51 



COMPARATIVE DATA. 



It is not only interesting but profitable to have data relative to 

 the cane sugar industry from different parts of the sugar growing 

 world. The data given here has been gathered from personal letters 

 and reliable publications, and although by no means full or com- 

 plete, is sufficiently representative to permit of some comparison. * 



* NECESSITY OF UNIFORM METHODS OF REPORTING RESULTS. Even with abundant 

 data comparison is not always easy since different .haciendas and different countries 

 may not adopt the same methods of reporting. For example, the amount of sugar 

 obtained from cane may be given in terms of No. of tons of cane per ton of sugar, or, 

 rendimentJ overweight of cane, or, No. of Ibs. of sugar per ton of cane, or, No. of 

 kiios of sugar per kilos of cane. 



A person accustomed to but one of these terms for expressing the amount of sugar 

 obtained from cane,, would find comparisons difficult, and the confusion would be in- 

 creased if it were not known whether the tons were metric, English or Spanish, 



An International Sugar Growers' Congress could not intelligently discuss reports 

 presented in such varying terms; they would have to be sifted down to a common basis. 

 It is questioned whether a plantation owner in the United States would easily 

 grasp the idea of the yield of cane if given in terms of quintals and f anagadas; and an 

 estate owner in Peru might find it hard to learn what was being done in Louisiana by 

 reading of "so many tons per acre." 



The Metric system seems to be the most universal and rational, and it is gradually 

 becoming the standard system in Peru. 



