THE TROPICAL SUGAR CANE. 19 
During the year 1855, when the degeneracy ot the cane 
in Louisiana began to become apparent, 822,000,000 
pounds of cane sugar were consumed in the United States, 
of which 440,000,000 were of foreign importation, and 
382,000,000 of American growth; more than three-fourths 
of the latter amount were supplied by Louisiana. Owing 
to local causes, the annual production in Louisiana had 
been rapidly diminishing since 1853. During that year 
the crop was estimated at 400,000,000 pounds. In 1854 
it was 346,500,000 pounds. In 1855 it was 231,426,000 
pounds, and subsequently the yearly average was much less. 
Nature has set barriers to the geographical range of the 
southern sugar cane beyond which it cannot be grown 
with success. The extreme limits of its distribution north 
and south, as far as determined by general climatic influ- 
ences, appear to be the parallels of 30° on each side of 
the equator. The soil and local peculiarities, however, of 
the region comprised within these boundaries are not always 
favorable. The regions from which the markets of the world 
are supplied are neither numerous nor extensive. They 
are, chiefly, the West and Hast Indies, British India, and 
the Island of Mauritius. Within the United States, we 
cannot hope to extend the limits of growth of this plant 
beyond the narrow belt of territory along the Gulf shore, 
where it has been already planted, and, even there, causes 
are at work inducing disease and deterioration of the cane, 
which, unless they can be checked, will entirely prevent the 
resuscitation of the business of sugar production from the 
tropical cane. 
We turn in vain to other native sources of supply. The 
sugar maple of our Northern forests is utterly inadequate: 
40,000,000 pounds of maple sugar are annually produced, 
but that quantity is but a small fraction of the amount re- 
quired to meet the increased demand. The manufacture 
