Our West India possessions have, owing to the want of a good supply of labor and available capital to introduce various scientific improvements, somewhat retrograded in the production of sugar; which, from the low price ruling the past year or two, has not been found a remunerative staple.

The two large islands of Jamaica and Cuba, may be fairly compared as to their production of sugar. From 1804 to 1808, Jamaica exported, on the average, annually 135,331 hhds., and from 1844 to 1848, it had decreased to 41,872 hhds. The exports from the single port of Havana, which in the first named period were 165,690 boxes, rose during the latter period to 635,185 boxes; so that the shipments of sugar from Jamaica, which were in 1804 to 1808 double those of Havana—in the period from 1844 to 1848, were five times less!

Cuba will be able to withstand the crisis of the low price of sugars, better than the emancipated British Colonies, for the following reasons:—

1. It will find, in its present prosperity, a power of resistance that no longer exists in the British sugar-growing colonies.

2. Because it enjoys in the Spanish markets a protection for at least 16,955 tons of its sugar, or about eight-tenths of its total exportation.

3. Because it has secured a very strong position in the markets of the United States; and both from its proximity to, and its commercial relations with that country, as also from the better quality of its sugar, will command the sale of at least 33,500 tons, or about 16 per cent. of its total production.

4. Because in 1854, after the duties shall have been equalized, it will be enabled to undersell the British article in its own market.

5. Because, not being an exclusively sugar-growing colony, as are almost all British West India Islands, it may suffer from the present depressed condition of the sugar market, but cannot be entirely ruined, owing to its having commanding resources, and many other valuable staples,—coffee, copper, cotton, &c.

6. Because, by improving its agriculture and introducing useful machinery, railroads, &c., for which it has large available capital, it can produce sugar at a diminished cost.

The consumption of sugar, during 1847, very singularly tallied with the production of the British Colonies that year—being exactly 289,000 tons; but as 50,000 tons of foreign sugar were consumed, an accumulation of British plantation sugar necessarily remained on hand.

The production of the French colonies was 100,000 tons, of which France received nine-tenths.

In 1836, Jamaica made 1,136,554 cwt. of sugar. In 1840, its produce had fallen off to 545,600 cwt.; but in the same years, Porto Rico had increased its sugar crop, from 498,000 cwt., to 1,000,000 cwt. In 1837, Cuba made 9,060,058 arrobas of sugar, equal to 132,765 hhds.; in 1841, it had increased to 139,000 hhds. The largest crop grown in the West Indies, since 1838, was that of 1847, which amounted to 159,600 tons.

The annexed returns of the sugar crops of Barbados and Jamaica, for a series of years may, be interesting:—

SUGAR CROPS OF THE ISLAND OF BARBADOS, FROM 1827 TO 1846 AND 1851.

SUGAR CROPS OF THE ISLAND OF JAMAICA, FROM 1790 TO 1851.

The average of the five years ending 1851, being the first five of Free trade, shows an annual export from Jamaica of 41,678 hhds.

Mauritius.—In the year 1813 the exports of sugar from this island were but 549,465 lbs., and increasing gradually to 128,476,547 lbs. in 1849, or two-hundred fold in thirty-six years.

The equalisation of the duties in 1825, and the admission of Mauritius sugars into England on the same footing as those from the West Indies, had the effect of stimulating the sugar trade of Mauritius, and advancing it to its present remarkable success. Notwithstanding its immense crops, scarcely more than three-fifths of the island is yet under cultivation; but it has the advantage of a cheap and abundant supply of labor, and much improved machinery has been introduced. The planters first commenced introducing Coolies in 1835, and were for some time restricted to the single port of Calcutta for their supply.

The recent advices from Mauritius furnish some interesting information regarding the progress making in the sugar production of that colony. In reference to the cultivation of the cane, it is stated that by the introduction of guano upon several estates in the interior, the production has been very largely increased; but as the value and economy of manure has not been hitherto sufficiently estimated, its introduction has not been so general as could be desired. The importance of free labor to the cultivation of the estates, has now become fully appreciated by the planters; it being found that an equal amount of work can be obtained by this means from a less number of hands, and that at lower rates of wages than were current in previous years, the average of which is shown in the following table:—

In 1827, the number of sugar estates in operation in Mauritius, were 49 worked by water power, 50 by cattle or horses, and 22 by steam—total 111; in 1836, this number had increased to 186, viz.—64 moved by water power, 10 by horse, and 112 by steam. In 1839, the number was 211, of which 138 were worked by steam power—70,292 acres were then under cultivation with sugar. There are now about 490 sugar estates, whereof only 231 have mills—42 are worked by water power, the rest by steam.

