, 1896-12-19
THE WEST INDIES AND SUGAR.
Louisiana Planter, It'll Nor)

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In his Book on the West Indies, Froude
draws cons ant attention to the signs OF pros
perity in The past that might almost be de-.
scribsd as III gnifcent, and he contrasts it
with the p ,sent comparatively miserable
condition Of lie islands, his text being the
degeneration f modern England, whieh can
allow 80 grtnta change to take place. AS u
matter OF fact John Bull is a practical per.s
son, and came TO The conclusion soIae thirty
Years ago Il at it was no longer worth his
while, Though protective duties, to give the
West Indian planter 20 shilling per"Vt. for
sugar when il could be produced for han the
money. An econt mical revolution followed,
Of courkc, i'll he islands Of which we have
not vet seen the end, especially as the RESULTS
of our old follies take SO long to undo. During
the past artificial prosperity, caused by the
mother COuntry's lavish generosity, the plan
tors were 80 prosperous that estates Wtde d. =
,ided SIND SubaN ided. as was liatuEal alta
time when The possession # a few hundred
acres yielded a prince!y income. Now that
at tAe best they can yield an ordinary aSri;
cultural profit; operations must be "n a far
larger scale, and modern sugar thakieg de-
mands costly machinery. Which can Only re
afforded on large estates.
The subdivision Of the land thus imposes
very gleat difficulty in the way Of progress at
any late while the growing Of the game and
the manufacture Of the sugar continue in the
same hands 1t has for many. years seemed
to us that the remedy for this lies in the
soparation Of the two industries, and III the
creation Of central factories to which the
planters shall sell the cane. For some re&-
son which we cannot quite understand, the
central factory idea does mot SEN to have
made much headway i'll the West Indies.
Possibly people have been in the Lnbit OF re-
living too much ON HE. mother county, and in
win expecting to come for~Ard with some
preferential scheme oftaxation:B Besides thistle
constant lamentations rs to the ruin" of the
West Indies have had the effect of Tighten
ing away capital. In our opinion the West
Indies are no more ruined than they were
during any Of the former crises 50 Common i'll
all protected industries OF course sugar
making is no longer protected and must rely
on itself. 1t appears qulte likely, however,
that q sufficiently prosperous future is ID
store for it, and flat the West Indies may
snce more beCome our most successful pos
sessions.
Sugar growing may be partially superseded
by fruit, coffee, spice and other tropical Gull
tires for instance, the growth of il d;go is
being tried ~ a SUCCESSION crop to sugar IN =
some of the French islands. But sugar alone,
even at the rxtreme depression Of last year,
when the beet growers were losing, beyond
their bounty. L.. Cd. to Is. per cwt., can be
made to pay when conducted on a sufficient
by large scale.
The report Of the Colonial Company for
the past year sufficiently shows this. This is
a very large enterprise managed With con-
spicu0us courage. skill and energy. The
results to the shareholders have, it is true,
been very discoulaging, but against the fates
even the gods contond in vain. Sugar
was never 50 depressed as in 1895, Yet
nevertheless the actual manufacturing oper-
ations (apart from The in crest, etc.) Of the
company showed a small net profit. The
following average table Of cost and selling
prices is gwen in the report, and is most
instructive and cheering.
I1U