80 



The World's Commercial Products 



by suitable means and used as a source of sugar. These palms in some countries yield large 

 supplies. 



In North America there are the sugar-maples, very closely related to the common 

 sycamore and the field maple of this country, and from them a sugar-yielding sap may be 

 obtained by boring holes in their trunks early in the year. This juice yields the well-known 

 maple sugar and maple syrup so highly esteemed in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere. 

 A variety of maize or Indian corn, and a kind of Guinea corn or sorghum, are both of 

 local importance as sources of sugar in some parts of the world. 



Although the plants mentioned above comprise most of those of value as sources of sugar, 

 there are numerous others which contain sugar, and are potential sugar-producers. Many 



fruits when ripe are well 

 known to be sweet, and this 

 indicates the presence of 

 sugar. Grapes, for example, 

 are rich in sugar, so also are 

 pineapples and other fruits, 

 but sugar obtained from 

 them would be much too 

 costly to allow of its being 

 used for commercial pur- 

 poses. The onion also con- 

 tains a considerable amount 

 of sugar, but is not employed 

 for this purpose on an 

 economic scale. 



Although there is a con- 

 siderable number of plants 

 which produce sugar in 

 sufficient quantities to render 

 them of importance in the 

 countries in which they are 

 grown, the fact remains that, 

 so far as the commercial 

 production of sugar is con- 

 cerned, the sugar-cane and 

 the sugar-beet practically 

 have a monopoly. It is true 

 that large quantities of sugar are made from various palms in the East, that sorghum and 

 maize yield their products in America, China and elsewhere, and that the sugar-maples 

 provide a delicacy in the United States and Canada, but none of these plants at present 

 affect the sugar market. Sorghum is sometimes regarded as one of. the important sugar- 

 plants of the future, but that day has certainly not yet arrived, and beet and cane easily 

 out-distance all competitors. Many people would probably not be prepared to give an 

 opinion offhand as to the relative importance of these two plants, or if they did their estimate 

 might not be very accurate. The total annual commercial sugar crop of the world is now 

 approximately about 10,000,000 tons, and to this enormous quantity the beet contributes 

 about 6,000,000 tons and the sugar-cane some 4,000,000 tons. That is to say, about three- 

 fifths of the sugar of commerce is beet-sugar and two-fifths cane-sugar. If, however, we go 

 back such a comparatively short period as fifty years we find a very different state of affairs. 

 At that time the total sugar crop was only 1,500,000 tons, or less than one-sixth of what it 

 is now. More striking still is the fact that of this crop over 1,250,000 tons, or more than eighty 



By permission of the Queensland Government 



A SUGAR-CANE FIELD AT VERA CRUZ 



