pT ae 
ey UF SE 
1904-5.] THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES OF THE DOMINION. 175 
the last decade cane sugar has increased in production about 200 per cent. 
Judging from present appearances, and allowing for some slight tariff 
alterations, the increase in Canada should soon be in proportion to that 
of other countries.>+ : 
Raw sugar is imported from Cuba, the West Indies, Java, Manila, 
the Brazils, Mauritius, and the Continent of Europe. The most improved 
machinery and processes are employed, refined sugars and syrups being the 
staple products, 
Belgium supplies to Canada the largest proportion of sugar, the im- 
ports from that country amounting in 1901 to 127,931,553 pounds; from 
Germany in the same year 83,941,290 pounds entered the country, the 
total imports being 336,694,833 pounds valued at close on $8,000,000.*° 
BEET SUGAR. 
The most interesting point connected with the sugar industry is the 
way in which the production of sugar from beets cultivated on Canadian 
soil has become, in the past few years, an important factor in the country’s 
progress. As far back as 1872 the Dominion Government sent a special 
agent to Europe to make a study of the industry. A bounty of $25,000 
afterwards increased to $70,000 was offered by the Quebec Government 
in 1875 to the first successful factory to be established in a situation ap- 
proved by the Government. This led to the establishment of a company 
known as the Union Sucriere du Canada, which, in 1881, erected the first 
of four proposed factories at Berthierville, Que.°® This establishment 
was unsuccessful and only operated for a few days, mainly owing to the 
failure of the beet crop. After passing into other hands the plant was 
bought by an American company and removed to Eddy, New Mexico.*” 
Another company was, in the same year, organized at Farnham, P.Q., 
not far from Montreal, which after some vicissitudes, did not deem its 
success sufficient to warrant a continuation of its operations, so sold its 
plant to a company at Rome, N.Y., in 1897. A third company, known 
as the Pioneer Beet Company started operations in 1881, at Coaticook, 
P.Q.,°°and was successful in part, receiving a subsidy of 35,000 dols. from 
the Government, but it, too, closed its doors in 1883. The causes to which 
these failures may be attributed were lack of capital and enterprise, and 
the indispositiom of the farmers to cultivate beets. The Agricultural De- 
partment of the Provincial Governments, however, continued experi- 
menting with various kinds of beets and studied the conditions most favour- 
(54) Letter from Mr. D. A. Gordon, President of the Wallaceburg Sugar Company. 
(55) Essay, Mr. Read, University of Toronto. 
(56) Report of Dominion Government on beet sugar manufacture in Canada. 
(57) Letter from the Manager of the Dresden Sugar Co., Ontario, now removed to Michigan. 
