STATE HORTICULTLrjRAT. SOCIETY. 137 



interests of the United States as well as of the State of Minne- 

 sota. I am glad to welcome liim to onr nuM^ting, and should be 

 glad to haA^e him address tlu' convention. 



Gen. W. G. Le Due. Mr. President, I am very much obliged 

 to you for the very kind introduction and invitation extended to 

 me, and I am very glad to meet with the li-iends here to-day. I 

 find here many familiar faces and a great many that are new, at 

 least to me, although perhaps not new to you. It would afford 

 me pleasure to Join heartily in your plans and take part in your 

 deliberations. That I could give you any information on amber 

 cane I think is extremely doubtful. Of course I have felt a lively 

 interest in the sugar products of our country, and this is espe- 

 cially true with regard to the product of our own State. I have 

 traveled to some extent in foreign counti'ies and in jDlaces where 

 sugar is produced, perhaps, a great deal cheaper than it can be 

 here. It may be interesting to some of you to know how much 

 cheaper sugar can be made in Mexico than it can be here, and 

 that it would be idle for us to undertake to compete with the 

 people of that country in sugar-making under similar circum- 

 stances. 



I have been in Mexico where the sugar grows from a single 

 planting and yields a crop for eighteen years, and yields a large 

 crop of sugar, which is easily obtained. They boil the juice in 

 open kettles and it makes a strong, well-grained sugar, valuable 

 foi- refining or for any other purpose. This was in Sierras Cali- 

 entes on the west shore, or on the Gulf of California. It has 

 occurred to me that when we have ratified the treaty that is now 

 before Congress that the people of Mexico might compete with 

 us who raise the amber cane, and the question was suggested 

 as to how far this would interfere or come in competition with 

 our industry, if sugar were to be brought from that country, 

 where it may be raised so cheaply. There are other elements 

 that enter into the production of sugar; there is the element 

 of population, and there, my friends, we have the advant- 

 age; there is the element of mind and body, and there we 

 have the advantage; there is the element of transportation to 

 market, and there of course we have the advantage; because in 

 that country, where I have seiBn so excellent a growth of cane, the 

 people are very much as they were 1,800 years ago. I cannot 

 better illustrate the condition of that society there to you than 

 to tell you of a conversation I had with an American who had 

 been settled there for twenty-nine years, a gentleman who had 

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