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, about 100,000 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 with them 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:
| 1895 | 33,331 | ||
| 1896 | 45,170 | ||
| 1897 | 51,275 | ||
| 1898 | 46,878 | ||
| 1899 | 40,442 | ||
| 1900 | 44,250 | ||
| 1901 | 56,912 | ||
| 1902 | 45,576 | ||
| 1903 | 33,795 | ||
| 1904 | 55,785 | ||
| 1905 | 41,210 | ||
| 1906 | 50,630 | ||
| 1907 | 33,033 | ||
| 1908 | 31,353 | ||
| 1909 | 15,571 | ||
| 1910 | 36,389 | ||
| 1911 | 32,514 | ||
| 1912 | exports | 30,548 | |
| 1913 | ” | 11,479 | |
| 1914 | ” | 33,387 | |
| 1915 | ” | 32,578 | |
| 1916 | ” | 50,000 | [69] |