SUGAR 



CHAPTER I 



YOU AND I 



I FIND myself confronted with the opportunity oi 

 acting as your guide on a trip round and about the 

 Sugar World. I accept the position with a dual 

 sense of responsibility : within the limited time that 

 we have at our disposal for the entire expedition, I 

 must do justice to sugar as absolute monarch of wide- 

 spread domains ; and I must bring you to the journey's 

 end feeling that you have enjoyed to the full every 

 stage of the tour, and have come back with a familiar 

 knowledge of sugar-growing and sugar-making. 



You, as I understand you en masse, are not a com- 

 munity of embryo specialists in sugar ; hence, you 

 are not hoping or expecting that I shall give you such 

 technical instruction in the art of sugar-production 

 as would help you on the road to becoming a successful 

 sugar - planter, sugar - manufacturer, or sugar-refiner. 

 With the majority of you, an interest in sugar springs 

 directly from the fact that you eat it in numerous 

 forms and under various disguises, and like it so much 

 in all its mediums of appeal to your palate that the 

 mere mention of its name gives you a pleasant sensa- 

 tion. Even if you have not a very " sweet tooth,'* 



1 



