20 SUGAR 



two industries were henceforth to fight for supremacy 

 on their own merits. 



Since I do not wish you to think I have been influ- 

 enced by any political bias whilst outlining the history 

 of beet-sugar, I should like specially to point out to 

 you some of the benefits derived by the cane-sugar 

 industry from its tough struggle for life. 



The beet-sugar producers have always shown them- 

 selves keenly alive to the necessity of keeping up to 

 date in the pursuit of agriculture and manufacture. 

 And if their respective Governments' methods of 

 rendering them assistance are open to criticism, at 

 least it must be admitted that the giving of help bore 

 witness to national interest in national industries. On 

 the other hand, the cane-sugar producers, for the 

 most part, were content to jog along as their ancestors 

 for many generations had done before them ; they did 

 not see the force of laying money " dead " in im- 

 provements. And there was little or no national 

 interest in their industry to spur them on. 



Largely owing to the fight put up by beet-sugar, 

 there has been a complete revolution in the methods 

 of conducting the cane-sugar industry. Planters now 

 devote their attention to the latest scientific methods 

 of cultivation ; up-to-date estates have a resident 

 chemist, who gives advice on such matters as artificial 

 manuring, tests the quality of the sugar-juice, and 

 looks after the boiling at the all-important birth stage 

 of the grains ; factories are fitted with the latest im- 

 provements in sugar-making machinery. And national 

 interest in the industry is shown by the attention 

 given it by Boards of Agriculture, and by Government 

 Experimental Nurseries and Laboratories. 



