quite such a lazy fell
low as he is often represented; he only wants
q proper stimulus to e~xertion, the same as
any one else, or as he would himself express
it. she wants to see what he is working
for" the system, it is said, has paid the
company well, and the moral effect on the
cane farmers, who all live in the neigh
boring village of Gasparillo, is most mark
ed. These people, who were 8 few years
ago the most squalid, insolent, and idle
population in the colony, have now become
smart, thrifty and prosperous. Sir John
Gorrie, it is said, has not wasted his time
in Tobago, and has made an effort to intro
duce a similar system at Mount Irving
instead of the present metayage.
IF cooperation is to be extensively intro.
duced in either Trinidad or Tobago, it is
to be hoped that the fourishing system of
Martinique may receive due consideration
The marvel is that it was never thought of
before, and probably had such a thing
crossed mems minds years ago, we should
never have heard of coolie immigration and
all the complications it has entalled.-Irini-
dad AGRICULTURAL Record.