90 SUGAR 



deltas of the principal rivers and elsewhere along the coast 

 very suitable for sugar. 



In the Malay Peninsula sugar used to be one of the principal 

 products, both soil and climate being all that could be desired, 

 but of late years rubber has taken its place. 



Sugar Beet is produced from seed, and grows in temperate 

 climates. It is sown in the spring and dug up in the autumn. 

 It is white in colour, not red, as are the ordinary beets with 

 which we are acquainted. A sugar beet looks rather like a large 

 parsnip. When the roots have been washed the juice is 

 extracted from them. There are two or three different methods 

 by which this is done : one of the most usual is to mash the 

 roots up to a pulp and then press the juice out of them by 

 machinery. The other processes for refining the juice and 

 obtaining sugar are the same as those followed in the manu- 

 facture of cane sugar. 



In England we have at present (i.e. in 1918) 269 acres under 

 sugar beet, mainly in Lincoln, Suffolk, and Cambridge. 



Canada. In the south of Ontario, in the peninsula between 

 lakes Huron and Erie, several thousand acres are under beet, 

 and in South Alberta, too, it is cultivated. 



In Australia the sugar-beet industry is receiving attention, 

 especially in New South Wales, and beet sugar is also produced 

 in New Zealand. 



SUMMARY. In 1913 1 we imported over twenty-three million 

 pounds' worth of sugar (23,066,621), of which less than one 

 million pounds' worth came from British possessions. The 

 bulk of the imported sugar came from Germany, though 

 Austria-Hungary, the Netherlands, and other countries sent 

 us considerable amounts. 



Of countries within our own empire we received the largest 

 supplies from the West Indies, Mauritius, and British Guiana, 

 as well as a small amount from India. 



Yet there seems no reason why in the future the empire 



1 In 1917 we imported 36,000,000 worth, of which 6,000,000 came from 

 British countries. 