The annual Mauritius crops, as exported, for the last ten years, have been as follows. The shipments frequently extend beyond a year, hence a discrepancy sometimes between the year's crop and the year's export:—

Its local consumption is moreover set down at about 2,500 tons.

The progressive increase in its exports is marked by the following return of imports into Great Britain from the island:—

East Indies.—Sugar is a very old and extensive cultivation in India. It would probably be within the mark, to estimate the annual produce of the country at a million of tons. An official return shows that the quantity of sugar carried on one road of the interior, for provincial consumption, is about equal to the whole quantity shipped from Calcutta—some 50,000 or 60,000 tons.

India is fast becoming a great sugar producing country, although its produce and processes of manufacture are rude and imperfect. The Coolies who return from time to time to the Indian ports, bring with them much acquired knowledge and experience from the Mauritius.

In 1825, the import of sugar from the East Indies was but 146,000 cwt., and it fluctuated greatly in succeeding years, being occasionally as low as 76,600 cwt. In 1837 the quantity imported was just double what it was in 1827. In 1841, it had reached as high as 1,239,738 cwt., and subsequently kept steady for a few years at 1,100,000 cwt.—and for the last four years has averaged 1,400,000 cwt.

Java.—Attention has been withdrawn, in a great measure, from sugar cultivation in Java, owing to coffee being found a more remunerative staple. The following figures serve to show the extent of its exports of sugar:—

Philippines.—The exports from Manila into this country in 1841, were 133,482 cwt.; in 1842, 63,464 cwt.; and in 1843, 48,977 cwt. In the fifteen years between 1835 and 1850, the export of sugar from the Philippine Islands more than doubled:—

About a third of this is raw sugar, the rest is clayed or refined. It is singular, that though these islands belong to Spain, the export of this staple product to that country should be limited to about 600 tons; America taking about one-sixth, and England and her colonies the remainder. There is now an increased demand for the Australian colonies, consequent upon the large influx of population to that quarter.

The sugar cane occurs in a wild state on many of the islands of the Pacific, but in no part of the American continent, notwithstanding a contrary opinion has been expressed.

The following are the chief varieties cultivated in the West Indies, Louisiana, the East Indies, and Mauritius:—

1. Common or creole cane, so called from being introduced from the New World.

2. Yellow Bourbon.

3. Yellow Otaheite.

4. Otaheite with purple bands.

5. Purple Otaheite.

6. Ribbon cane.

My friend, Mr. L. Wray, in his "Practical Sugar Planter," considers the Bourbon, and yellow, or straw-coloured Otaheite cane, as identical, but merely altered by change of soil and climate. The yield from these cane-plants seems to be about the same in either Indies, viz., in good land about two-and-a-half tons of dry sugar per acre—sometimes three tons.

Much discussion has arisen on the subject of raising the sugar cane from seed, and the possibility has been universally denied among the planters and agricultural societies of the West India colonies. Mr. Pritchard, a sugar planter of Louisiana, in the "United States Patent Report for 1850," however, states:—

The sugar cane is composed of water, woody fibre, and soluble matter, or sugar. In round numbers it may be stated that the proportions are 72 per cent. of water, 10 per cent. of woody fibre, and 18 per cent. of sugar.

The fluid contents of a cane, according to Dr. Evans, contain 90 per cent. of the entire structure of the stem.

1,000 grains of sugar cane, being burnt, gave 7½ grains of ash, which, on analysis, furnished the following components:—

The sugar of the cane and grape sugar are distinguished by the following difference in their elements, as proved by analysis:—

There is a remarkable difference, however, between their fermentable properties. When a solution is made of the same quantities of these two sugars, in equal proportions of distilled water, it will be necessary to add eight times as much of the same ferment to induce alcoholic fermentation in the solution of cane sugar, as in that of grape sugar. Under the action of a larger quantity of ferment, cane sugar is transformed into grape sugar.

