276 REPURT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
In the State of Texas there are large bodies of land eminently suited 
to growing sugar-cane. In 1878 the crop was estimated at 6,000 hogs- 
heads, with the prospect of a large increase. In Florida, also, there is 
an almost unlimited breadth of land suited by climate and soil to the 
culture of sugar. 
The sugar product of the world is not increasing as fast as the de- 
mand, ‘The amount consumed per capita is each year increasing; the 
amount consumed per capita in this country is larger than in any other, 
and is estimated at nearly 40 pounds. Besides this thereis a large con- 
sumption of cane-molasses, sorghum, and maple sirup. 
The crop of 1877 in Louisiana, “‘as reported by authorities,” was only 
127,000 hogsheads against 169,000 in 1876. This great decline resulted 
from severe cold weather in the month of November, which almost de- 
stroyed the cane for sugar-making purposes, but per consequence the 
product of molasses for 1877 shows a large increase over 1876. In 1878 
the crop suffered no disaster and was the largest made since the war, 
being 250,094,000 pounds, or 208,571 hogsheads of sugar and 13,524,000 
gallons of molasses. 
HOPS. 
According to the reports of our national census we produced, in 1860, 
malt liquors to the value of $7,994,707, with a working capital of 
$2,751,263; in 1870 the value of the product had increased to $55,706,643, 
or nearly sevenfold, and the capital to $48,779,435, or about eighteen- 
fold. The annual reports of the office of internal revenue since 1870, 
show a steady increase in the amount of malt liquors paying taxes. It 
is believed that a large amount of this production escapes taxation, and 
that the total product considerably exceeds 10,000,000 barrels per an- 
num, or 360,000,000 gallons. The discrimination between “ malt liquors” 
and “spirits” in our internal-reventue taxation has given to the former 
quite an impulse. While ale or beer pays but $1 per barrel, the more 
potent forms of alcoholic stimulant have been taxed as high as $2 per 
gallon. Brewing and its associated industries have assumed a special 
financial importance in later years. 
One of these associated industries is the production of hops. The 
increase in both quality and value of this product has kept pace with 
that of the beverages for which this crop is specially grown. ‘The crop 
of 1859, as reported in the census of 1860, aggregated only 10,991,996 
against 25,456,669 pounds in 1869. Of the last-named amount New 
York produced 17,558,631 pounds, and Wisconsin 4,630,155 pounds, the 
two States yielding seven-eighths of the whole crop of the country. 
The State census of New York for 1875 reported for 1874 a crop of 
13,846,065 pounds grown upon 28,278 acres. The acreage of the crop of 
1875, then growing, was 37,004, which at only the low rate of the previous 
year would give over 18,000,000 pounds ; that of 1877 probably exceeded 
20,000,600 pounds. 
For many years hop-raising has attracted special attention in Wiscon- 
sin. In 1876 the secretary of that State in his statistical report gave the 
acreage in hops of that year at 10,952 against 9,720 in 1875, and 8,051 in 
1874. The acreage was considerably over 12,000 in 1877. The product 
of the year last mentioned was probably not less than 7,500,000 pounds, 
or about 600 pounds per acre. There is reason to believe that the 
national census report understates the product of Wisconsin. Thecom- 
mercial editor of the Chicago Times in 1867 investigated the hop in- 
dustry of that State by personally visiting the hop districts and obtain- 
ing all the statistical facts there on reeord. He states the crop of Sauk 
