The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Science
The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.
Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Botany, Economic
In 1826, to make from 25 to 30,000,000 lbs. of sugar, it required
30,000 laborers (slaves); at the present time, with less than 45,000
(from which number fully 5,000 must be deducted as absent from work
from various causes), 135,000,000 lbs. are produced, or about five
times the quantity under slavery. The coolies are found to be an
intelligent race, who have become inured to the work required, and by
whose labor this small island can produce the fifth part of the
consumption of the United Kingdom, and that with only about 70,000
acres under cane cultivation. About 10,000 male immigrants, introduced
since 1843, are not now working under engagement, but are following
other occupations, and thus become permanent consumers. Some cultivate
land on a small scale, on their own account, but very few plant canes,
as it requires from eighteen to twenty months before they obtain any
return for their labor; but the most important fact established by
this and other official statements is, that only a small number of
immigrants leave the colony at the expiration of their industrial
residence. In the manufacture of sugar from the cane, considerable
improvement has been effected by the introduction of new methods of
boiling and grinding. The vacuum pan and the system of Wetsell are all
tending to economise the cost of production, and to save that loss
which for years amounted, in grinding alone, to nearly one-third of
the juice of the cane. The planters begin to find that they can
increase the value of their sugar 30 to 40 per cent. by these
improvements, and that their future prosperity depends upon carrying
them out. Unfortunately, however, here, as in many other of our
colonies, a very large number of planters do not yet appreciate the
advantages to be obtained by the adoption of improved machinery and
manufacture, or by improved cultivation, and still struggle on under
the old system of waste and negligence, which can only result in the
ruin and destruction of their property.
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:--
Tons,
1842-43 24,400
1843-44 28,600
1844-45 37,600
1845-46 49,100
1846-47 64,100
1847-48 59,021
1848-49 50,782
1849-50 51,811
1850-51 55,000
1851-52 65,080
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