The first object of research should be to find means of clarifying the juice without creating coloring matter. It is said that presses something like those used to press cotton, have lately been successfully employed in the West Indies, instead of rollers; that the juice obtained is much purer, and that a much larger quantity of it is extracted from the cane. If so, this will be a great improvement, and the first step of the process I should recommend. From juice thus obtained, I have no doubt that all impurities less soluble than itself may be separated by mechanical means before heat and alkalies are applied, or at least with a very small quantity of alkalies. All other liquids, all fatty substances and oils, except cotton seed oil, are clarified by a very rapid process. Cane juice can no doubt be clarified by similar means, and if this were accomplished the process of sugar making would be very much simplified.

The clarified juice might then be placed in an evaporator, heated by the waste steam of the engine; then be limed and scummed if necessary, and concentrated to fifteen or sixteen of the prese sirop; then purified by filtration through animal charcoal, if white sugar was wanted, or by rest for other qualities; and finally concentrated in vacuum pans of great power, such pans as Mr. Thomas A. Morgan, of Louisiana, now uses, and which, I am informed, are only made in America.

The superiority of the vacuum pan is not universally admitted, and we are told that in France it is superseded by open pans, similar to those called in America "Mape's Evaporators." However this may be, I cannot help believing that the vacuum pan has many decided advantages over all others. One is manifest; the sugar may be grained in the pan, and the granulation is completely under the control of the operator. He may accelerate or retard it at pleasure; he may carry it so far that sugar will not run from the pan, and will have to be taken out of it; he may so conduct the operation as to increase, almost at will, the size and hardness of the crystals. This last is an indispensable requisite if the practice of draining sugar in pneumatic pans should be adopted.

The atmospheric pressure is made too powerful for sugars boiled in any other manner; it breaks and destroys the crystals, and in a very few days sets the sugar to fermenting.

Cane juice contains many ingredients besides sugar, the principal of which are albumen, gluten, gum, starch, resin, wax, coloring matter, and certain salts, all of which, either collectively or individually, have the power of preventing granulation, as may be proved by their addition to a syrup of pure sugar, which will then defy all attempts to make it crystallise. If, therefore, we want to make good sugar, we must endeavour to free our cane juice as much as possible from those substances.

I shall say no more on this subject, but will proceed to consider the mode of tempering and clarifying cane juice, and the action of lime on the various substances contained therein. The expression "tempering" has, I presume, been, adopted in consequence of the use of tempered lime for the purpose of precipitating the feculencies, held in solution in the cane juice, into a state of suspension; and clarification is the process by which we afterwards clear the liquor of these and other foreign matter. Now, as I before observed, "fermentation should be most strictly guarded against;" our first efforts should be directed to free the cane juice from those substances most conducive to that process; and on inquiry we find these to be albumen and gluten; so far, however, from getting rid of them in cold tempering, we adopt a course which retains them permanently in solution, as lime has the power of rendering them permanently soluble, and of forming soapy compounds with resin, wax, and chlorophyle, or the green coloring matter of leaves, forming an insoluble compound with and precipitating only the starch, and converting at the same time the green color of the chlorophyle (which is, in all probability, attached to the resin), into a dark brown, of a greater or less intensity, according to the composition of the cane juice, and, consequently, the quantity of lime required; it follows, therefore, as a matter of course, that if juice be tempered before these substances have been removed, they must be permanently retained, and they have all the power of preventing granulation.

The reason why some liquor is so difficult to clean is, that it is either tempered high or low; if it be exactly tempered, the impurities contained in it being entirely separated and thrown out of solution, rise to the surface immediately on the application of heat, and are easily removed; but if there be too little lime, a great portion remains in solution, and if too much, a proportional quantity is re-dissolved; and in either case cannot be removed by any mechanical means. It is, therefore, necessary to have some precise test for the application of lime.

