PART ONE, 



Economics of Domestic Sugar Production* 



CHAPTER I. 



SITUATION AT THE OPENING OF 1899. 



An entirely new danger now threatens the otherwise promising domestic industry 

 of sugar production. It is the proposed free admission into the markets of the United 

 States of sugar from Porto Rico, Cuba, the British West Indies and the Philippines and 

 the continuance of the contract labor system in Hawaii. But for these dangers, there 

 would now be under construction many new and large beet sugar factories in the east- 

 ern, central and western states, and extensive cane sugar houses in Louisiana, Florida 

 and Texas. With four-cent cotton at the south and wheat down again to low prices, the 

 importance of developing the domestic sugar industry may be emphasized by rehearsing 

 a few comparisons. 



The value of the sugar imported into the United States averages about $100,000,000 

 each year. The quantity doubles every fifteen years. Besides this, the imports of tobacco, 

 wool, cotton, hides, vegetables, breadstuff's, fruits and nuts, dairy produce and eggs, hay 

 and hops, rice and flaxseed, bristles and hair, bark and sumach, etc., represent in value 

 another $100,000,000. This is somewhat less than formerly. But it is true that within 

 the present limits of continental United States could be produced all these $200,000,000 

 worth of agricultural imports without materially affecting American agricultural exports. 



Taking the fiscal year 1896 as a fairly average one for our foreign trade, and it 

 appears that "every pound of the wheat and flour exported from the United States that 

 year was barely enough to pay for the sugar imported. The total value of all live and 

 dressed beef, beef products and lard exported that year barely equalled the amount paid 

 for imported sugar. The immense export trade in cotton represented in value only twice 

 as much as the import of sugar. The vast exports of tobacco must be magnified thrice 

 to counterbalance sugar imports. The barley, oats and rye, fruits and nuts, hops, vege- 

 table oils, oleomargarine, butter and cheese, pork and hams that were exported that 

 year all put together represented in value only two-thirds of the sugar imported." 



WHAT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY MEANS TO THE UNITED STATES. 



Taking the imports for 1895-6 as representing the fair average importation of 

 sugar, say 1,720,000 long tons annually, to produce this quantity would require 920 fac- 

 tories, each working up 350 tons of beets during a campaign of 100 days of 24 hours. 

 Each factory would need 2,000 to 2,500 acres of beets, or about 2,000,000 acres in all. As 

 the crop should be rotated and only grown on the same ground every third year, three 

 times as large an area would be needed. 



At an average of only ten tons of beets per acre, the total crop would approximate 

 20,000,000 tons. At only $4 per ton net for beets delivered to the factory, the farmers 



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