PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 791 



tlie demand for sugar must diminish the supply about 500,000 tons. 

 The production of Louisiana will be destroyed, that of Cuba 

 diminished one-half or one-third, and that of Brazil will be 

 reduced. How is this deficiency to be supplied? The consumi> 

 tion of the United States is nearly as large as that of Great Britain, 

 and they will probably be driven by necessity to manufacture 

 sugar from the beet, the processes for'wdiich they can learn of 

 Europe. As for France, Belgium, and Germany, they can easily 

 double or triple their production; for it does not require long 

 preparation of the soil to produce beets. Capital is abundant for 

 such an enterprise; and even at the present rate of increase, pro- 

 duction doubles every ten years." 



"England may fear that the manufacture of beet sugar in Great 

 Britain would prejudice her colonial interests; but some of her 

 statesmen foresee its introduction." The editor predicts that the 

 effect of the change in the sources of supply would be to diminish, 

 and not to enhance, the price of sugars. He goes on to say, "The 

 North and the South may fight as long as they like. The 4,000,- 

 000 slaves in the Southern States may be freed, the 400,000 negroes 

 in Cuba maj- also be emancipated, as well as those of Brazil. The 

 African slave trade may stop, drought and insects may continue to 

 ravage the sugar plantations of Reunion and Mauritius, but sugar 

 will not become scarce in Europe for all that. We shall continue 

 to be supplied by our own admirable industry, whose advantages 

 and development we have set forth." 



In a later issue the probability is discussed of the United States 

 continuing to import annually 300,000 to 400,000 tons of sugar 

 from Cuba and Brazil, "when they have the ability to supply all 

 their w^ants with beet sugar from their own soil, not only with 

 certainty of profit to the manufacturer, under the existing tariff, 

 but also with advantage to the whole country, because of the 

 unreliability bf the cane crop of Louisiana, which never ripens, 

 and which at any rate is certain to be paralyzed for the next ten 

 years. 



"But even if the duties on foreign sugars should be abolished, 

 the advantage would be on the side of the beet-sugar manufacturer, 

 who will probably have less need of protection than the Louisiana 

 planter. 



The people of the Northern States will not long defer the cul- 

 tivation of a plant which contains so much sugar that it will soon 

 teach them to forget that which was formerly produced upon the 