As regards the superiority of the hot over the cold tempering, let any one take, in separate vessels, two gallons of cane-juice, and temper one, adding the lime in small quantities—say, of three grains at a time—and keeping an account of the quantity used; he will find that the first portions produce no effect whatever, and that it is only after the addition of a considerable quantity that the desired precipitation of the impurities manifest itself. Why is this? Because albumen, gluten, resin, and chlorophyle, being soluble in lime, lime is equally so in them, and they must first be saturated before it will produce any other effect. Let the liquor thus tempered, be then placed on one side. Put the other gallon over a fire, and boil it, removing the scum just before, and during, ebullition; let it then be taken off the fire, and tempered in the same way as the other. The very first quantity of lime added causes the appearance of the floccy precipitate; and if the addition of the lime be continued until it be precisely tempered, it will be found that the hot possesses the following advantages over the cold-tempered liquor:—In a quarter of an hour its impurities will have subsided to a sixteenth of its bulk, leaving the supernatant liquor as bright and clear as pale brandy; while those in the other have only sunk to one-quarter of its bulk. The color of the former clear liquor will not be less than one-half the intensity of that of the latter. The lime used in the hot has been less by one-third than the quantity used in the cold tempering.

Of course, on level estates there is little difficulty in tempering liquor, but on hilly properties scarcely two pans will require the same quantity.

Suppose we boil the cane-juice prior to tempering it, we then drive off a great portion of acetic acid, much less lime will be required, and if we could, by filtration or subsidence, get rid of the precipitated feculencies, we should make a tolerably good sugar; but as, under the present plan, we have no means of so doing, the acetic acid, which is forming during the whole process of evaporation (as fermentation still goes on), unites with the lime before it can be dissipated by the heat, and thus not only forms acetate of lime, but causes the re-solution of the precipitated feculencies, thus rendering it necessary to add a fresh portion of lime in the tache, a proceeding always to be avoided, if possible, but generally necessary in boiling down sour liquor. Take a small portion of cane-juice (hot or cold) in a tumbler, and temper it with lime until the feculencies are precipitated and the flakes perfectly visible, then add vinegar by drops, and it will be found that the flakes will speedily disappear and be re-dissolved, showing that lime has a greater affinity for acetic acid than starch, and that, although when added to sour cane-juice, it neutralises the acidity, still that result is a consequence, not the cause, of the application, and is highly injurious. Lime is one of the greatest known solvents of vegetable matter; it dissolves albumen, gluten, gum and lignin, or woody fibre, forming soapy compounds with wax, resin, and, chlorophyle. Ordinary cane-juice contains about three parts of resin to every 100 of sugar, and the projection of a small piece of soap into a tache full of granulating syrup will soon convince any one of the effect likely to result from the presence of that material. Although, by tempering hot, we get rid of a very great quantity of the substances on which lime acts injuriously, a considerable portion of them remain in suspension, the quantity of albumen contained in the cane-juice not being sufficient to carry them all off by coagulation; on the addition of the lime, however, they are entirely dissolved and as the impurities left behind consist chiefly of gluten, the liability of the liquor to ferment is greatly increased by its retention, that being the fermenting principle contained in wheat and other vegetable productions prone to that process.

By a reference to the foregoing table it will be easily understood how slight a change in the proportion of the ingredients of any one of the substances contained therein will convert it into an entirely different one. In chemistry we are able, to a certain extent, to imitate the operations of nature; but we must follow in the same course laid down by her; thus, we can convert woody fibre, or sawdust and starch, into sugar, gum, alcohol, and acetic acid; but we cannot convert alcohol, acetic acid, or gum into sugar, starch or woody fibre; and of such importance is a slight alteration of the proportions of these elements—carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen—that the abstraction of carbon from sugar, and the addition of a portion of the prime support of life, vegetation and combustion, oxygen, changes the harmless sugar into the most violent of poisons, oxalic acid, which consists of 26.57 carbon, 70.69 oxygen, and 2.74 hydrogen.

