The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-06-09
SUGAR IN LIBERIA.

Mr.. Ernest Lyon, consul general at
Monrovia, Liberia, has written report
to the Department of Commerce and
Labor about sugar making in that
country. He says:
Sugar making was once the most
Furnishing and paying industry of
Liberia. All along the banks of the
st. Paul River, in many places hid
den from view by the dense foliage,
may be found dilapidated boilers, parts
of engines, mills, and the grim foun-
dations of buildings. Noxious weeds
now cover farms which swarmed with
Workmen, crushing, cooking, and re-
timing the sugar cane, which grew lux
uriantly for miles along the fertile
banks of the river. Those were the
golden days of Liberia. when great
quantities of sugar We're sold, not only
along the Liberfan coast, but in the
markets of Liverpool and New York.
Labor supplied by the aborigines and
captured Kongoes returned by the
United States Government to Liberia
was cheap and plentiful. The price of
merchandise on the ground was high
and the planters did not scruple to
take advantage of the cheap labor and
the high price of merchandise given in
exchange
Among the causes which contribute
ed to the abandonment of the industry
We're: % The fall in the price of su-
gar, consequent principally upon the
introduction of cheap beet sugar; (2)
the falling off Of American shipping
facilities. New York being the princi-
pal port to which most of the sugar
was shipped; 60 the Introduction of
coffee, which superseded the sugar
cane industry, and (D the lack of
capital to improve and purchase new
machinery. The price of sugar declin-
ed from II and II cents to cents per
pound, which was found insufficient
to meet the working expenses. The in
PRODUCTION of beet sugar on the Liber-
ian market, the cost of machinery, and
the scarcity of laborers, who were
drawn away by the growth of the cof-
fee industry. resulted in a general col
lapse. Every other agricultural enter
prise was abandoned for coffee, which
brought from Is to 20 cents per pound,
and the farmers grew rich.
so long, however, as sugar-cane
farming lasted it paid. One of the
farmers who never abandoned the in
dustry declared recently in a converse
ton on the subject that even cents
per pound for sugar paid him. In the
present reverses of the coffee industry
several small sirup makers and dis
tillers at CrOzierville now find in sugar
culture a reasonable competence, even
with their limited capital and poor
machinery.
Sugar cane in Liberia. grows lux
uriantly. When properly planted and
cultivated the stubble will last from
three to four years before it begins to
deteriorate. The mode of planting i
simple: ID The woods, if high land,
must be cleared in the months of jan
uary and February. woods of younger
growth in February and March; the
is first cut, then the larg-
er trees; ca when the farm is thor
oughly dried fire is applied 10 the
brush the ashes serving as fertilizer;
10 the soil is then hoed up in parallel
rows. about 4 feet apart; "a the stalk
of the cane is cut in two parts. about
, or feet from the top. and the top
part is stripped of the leaves and laid
in the shade until time to plant When
that times comes the cuttings are laid
in the rows and covered. When the
plants reach a height of , or 3 feet
they are killed up on both sides of the
row. The land thereafter must be
cleaned two or three times in the year
Cane planted in April, May, and June
IS ready TO be cut in December, Jan
lary, and February.
The process of manufacturing is the
same as adopted in other countries.
Considering the extreme fertility OF
he soil and its peculiar adaptation TO
The production of cane. il may be as
serted that no other country presents
better advantages for sugar cultiva-
ton. Liberian soil properly farmed
will yield from $50 to $40 to the acre
all along the banks of the st. Pauf
River and interiorward