86 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



Peas and corn are sweet. Stalks of corn yield 

 sugar. Fruits of many kinds have a high per- 

 centage of sugar. Grains and root vegetables 

 must also be counted, and the sap of many species 

 of trees. 



But the world's supply of sugar depended from 

 the beginning of civilization, and probably long 

 before, upon the sugar-cane of the Tropics. It is 

 not strange that the more progressive peoples of 

 temperate regions came to feel a fear that this 

 important foodstuff might fail, in time, to supply 

 the growing demand. Tropical agriculture is not 

 scientific. Coolie labor produces the crop of cane, 

 and the overseers are not men who would direct a 

 fight against a new disease or insect enemy of the 

 cane as men of colder regions would. What would 

 a sugar famine mean? 



The question confronting the scientist and the 

 commercial world was this: Isn't there a sugar 

 plant of the Temperate Zones to take the place of 

 the cane? Nobody could name one. The next 

 question was: Cannot a sugar-producing plant 

 be bred up to fill the great need? 



Germany and France furnished the trained 

 scientists whose patience and skill solved the 

 problem. Vegetables of various sorts were tested 

 for sugar. Beets were found that tested as high as 