Let us now examine the action of lime on sugar, and we shall find it equally, if not more, injurious than on the other substances. Sugar is capable of dissolving half its weight of lime, by which its sweet taste is destroyed, and it becomes converted into gum; the lime abstracting carbonic acid from it to form a carbonate of lime or chalk. It will be seen by the above table that—

So that, if we extract 24-100ths of a grain of carbon from 100 grains of sugar, we convert them into gum. Let us suppose that about two ounces of lime, or say 1,000 grains, remain in solution in a pan, (say 200 gallons of liquor,) those 1,000 grains of lime will require 761 of carbonic acid to convert them into carbonate of lime or chalk, 100 grains of which consist of 56.2 lime and 43.8 carbonic acid. So that 1,761 grains of chalk consist of 1,000 lime and 761 carbonic acid. Now 100 grains of carbonic add consist of 27.53 carbon and 72.47 oxygen; therefore 761 grains will consist of 209.50 carbon and 551.53 oxygen.

I think I have now fully proved the following facts, viz.:—That the use of lime in sugar-making is not to neutralise an acid; that if acidity be present, the application of lime is injurious; that its action on gluten, albumen, wax, resin, and chlorophyle is equally so; that by decomposing the sugar and forming gum, the quantity of molasses or uncrystallisable sugar is much increased, whereby high boiling is rendered necessary, with its consequent heightening of color and injury to the grain of the produce, and that therefore it is perfectly unfit for the purpose of tempering cane-juice.

Messrs. Thomas Begg and Co., of London, have procured from E.F. Telchemacher and J. Denham Smith, an analysis of one gallon of ordinary plantain juice, and one gallon of Ramos' prepared plantain juice "for the purpose of ascertaining whether any substance can be used which, in conjunction with water, will answer as a substitute for the plantain juice in the receipt which accompanied the samples." The chemists say they find that one gallon of ordinary plantain juice holds in solution;—

They do not think it likely that the potash exists in fresh plantain juice as carbonate, but rather that this salt is the product of decomposition, arising from a compound of potash and a vegetable acid, such as tartaric or oxalic acid present in the fresh juice; be this as it may, any utility derivable from the plantain juice is evidently owing to the potash it contains.

They then give as a substitute for Ramos' liquid, and to be used in a similar way, the following—

Take of subcarbonate of potash 2 ounces, avoirdupois; sulphur, 2¼ ounces; best British lime slaked, 1½ lb.; mix them into a paste in an earthen pan or wooden tub, with one quart of water (warm) and when thoroughly mixed, pour in ten gallons of boiling water—rain water is the best to use—and stir from time to time until it has cooled, when it may be drawn off from the sediment and kept for use. If rain water cannot be obtained, the purest water obtainable may be used.

One of the causes most fatal to West Indian prosperity, is that exuberance of advantages which they enjoy from serenity of climate and fertility of soil—causes which, in the absence of proper stimulus to industry and improvement, have led to an improvident system of cultivation, and to a blind and ignorant adherence to wasteful methods of manufacture.

To free it from these constituents, and enable it to yield pure and crystallisable sugar, the liquor, on entering the boiling-house, is received into the first of three clarifiers, of the capacity of from three hundred to a thousand gallons each. Here it is subjected to the action of lime-water, which checks the tendency to fermentation, and neutralises any free acid which it may contain. "The common defection process," says Mr. Fownes, "in careful hands, seems susceptible of little improvement. Many other substances than lime have been proposed and tried with more or less success, some of which, in particular states of the cane juice, may prove very useful; but, for general purposes, nothing seems to answer so well as neutralisation by lime, either in the form of lime-water or milk of lime, added until the slightest possible tendency to alkalinity, as ascertained by delicate reddened litmus paper, is perceived. The juice should be somewhat heated before the lime is added, and afterwards raised quite to the boiling point. The fire is then to be withdrawn, and the whole allowed to rest a short time." Such is Mr. Fownes' description of the process of clarification; to which I will venture to add, upon the authority of those who have experienced its good effects, the joint use of the mucilage of the Guazuma ulmifolia, or gun-stock tree, as it is popularly termed in Nevis from the use to which its timber has been applied. This is the bastard cedar of Jamaica, or Orme d'Amerique, and Bois d'Orme of the French, which may be found described by Lunan, in the first volume of his "Hortus Jamaicensis," page 59, under the name of Bubroma Guazuma.

