February i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



689 



into a fertilizer, and suggest means for the re-establishment 

 of weakened anil exhausted soils. They also advocate the 

 establishment of an Agricultural College and Farm for 

 determining questions bearing on the sugar industry, since 

 it has been discovered from practical experience that 

 experimental tests, conducted by private individuals, lack 

 thoroughness in consequence of the expense and time 

 required to carry them forward to complete and furnish 

 reliable results. 



The following figures will be found of interest. The 

 amount left over from the previous year, deducting the 

 surplus at the close, is added to the imports of each 

 year ; — 



Con^utnptioii of Suyar in the United States, 



Imports. 



Tons of 2,240 lbs, 

 296,2.00 

 241,420 

 241,411 

 231,398 

 192,660 

 345,809 

 38.3,178 

 378,068 

 446.533 

 447,899 

 483,S92 

 653,714 

 567,573 

 592,725 

 601,869 

 621,852 

 561,369 



Domestic. 



Tons of 2,240 lbs. 



119,031 



122,ol»9 



191,000 



52,910 



28,000 



5,(100 



8,500 



22,500 



23,000 



45,000 



46,^00 



79,600 



69,8110 



59,300 



48,500 



63,.i00 



77,000 



The importations of cane-molasses in the same years 

 are shown as follows : — 



Years. 



ISGO 

 1861 

 1662 

 1863 

 1864 

 1865 

 1866 

 1867 

 I81J8 

 1S69 

 1870 

 1871 

 1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 

 1876 



Total 

 Consumption. 



Gallons. 



47,313,877 



40,191,55'i 



62,668,400 



•37,5ij 1.088 



3-.',4in.325 



35,185,038 



45,140,110 



49,776,465 



55,957,969 



54,3in,092 



49,323,171 



52,065,784 



53,695,203 



ol,485.5_'6 



4S.206,1.57 



58,01)8.704 



48,809,504 



Imported. 



GalIon.s. 



28,724,205 



20,383,556 



25,050,409 



26,509,08^ 



2S,5S2,325 



34,335,038 



43,840,110 



40,770,465 



52,587,909 



•17,961,092 



42.732,171 



41,165.784 



42,995,203 



41.985,526 



.39,500,257 



46,418,734 



36,456,504 



Domestic. 



Gallons. 



18,594,072 



19.808,000 



37,018,000 



11,000,000 



3.828.000 



850,000 



1.300,000 



3,000,000 



3,370,000 



0,400,000 



0,60< 1,000 



10,900,00j 



10,700,000 



9,500,000 



8,700,000 



12,190,000 



12,350,000 



In the years 1860 to 1876 the production of sugar in 

 the T7nited States was less tlian 13 per cent of the cane- 

 sugar it consumed, and little more than 12 per cent of 

 the molasses consumed. 



The estimates of consumption per head of the current 

 decade for the United States, not including the Pacific 

 States, were as follows, viz ; — 



In 1871 



„ 1872 



„ 1873 



„ 1874 



„ 1S75 



,. 1876 



36-80 

 35-96 

 35-71 

 37-54 

 35-39 

 32 00 



It will be observed that these figures, with various 

 fluctuation, show a steady increase in the consumption 

 per head up to 1874, the year in which the commercial 

 stringeney was inaugurated. The great reduction in the 

 following years resulted from the decrease of the pur- 

 chasing power of the people. During the Civil War in 

 1864, owing to the destruction of home production, the 

 emancipation of the slaves, and the blockade of the southern 



ports, the consumption per head was only 1537 lbs. ; the 

 close of the wjir brought an advance to 24-08. 



Between the years 1868 to 1870, the total production 

 of sugar, brown and refined, in the State of Louisiana, 

 rose from 95,051,225 lbs. to 190,672,570., while the molasses 

 produced in 1876 was 12,024,109 gallons, or nearly double 

 of the production of 1868. 



