Vol. XVm. No. 442, 



THE AGKICCTLTUKAL NEWS. 



'yj 



r'hat, iu Oidtv to obtain year after \ear ample 

 quantities of fotion otuiichangiUir character, thoy must 

 l..,ik to localities where the fanners are organized to 

 row only one kind of cotton, to prevent deterioration 

 of the type by seedsi'lectiou, and to class and market 

 theii- crop as a unit.' 



It %vill be seen from the above extract what great 

 importance is attached in the United States to 

 community action in cotton growing, a point t.hat has 

 been consistently emphasized bj' the Imperial Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for the West Indies, and which 

 cannot b<' too strongly urged. It is quite impossible to 

 maintain, much le.'^s to improve, the production ot Sea 

 Island cotton without couimunity action directed to a 

 number of ends. 



AVhat h.ts occuried with regard to I^^gyptian cotton 

 in the United States may very possibly occur with regard 

 to Sea Island cotton, if not there, in .some other country. 

 In tiice of such competition, nothing but the very highest 

 type of product would have a chance of obtaining a good 

 price on the market. It is therefore of real 

 importance that the West Indian cotton growers 

 should whole-heartedly combine to continue producing 

 the highest type of cotton along scientific lines. In 

 fact one may go further and say that, it is necessary to 

 use every effort to improve both type and yield, both of 

 ■which ends are well within the range of possible 

 achievement. To rest satisfied with things as they are 

 is a mistake in agriculture. Much direction and advice 

 can always be obtained both from other growers and from 

 the officers on the statf of the various agricultural 

 flepartments, ami of these it is well for cotton growers 

 to take every advantage. 



THE PRESENT POSITION OP THE 

 EUROPEAN BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



A review of the European sugar industry at the end of 

 the war is contributed by Dr. H. C. Prinsen Geerligs to the 

 Louisiana Plankr, March 1, 1919. It would appear that the 

 production ot beet sugar in European countries continues 

 its downward course, for whereas in 191314 the production of 

 sugar in European countries was 8,161,400 tons, for 1918 19 

 it will only be 3,805,000 tons. 



The causes of this decline are situated only for France in 

 the direct consequences of the war, because in that country 

 numerous sugar.houses have been wrecked or damaged or 

 dismantled to such an extent that out of the 206 factories 

 eiLsting before the war, only sisty-one have been able to do 

 work in this year. 



In all tlie other European sugar-producing countries the 

 indirect consequences of the war have occasioned the sharp 

 decline in the production. In the first place, the lack of supply 

 of foodstuffs and fodder from overseas hita stimulated the cul- 



ture of potatoes, breadstuff.^, oil plants and the like, to the di-t- 

 riment of thatof S':gar beets, while also thu area planted witli 

 swedes, ttiroips, and fiinilar hoe crops has been greatly increas- 

 ed, brini;iag along a reduction in that devoted to sugar beets. 



In many instances this decrea'e in the area planted with 

 beets has been made voluntarily by the growers, but in many 

 other cases they were compelled to do so by Governmeat 

 regulations. 



Besides all these reasons there is still a very bad factor in 

 llussia, where since the revolution, the conditions for work are 

 so bad and so disturbed that it is not clear how matters will 

 come to their own again. In 'he part of the land still belonaing 

 to the old Eussia, the production of sugar has come down from 

 300,000 tons to a mere 70,000, while in the other parts as 

 Ukraine and Poland, the crop appears to be about one-half 

 of the former figure, but no reliable data are to be had, and 

 the figure in the list is only an approximate one. 



On the other hand, the consumption of sugar has beea 

 greatly increased, and bad to be contingented, if the nations 

 did not want to be threatened by a complete absence of that 

 article a long time before the advent of a new crop. The 

 armies and navies consumed much more than their individual 

 members would have done if they had been allowed tn remain 

 in their quiet civilian occupations, and further, a not inconsid- 

 ei-able quantity of sugar was used as a raw material in the 

 manuactuie of explosives. 



The civilian population, too, extended its sugar consump- 

 tion, because of the lack of butter and fat to be smeared on 

 bread, and because of a great many other articles of diet having 

 vanished from the t)ill of fare. The bad, gray and unpalata- 

 ble bread had to be combined with honey, jams, marmalades 

 and the like, iu order to be able to be eaten with the least 

 possible amount of disgust, and all this demanded sugar and 

 sugar again. It soon became evident that where the home 

 production failed, the importation from abroad was rendered 

 impossible eithec by the blockade or by the U-boat warfare, 

 or by both; and where the requirements for the armies and 

 navies had to be satisfied above all, the consumption of the 

 civilians at home had to be greatly rationed in every European 

 country, while the amount of sugar put at the disposal of the 

 industries using sugar as a raw materia! was cut down in 

 most places to one-fourth of that in peace times. 



At the end of the great war, at the moment of the 

 signing of the armistice and ot the beginning of peace negotia- 

 tions, we see in Europe a bad sugar crop just ended, with very 

 short stocks from the foregoing crop, and very very little 

 chance of importing sugar from overseas, save for England, 

 France and Italy. A severe scarcity of sugar is to be added 

 to the already existing shortages of fat, bread, meat, cjflfee, 

 tea, spices, fodder, milk, in short, of every article of food, 

 and no visible way of escaping famine. 



Moreover, in various countries voices are heard advocat- 

 ing the monopoly by Government of the sugar trade, thereby 

 levying a high duty on sugar as a means to pay off interest 

 and amortization of the war loans, and where a monopoly is 

 not yet planned, a great increase of the suwar duties is 

 contemplated, also with a view to increase the revenue of the 

 exchequer. The consequence of both measures will certainly 

 be a restriction of the sugar consumption in the countriesi. 

 concerned. 



The prospect.s of the European sugar industry are 

 anything but bright, and although the armistice is concluded^ 

 and perhaps jjeace is at last in sight, the various reasons 

 , enumerated above which have eo-operated to decrease the 

 production, will last still a very long time, and wil' very 

 probably keep the European sugar production at a much 

 lower level than it used to occupy. 



