CANE AND BEET 17 



It is the same with the sugar-beet, that little modest 

 plant of northern climes, with its small bunch of leaves 

 close to the ground, spreading out like a toy parasol 

 to keep the ground moist underneath, and to suck in 

 the rays of sunshine from above. It is a little bulging 

 root, tapering to a slender tap-root which thrusts its 

 way far down to find water and food, while the leaves 

 and the sunshine make the sugar. It is curious to 

 think that this humble root, weighing only two pounds, 

 at one time gave to the world as much sugar every 

 year as the lordly sugar cane, and that the beetroot 

 factory should actually extract a greater percentage 

 of sugar from the little root than the cane factory wins 

 from the rich cane. But it must not be forgotten that, 

 under favourable circumstances, the cane can produce 

 twice as much sugar to the acre as the beetroot. Which 

 will win the race ? 



Up to 1903 the beetroot had the great artificial 

 stimulus and assistance of paternal Governments. 

 In some places the cane is now beginning to receive 

 something of the same kind. The United States gives 

 preferential treatment to Cuban sugar, and Cuba 

 consequently goes ahead by leaps and bounds. But 

 the United States does more than this. It admits 

 its own sugar, from the cane fields of Louisiana and 

 the beet fields of the Northern States, free of duty. 

 Those industries therefore nourish. It also admits, 

 free of duty, the cane sugar from Porto Rico, the 

 Sandwich Islands and, recently, the Philippines. The 

 two former have consequently doubled and trebled their 

 production. It remains to be seen what the slow 

 moving inhabitants of the Philippines will do. Japan 

 has also come into the field as a paternal Government. 

 Their newly-acquired island of Formosa has always 

 produced sugar in the Chinese way. Bad canes badly 