Xow that it is statetl that in most parts of the south 

 the cotton and rice fields do not yield snch profitable 

 results as before, the advantage of fostering an interest 

 of so great financial and economic importance, which 

 would lead to create a trade of export in sugar, is ap- 

 parent. Until lately but little success has attended the 

 various attempts made to secure good results from certain 

 vegetables for the production of sugar, Beet has been 

 the principal vegetable -ivith which trials have been made 

 but the results to produce from it sugar of good quality, 

 and in sufficient quantity, and at a sufficiently low cost, 

 to take the place eventually of the imported sugars pro- 

 duced from the tropical cane, has not been realized, not- 

 withstaniUug the large sums expended to insure success 

 the most approved methods and apparatus of manufacture, 

 the importation of skilled labour, the introduction of 

 a system of culture adapted to the proper growth of beet 

 as under.siood in Europe, and the information disseminated 

 throughout the country. 



The •* El Dorado" of sugar cultivators is now, however, 

 said to have been reached. Visiting the State fair of 

 Minnesota in 1879, General LeDuc, the Director of the 

 Agricultural Department, found there a sample of sugar 

 made in that State, equalizing in appearance the com- 

 mon brown sugar of Louisiana. The sugar was made from 

 a new variety of sorghimi, which from its early ripening 

 quality, and fair colour- of the syrup, was called the 

 " Minnesota Early Amber." 15.000 gallons of syrup were 

 produced in Kice Ooimty in the year 1878 from this 

 cane; and it is estimated that half the crop can be made, 

 to yield sugar. The amount of sugar produced from the 

 "early amber cane" is 51b. to 61b. from a gallon of 

 syrup, weighing ISJ lb. The yield per acre in Minnesota 

 varies from 125 to 150 gallons of syrup. In his analysis 

 of a sample of sugar- ])roduced from this cane, the chemist 

 of the American Agricultural Department, reported that 

 he found the following percentage composition ; — 



" Cane sugar (saccharose) 88-8934 



" Grape sugar (glucose) 5-6100 



"Water (by drying at HOC) ... 5-8250 



In the prosecution of further inquiries for the means 

 of increasing the production of sugar. Genera] LeDuc has 

 discovered that a Mr. F. L. Stewart, a gentleman residing 

 in West Philadelphia, had made some import.ant discoveries 

 connected -with the production of sugar from maize and 

 sorghum. By a process of his, Mr. Stewart has discovered 

 that sugar can now be made from the juice of the stalks 

 of maize or Indian cane, taken at a period when the 

 grain is only partially matured, in much larger quantities 

 than has heretofore been supposed to exist in it. . Jlr. 

 Stewart's experiments, says Mr. Drummond, go to show 

 that the yied of sugar from this source may be made 

 by careful manufacture, to equal per acre of ground planted, 

 nearly the average of sugar now produced from the sugar- 

 cane in Louisiana ; and that the American people eould 

 easily render themselves independent of foreign nations, 

 and the caprices of the foreign sugar trade, by growing 

 and manufacturing their own sugar at a comparatively 

 small cost. Mr. Stewart's process is also applicable to 

 the sorghum owing to the similarity of its juice to that 

 of the maize. According to Jlr. Stewart, the regular 

 Chinese cane of Western Pennsylvania yields 200 gallons 

 of syrup per acre, that on good common soil it m.ay even 

 be made to yield 300 gallons per acre, by the application 

 of gypsum, phosphates, and other special manures and 

 good cultivation: that 8 lb. of sugar from cjm, and !01b. 

 from sorghum cane, may be made from a gallon of dense 

 svrup. If. says Mr. Drummond, Mr. Stewart's experiments 

 may be relied on, it is very apparent that, if one acre 

 in fifty of the area annually devoted to the growth of 

 Indian corn in the United States, he appropriati-d to the 

 growth of either corn or sorghum lor sugar and properly 

 worked up, the product would ahuudantly supply the pre- 

 .seut demand in the l.'nited States. — Asian. 