The liquor, when clarified in the manner described, must be concentrated, by regulated evaporation, to the degree requisite for crystallisation. This Mr. Fownes advises to be done by steam of a moderate pressure circulating in a spiral of copper-pipe laid at the bottom of the evaporating vessels, which should be large and shallow, and wholly unlike those in present use. Here it may be rapidly boiled down till the heat rises to about 225 deg., without risk of burning. When cold, it should have a density of about 1.38, and mark the 38th degree of Baume's hydrometer; beyond which point of inspissation it would be dangerous to go. The remaining concentration will be most safely conducted in the vacuum pan, where a scarcity of water does not, as in Barbados, militate against its use.

Mr. Fownes exposes the absurdity of using shallow coolers, exposing a large surface, and producing a rapid evaporation, for the process of crystallisation. By the use of the shallow coolers formerly, and, I believe, yet to be found on most estates, from the rapidity of the evaporation, the sugar is obtained in a mass of confused and imperfectly-formed crystals, entangling in their interstices a considerable quantity of molasses, which impairs the color of the product, and escaping slowly, and with difficulty, is, to a considerable extent, lost on the homeward voyage by drainage into the hold, occasioning much positive loss to the owner, and giving the bilge-water a most offensive odor. He therefore recommends the use of deep vessels, and avoidance of all agitation in this part of the process, so as to enable the crystallisable portion of the syrup to effect a more complete separation from the uncrystallisable portion or the molasses. By this simple method, not only sugar of a finer and whiter quality would be obtained, but a large per centage of loss both of crystallisable and uncrystallisable sugar at present caused by the leakage of the hogshead into the hold, would be prevented, not only to the great advantage of the planter, but to the great comfort of the captain, passengers, and crew of the vessel freighted with it.

Should sugar of a whiter quality than the ordinary muscovado of commerce be desired, this advantage may be readily obtained, as Mr. Fownes judiciously observes, by filtering the thin syrup, ready for the vacuum-pan, through a bed of fine charcoal, as is done by the sugar refiners, and afterwards washing the crystals of sugar with white syrup, when the molasses has thoroughly drained from them. By this process, which, however, is attended with some increase of expense, and may not, in consequence, be always advisable, muscovado sugar may be obtained, of a quality hardly inferior to that of refined sugar. Mr. Fownes thus sums up the principal points to which he is desirous of calling the attention of the intelligent and enterprising planter.

1. "To obtain, by the use of a properly-constructed mill, the greatest possible amount of juice from the cane."

By this, according to Mr. Fownes, a gain of from 20 to 30 per cent., equivalent to as much marketable sugar, may be obtained without any additional expense; but as, from Mr. Fownes' own showing, there is a residuum of 10 to 15 per cent of liquor obstinately retained by the megass, or cane trash, after the most powerful pressure to which it can be subjected; much, if not all, even of this loss might be prevented by subjecting the megass, on issuing from between the rollers, to the action of water for a brief time, passing it once more through the mill, and adding the saccharine solution so obtained, or that obtained directly from the cane on its first crushing. The water thus employed would serve for many successive portions of megass, until at length it became so richly loaded with saccharine matter as to be worth attention in the boiling-house; or, at all events, it would be serviceable for the cattle, who would fatten rapidly upon it. By this additional process a further gain of at least five per cent. might be expected, raising the total gain from improvements in this first stage of the process, to from 25 to 35 per cent.

2. "To clarify and filter this juice with expedition, and to evaporate it rapidly, either over the open fire or by steam heat, as far as it can be done with safety."

3. "To complete the concentration in a vacuum pan, or by other means, at a moderate temperature, not hurtful to the sugar, and facilitate the natural process of crystallisation, so as to obtain sugar of a large and distinct grain."

4. "To drain and dry the sugar perfectly, and to save all the molasses."

The advantages to be anticipated from these improvements, superadded to an improvement in cultivation, cannot be estimated at less, upon a moderate calculation, than from 150 to 200 per cent. of increase in the production of sugar, with hardly an appreciable increase of labor or expense; for we have, in the first place, a gain by improved culture of, at least, two hogsheads an acre in sugar, equivalent to 100 per cent.; in the next, by employing improved mills and extracting the residuum, 30 per cent.; by conducting the process of manufacture more judiciously, 10 per cent.; and by the prevention of waste during the transit to market, 10 per cent., making a total of at least 150 per cent.