, 1893-05-20
TWENTY YEARS IMPROVEMENTS
IN DEMERARA SUGAR PRODUC-
TON.
BY Mr.. Seaforth NJ. BeIlairs, Manager
Chateau Margot, Demerara.
From The Louisiana Flamter d Sugar
Manufactaf er.

NAV as we'll assert at once that | mean 1t
only from the dollars and and cents point Of
view, and shall only regard that as an I'M
provemert which enables the producer to
turn out a ton Of sugar at less cost or to put
it in a few words, anything is an improve
ment that pays, no regard being had to sci
ence or art, philanthropy or comfort,
Sugar production may be primarily
divided into two departments, which al
though as a rule conducted by the same per-
sons, are very distinct from each other.
These departments are agriculture and man
u%facture, or s'feld and buildings, to use the
planters slang.
Let us begin by considering the field" or
agricultural department., and see what ~saltera-
tons have been made in the last twenty
wears, and then consider which are improve
ments.
In considering agriculture, we must care
fully keep before oureyes our definition Of the
word improvements" The object and end
of agriculture is to land the best and sweetest
canes at the factory for the least pc ssible ex-
pense duringa long series of years.
1t is not an interesting series Of agricuItu-
raj experiments, and it is not a pretty Gull
t%ivation," nor necessarily a large return per
acre nor is it doing wonders for a crop or two
and then having All impoverished plantation.
We must remember that canes are only a
means to an end. The end is money ciG
sugar.
Rank. unripe canes may look very pretty
in the field, but they do not "fll the manu-
facturer's eye''as they go up the cane carrier.
tits unnecessary to say much about the
starved cultivation. The profits from such
a system are so obviously declared out Of
capital account that it can not be seriously
recommended, except perhaps on those ex-
c~eptional estates which have so large an area
of land that they may follow their c%ultiva-
ton when exhausted and let nature take time
and renew its fertility.
During the last twenty years there has
been very little Improvement in Agriculture
from the cane point of view. l think that
the colony grew neatly if not quite as many
canes per acre twenty years ago as 1t does
now, but | imagine that there has been very
great Improvement from the sugar point OF
visw, and enormous Improvement from
the money side of the question. Th average
cane Juice of the colony is both purer and
richer than it was and this is attributable to
many reasons.
Filst,-The factories, are as a rule much
stronger than they were, and therefore the
estates grind fewer weeks, and can afford t.
hit the time when the canes are most fit to
be cut. much better than used to be the case.
The effect Of this greater strength OF the
factory relative to the cultivation is p%articu-
larly mott ceable at the end of the year.
Canes bloom or arrow about September and
we all know that the very best time for reap
ing is the time fixed by nature. and that is
when the arrow begins to dry and fall of,
which is generally in October or November.
| can remember the time when many es-
tates used to haze to begin grinding in August
when the arrow was in the cane and the juice
both poor and full of starches most deliterious
to the manufacturer, which would have been
converted By a few weeks sun into sugar.
There was generally q weak Ipoint in the
evaporatave appliances and the pans or some
thing, used to 60 on from very small hours
on Monday morning right through, night and
day till-till-well it's is said right through
till rather large hours on Sunday morn
iugs right through the best rsaping
tin. Of the year, and on through the
n~ecombsr rains, when the moisture
would cause q second growth in the
over ripe canes, and on till February or
March. There were Of course ~stoppages to
"clean up" to allow the megasse to dry and
work off the accumulation of molasses.
Often they had to stop, sorely against their
will in dry weather, just at the most
favorable time, ON account of there being no
" ~ Il A..1loc 80 kha rowiraf.nu