der his care and
finds his own working capital for its tilth, whilst the sunk capital in
land, machinery, sheds, stores, etc., is for the account of the owner.

In 1877 a British company--the "Yengarie"--was started with a large
capital for the purpose of acquiring cane-juice all over the Colony
and extracting from it highly-refined sugar. The works, fitted with
vacuum-pans and all the latest improvements connected with this class
of apparatus, were established at Mandaloyan, about three miles from
Manila up the Pasig River. From certain parts of Luzon Island the
juice was to be conveyed to the factory in tubes, and the promoter,
who visited Cebu Island, proposed to send schooners there fitted with
tanks, to bring the defecated liquid to Mandaloyan. The project was
an entire failure from the beginning (for the ordinary shareholders
at least), and in 1880 the machinery plant was being realized and
the company wound up.

The classification of sugar in the South differs from that in the
North. In the former market it is ranked as Nos. 0, 1, 2, 3 Superior
and Current. For the American market these qualities are blended,
to make up what is called "Assorted Sugar," in the proportion
of one-eighth of No. 1, two-eighths of No. 2, and five-eighths
of No. 3. In the North the quality is determined on the Dutch
standard. The New York and London markets fix the prices, which are
cabled daily to the foreign merchants in Manila.

From a series of estimates compiled by me I find that to produce
7,000 to 10,000 piculs, the cost laid down in Yloilo would be, say,
P2.00 per picul (P32.00 per ton); the smaller the output the larger
is the prime cost, and _vice-versa._

Fortunes have been made in this Colony in cane-sugar, and until the
end of 1883 sugar-planting paid the capitalist and left something to
the borrowing planter; now it pays only interest on capital. From
the year 1884 the subsidized beet-root sugar manufacturers on the
continent of Europe turned out such enormous quantities of this article
that the total yield of sugar exceeded the world's requirements. The
consequence was that the cane-sugar manufacture declined almost at
the same ratio as that of beet-root advanced, as will be seen from
the subjoined figures:--

Tons.

The world's production in 1880; cane sugar 3,285,714
The world's production in 1880; beet sugar 1,443,349