, 1892-10-26

VI EOCO'
He considered the proposal of great imPor-
lance for the island and believed that if it were
properly carried out, good results would come
out oft. He would therefore recommend the
Council togrant 5000 for the purpose stated in
the Money Bill.
Capt. BL, ckpood thought that the proposal
Of the Government was a step IN the righC dl-
rection. He had long been convinced that it
was impossible to go on with the rule OF
thumb methods Of our folefathers. They had
virgin soil to work on and high prices to back
them. We have neither. He thought, that
except occasionally, no Improvement in prices
could be looked for; as o rule we should not
get more than p cents per 10. for our sugar,
He did not believe that there were half a dozen
muscovado estates in st. Croix that could pay ;
molasses were practically valueless, and rum
brought too little to makei it worth while to turn
the molasses into rum. Having nothing but the
sugar to count on he did not see how the mus
covado estates could continue their guilty alton
and their sugar manufacture and make it pay.
His experience with the estates under his care
showed that. In this island there was better
cultivation and more natural manure was APP
piled than formerly. Whywas this Because
eople we're driven to it, they must make it
pay in some way. Consequently although the
cultivated area on the island was much TedUc-
ed, as much sugar was produced Oh the small
or area as was formerly produced on the larger.
Fortunately for the last few years we had
had plenty Of labour and there had been very
little trouble to manage it. When we look
around at other countries we see the necessity
of Improvement, louisiana planters thought
some years ago thai they knew all about sugar;
now they see that their industry is only IN its
infancy. The European beet crop had grown
to 3. 500, 900 tons and had beaten the produce OF
the cane growing countries by about | 200 900
tons. The truth was that the cane growers
had been depending too much on the cane be-
ing the natural sugar producing plant, and had
done very little for it, but now they have seen
that science applied to a less promising plant
has o~utstripped them. 1t is scientific know
ledge combined with practical knowledge that
is necessary. He hoped Therefore that every
body would support this measure. He would
only suggest that the laboratory should be at
the experiment station instead of at the Facto-
~, as the chemist servicos.would probably
be much required at the former place. He would
further mention that he had heard it remarked
that sugars would be shortly sold here on test.
1t would be more satisfactory both to seller
and buyer to have their sugars tested by an
unbiased person, and if there were a resident
chemist here planters would look to him
to test their sugars of course, for payment.
Testing was done by the Governments Chem
ist in Antigua. Many people here thought
that they knew all about soils and manures,
and the only argument to use with them, was
to take a piece Of land, treat it scientifically,
and then show what it produced. 1t must be
remembered, however, that artificial manure
does not do away with the need Of natural
manu- e. The ground must be kept rs rich as
possible and then the artificial manure used
as a stimulant to push the plants to use up tho
food. it had been said that Barbados had
more rain than we, which was true, it had
about a hundred lines more in the year, but
that was not the reason why Barbados had
been able to advlnce her crop from 80,0 900 TO
$4,000 hhds. There was no more ram III late
years than usual it was Dodd's laboratory
which had led to he great advance. 1t was the
work done there that saved the planters from
spending thousands of dollars upon spurious
manures, and it was there they learned what
were the proper manures to apply. he had
recently conversed with an old planter of this
island, a gentleman who had spent all his
life here and who had recently visited Bar
bados. and his opinion was that the soil of
Santa Cruz was deeper and better for the
sugar cane than that of Barbados. He be-
lieved that if the landwere treated as wellas in
Barbados it would give even better returns. In
Barbados they raised one crop, we tried to
raise two, that is to say cane and grass, on the
same land. He the speaker thought that
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