Vol. XVIII. No. 43G. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



CANE VERS as BEET SUGAR. 



Information h-is recently come to hand that British 

 makers of such commodities as jam, chocolate and condensed 

 milk have experienced difficulties, which they attribute to the 

 use of cane sugar in place of the beet sugar which they forrn- 

 erly employed in their industries- This is unfortunate, as it 

 may lead to some preference being manifested for beet sugar, 

 and to a desire in some quarters to obtain access once more 

 to supplies nf continentahbeet sugur furnished by enemy 

 countries. 



It would be well if the facts were carefully investigated, 

 so that the nature of the difficulties may be clearly under- 

 stood, and steps taken to remedy them. 



It is understood that the experience of some makers of 

 iam and of condensed milk is that their aoods manufactured 

 "with the class of cane sugar recently available exhibit a ten- 

 dency to ferment. This defect cannot be attributed to the 

 sugar as sugar, for it is admitted that pure cane sugar and 

 pure beet sugar are indentical substances. The defects, there- 

 fore must lie with such impurities as were contained in the 

 sugar used. 



Owing to the fact that the impurities of ordinary beet 

 sugar are extremely unpleasant, having an otlensive ta.ste 

 and smell, it is essential (.that the refining of beet sugar shall 

 be very thoroughly accomplished; if not, the resulting sugar 

 is unpleasant, and is not acceptable to the user. On the 

 other hand, the impurities incidental to cane sugar are iiuite 

 pleasant both to smell and taste; consequently cane sugar 

 may be passed on to the market in a less perfectly refined 

 condition than beet sugar, and .still be acceptable to 

 the ordinary user. Indeed, there are many grades of cane 

 sugar in common use which are not refined sugars in the 

 strict sense of the word: they are made direct from the cane 

 iuice by careful methods, without being submitted to refin- 

 ing processes. , ,. . 

 It is more than probable that the manufacturers ditn- 

 cullies referred to above are to be explained by the fact that 

 the cane su^jars, recently (ilaced at their disposal by the 

 authorities regulating the supplies wf sugar-cane, were cane 

 sugars which had not been submitted to a thorough refin- 

 ing process, such as results from treatment with animal 

 charc<ial. In such a case it is conceivable that organisms 

 capable of causing fermentation exist in the sugar, and 

 so pass into the products of manufacture, ultimately 

 leading to their spoiling. Had the sugar been thoroughly 

 refined preferably by filtration through animal charcoal, it is 

 expected that these fermentive organisms would have been 

 removed. This being so, it may be asserted that it was not 

 the sugar that was at fault, but its method of refining. 



It is well known that in the stress of recent times 

 one difficulty experienced in Great Kritain was the obtain- 

 Ir-a (if refined sugar, so much .so that unusual steps had 

 to be taken to get supplies of sugar refined in Araerici for 

 J'-ritish use-, British refineries were too few in number and too 



small in capacity to produce the needed quantities. It will 

 be readily recognized that these conditions were conducive t-i 

 the furnishing of only pirtially refined sugars to the manu- 

 facturers of jams and cnndensed milk. 



This recourse to American refineries is a ccmsequence of 

 the fiscal policy before the war which -led to the closing of 

 almost all British sugar refineries, thus putting a stop to an 

 industry which in the earlier part of the last century was of 

 great importance in the United Kingdoin. From thosfr 

 extinct refineries, before the swamping of the market by 

 refined beet root sugar from the Continent, there used to be 

 produced sugar of the utmost puritj', in loaves and cubes and 

 crystals, much of it refined from crude cine sugars from the 

 tropical parts of the Empire. 



That thi-s use of imperfectly refined cane .sugar may have 

 been the cause of the troubles complained of is rendered 

 fairly evident by the statement of a manufacturer of cliocu- 

 late, to the effect that he preferred beet sugar because it is 

 less stick}' than cane sugar. Now thoroughly refined cant- 

 sugar is no more sticky than is beet sugar, so it must be con- 

 cluded that his experience referred to the imperfectly refined 

 cane sugar. 



In the work of reconstructing industries after the war 

 sugar will play a large part, and the question of the produc- 

 tion of cane sugar will be a vital one for many of our 

 colonies. Sugar production in British colonies has been 

 at a great disadvantage in the past in its struggles to com- 

 pete with beet S'lgar, a struggle which hinged, not so much 

 upon the qualities of the respective sugars, but upon the 

 fiscal conditions under which they were produced and 

 marketed. Now that these disabilities are to be removed,, 

 it is very undesirable that any undeserved stigma should 

 attach to cane sugar, or that there should arise a preference 

 for beet sugar, on the fart of even some British manufac- 

 turers, based on erroneous grounds. A body of prejudiced 

 purchasers in the United King lorn might be a source ot 

 serious danger to the colonial sugar industry. 



It would be an acceptable and useful national service if 

 one of the Associations now springing up in Englanl for tie 

 devolopment of the coloni.i'. sugar industry, and the investi- 

 gation of sugar problems, were to take up this question, and 

 investigate it thoroughly, and to give wide publicity to the 

 results of the investigation as soon as possible. It is to be 

 remembered that the consumption of sugar in the major 

 industries concerned with the production of jams, confection- 

 ery, condensed milk, and allied commodities, uses a very 

 large part of the sugar imported into the United Kingdom; 

 consequently, anything working to the detriment of cane 

 sugar in this connexion is a matter of grave concern. Mere 

 declamation, or the assertion of the merit of one kind of 

 sugar as contrasted with another, will not suffice; the matter 

 should be thoroushlv and carefully investisated. 



DEPARTMENT NEWS. 



I)r. .1. C Hiitson, B A., Ph.]).. who for i-if^htceu 

 iiioriths, during ilr. Ballou's ;ib.sence in K^ypt. act.eil as 

 Entomologist on the staff of t he Iiiiperial Department, 

 of Agriculture for the West Indies, has recently bi-en 

 appointed to the post of Eiromologist on th» stati' or' 

 the Agricultural Department, Ceylon. He has alr.'ail_\ 

 left England to take up hi? duties, and has probably 

 reached Cevlon bv nov\ 



