Until recent years there was very little mechanization of field operations, but of late the use of tractors and implements has developed. The extensive growing of food crops in sugar-cane land prior to replanting has great importance in relation to the production of as high a proportion as possible of locally-grown food.
control. The discovery of modern insecticides such as Gam¬
mexane and D.D.T., and their application to the control of this pest now offer what is an apparently satisfactory solution. The serious effects of frog-hopper infestation may be judged from the fact that in some years it was responsible for an annual loss of cane over parts of the cropped area amounting to no less than 10 tons per acre. Minor damage is caused by moth borers and other insect pests.
The Trinidad sugar industry has played a leading part in the application of mechanical methods to field operations including drainage, and one estate, Woodford Lodge, has given its name to a system of land management involving the use of cambered beds, with a special ploughing technique, and inter-row cultivation by the rotary hoe. The average annual rainfall is about 63 in. but as in other islands it varies from year to year, the maximum and minimum over a 20-year period being 90 in. and 45 in. respec- tively. Replacement of older varieties of cane by new ones pro- duced at the Barbados Cane Breeding Station has taken place and is still continuing.
British Guiana
Although British Guiana is not considered to be a part of the British West Indies, it naturally falls within the compass of a descriptive account of sugar in the colonies of the Caribbean area.
Situated on the mainland of South America, to the south-east of Trinidad, it is 83,000 sq. miles in extent. The sugar-cane lands are on the coast, which is to the north-east, and comprise a strip of low-lying areas reclaimed from the sea and from swamps fed by five rivers which discharge into the Atlantic Ocean. Extensive sea walls give protection from the encroachment of the sea, while dams, drainage canals, sluices and pumps control the influx of fresh water from the interior. The cultivated area is in these respects similar to the fens of England, and the reclaimed and drained areas of the Netherlands. The soil thus won by persistent and continued effort is highly fertile. Sugar production in all its stages involves an unremitting contest with water. Two levels of waterways are maintained by an intricate canal system, the higher canals being used for irrigation and transport and the lower for
drainage. Apart from the sea and the inflow of fresh water from
the interior, the heavy and varying rainfall necessitates provision for the removal of excess water. While a few estates can drain by gravity to the sea or to the rivers at low tides, costly pumping equipment is required by most of them, and though pumping lifts are low, immense volumes of water have to be moved. It has been estimated that each square mile of cane cultivation needs almost 50 miles of drainage canals and 16 miles of high level channels, a total of some 5,000 miles for the entire cane lands of the Colony.
Apart from the expense of pumping, heavy annual expenditure is involved in cleaning the water system of each estate and the main- tenance of the dams. Indeed sugar-cane production in British Guiana may well be called an amphibious operation.
Mechanization of land preparation and cultivation has become normal practice. Sugar yields have increased as a result of im- proved methods and the application of the results of research as well as by the growing of better cane varieties. Until recently cane breeding was carried on in the Colony, but now the industry participates in the work of the cane breeding station in Barbados, where special attention is devoted to the particular and exacting requirements of the most unorthodox sugar country in the world.
The total area in cane cultivation is about 70,000 acres, of which between 70 and 80% is available for harvesting each year, yielding slightly more than 3 tons of sugar per acre. As in Trinidad, the cane is fired before being reaped. It is carried by head-load to the high level canal banks and there put into punts for transport to the factory. " T r a i n s " of punts are hauled by mules or rubber-tyred tractors, the whole of the crop being waterborne. In general, factory efficiency is good, and is being further improved by modernization.
The D o m i n i c a n Republic
The Dominican Republic is 19,300 sq. miles in extent, and forms the western two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, between Puerto Rico to the east and Jamaica to the west. Sugar-cane was introduced there by Columbus on his second voyage in 1493.
The annual production of sugar is now about 500,000 short tons, and there are 14 factories, of which 4 account for more than three-fifths of the total. About 15 % of the cane milled is supplied by colonos (farmers). Cane is grown under natural rainfall, except
that Barahona in the south-west uses irrigation, the cane pro- duced there annually being over 600,000 short tons. The main sugar zone is to the south-east where some 250,000 acres of the total of 300,000 acres are devoted to the crop. Mechanization of field work is rapidly extending, the large estates being almost completely mechanized. Manual labour and animals are still largely used in some areas for certain operations including cane haulage. Cane and sugar yields are comparatively low, and in past years there has been little or no use made of artificial fertilizers, though pen manure (f.y.m.) and factory residues are applied to the land. Fertilizer studies are being conducted on an increasing scale, notably at Ozama and La Romana. The Ozama Sugar Company and the Central Romana Corporation (operated by the South Porto Rico Corporation) contribute to the B.W.I. Central Sugar Cane Breeding Station. They already have several Bar- bados varieties in commercial cultivation, and others are under observation. P.O.J.2878 and other Javan varieties are extensively grown. Among the many varieties are Puerto Rican and Co.
canes. Mosaic disease is serious, and out of control, as in Jamaica.
Alluvial soils at Ozama which fall into Turner's Group IV are b e i n g cultivated on the cambered bed system with 24-ft. beds carrying 4 rows of cane on 6-ft. spacings. Drains between the b e d s are formed with a Cuthbertson ditcher. Contour cultivation on calcareous slopes has been introduced. Fields at La Romana a r e of 100 acres divided into 20 acre portions. Some 10,000 acres a r e ploughed annually on this plantation, mainly by heavy tractors w i t h notched disc ploughs.
Planting is done by hand, and inter-row cultivation largely in t h e same manner. Animals and light tractors are also used. Pre¬
e m e r g e n t weed control using 2-4D is successful but not yet extensively conducted. Five or more ratoon crops are reaped b e f o r e replanting. Reaping and loading are done by hand in most p l a c e s , though mechanical loading is gradually being adopted to a l i m i t e d extent. Cattle haulage to tramway, plantation railway or f a c t o r y is the most common method of field transport. Thirty-inch g a u g e railways are generally used though there are some 50 cm.
Decauville track, and extensive standard gauge systems, one of w h i c h has 144 miles of track. Portable track is used to some extent w i t h the light railways.
28