BARBADOS
Barbados, the most easterly of the Windward islands, lies seventy-eight miles east of St. Vincent in 13 degrees 4 minutes north latitude and 59 degrees 37 minutes west longitude. It is twenty-one miles long, fourteen and one-half miles at its greatest breadth and its area is 166 square miles. It is of coral origin and at certain points the coral reefs extend out to sea as far as three miles and are a menace to navigation. The island is low and flat, except in the central and northeastern part. Mount Hillaby, the highest peak, rises 1148 feet above sea-level and from it the land slopes in terraces in every direction. Carlisle bay on the southwest is a natural harbor, but only available for vessels of light draft. Barbados is densely populated. In 1906 the number of inhabitants was 196,287, of whom by far the greater number were negroes, who, in proportion to the whites, are as nine to one.
The climate is agreeable, with well-defined wet and dry seasons, and for eight months in the year the heat is modified by the northeast trade winds. The dry, or cold, period is from December to May. The temperature ranges from 70 degrees to 86 degrees Fahrenheit, seldom falling below 65. There is a plentiful rainfall, the annual average being sixty inches, and September is the wettest month. Moisture readily penetrates the coral subsoil and collects in subterranean reservoirs. Porous soil, thorough cultivation and the absence of swamps give miasma no opportunity and fever is unknown, but hurricanes are the scourge of the colony. The soil is thin, but extremely fertile, and there is a theory that it was originally formed of volcanic ash, carried by the winds from St. Vincent during times when La Soufrière was in eruption.
It is said that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit the island; be this as it may, they never took possession of it. A British ship touched there in 1605, and, finding no inhabitants, annexed it in the name of King James I. Since that time British ownership has continued without interruption. An actual settlement was established in 1625, in which year the king made a grant of the island to Lord Leigh, afterward the Earl of Marlborough. Bridgetown, the present capital, was founded in 1628.
Barbados was the first of Great Britain’s island colonies to grow sugar cane. The plant was brought there in 1642 during Philip Bell’s governorship, and slaves were imported at the same time. A number of Dutch who were expelled from Brazil in 1655 took refuge in the island, and their knowledge of sugar and experience in its manufacture did much to stimulate the industry. Beginning with the middle of the seventeenth century, Barbados became an important sugar-producing center.
Following emancipation in 1834, the Barbados planters received £1,720,000 to indemnify them for the loss of over 83,000 slaves. At the same time a large number of the freed blacks continued to work on the sugar plantations as before, but under pay; hence abolition did not bring on the same hardships in Barbados as it did in some of the other West Indian colonies.
Labor is plentiful and cheap, so that cultivation is done carefully and in a thorough manner. The naturally rich soil is treated with fertilizers of various kinds, and planting is done every year as a rule, although ratoon crops are often raised on the uplands. Formerly Bourbon cane was grown exclusively, but owing to the falling off in the yield, it was discontinued and the varieties now in favor are White Transparent and seedling canes raised locally. The crops suffer from time to time through hurricanes and droughts, as well as from the common run of cane diseases. Of the entire area of 106,470 acres, about100,000 acres are cultivated; between 60,000 and 70,000 acres of this are in sugar cane.
In 1902 there were 440 estates on the island, the average area being 168 acres. Of these, 23 exceeded 500 acres and 139 contained less than 100 acres; 19, comprising 6707 acres, were owned by corporations. Each estate had its own mill, and 432 of them made muscavado and eight of them centrifugal sugar. Today the number of factories is estimated at 335, of which 221 are driven by windmills. A few plants are equipped with vacuum pans and modern machinery, but muscavado sugar and molasses still represent nearly all of the production. The molasses obtained in the open-kettle process has a higher value and finds a much readier sale than that resulting from boiling in vacuum pans. Therefore in making comparisons between the yield in sugar from the open-kettle process with that from the vacuum-pan method, the increased price brought by the rich-flavored molasses made in the old-fashioned way must be taken into account.
On an average, the sugar content of the cane is 13.5 per cent and the recovery is about 7.5 per cent muscavado sugar and 3.5 per cent molasses. It is evident that imperfect crushing and crude manufacturing methods cause a considerable loss in sugar on most of the estates.
In 1898 the Imperial Department of Agriculture established its chief West Indian station in Barbados. This station has rendered great service to the planters in improving cane varieties, giving expert advice concerning fertilizing and fighting cane pests.
Undoubtedly much could still be done to better conditions, but the small estates are generally mortgaged and their owners are in no position to borrow more money to enable them to operate on a more extended scale. On the other hand, they are extremely tenacious of their holdings and will not part withthem to capitalists who might establish large central factories. It therefore seems altogether improbable that there will be any expansion in the sugar industry of the colony in the near future.
The production of Barbados during the last twenty years in long tons has been as follows: