SUGAR INDUSTRY IX UNITED STATES. 51 



constant, or nearly so. This is absnrd, as a sugar made 

 in the vacuum pan can be actually within a few points 

 of chemically pure and at the same time enter into our 

 ports as an inferior article ; or again sugars that are of 

 the very best may be artificially colored to suit the 

 occasion. 



If a uniform duty be established it will exclude the 

 lower grades from our market, thus doing much harm to 

 the refining business, and will permit the higher to com- 

 pete with our home product. 



The ad valorem principle is good, but can not be 

 relied upon, as there is danger of undervaluation by 

 the seller. The "polariscope"^ is without doubt the 

 best, but here again important errors would occur if 

 the instrument be not used by those having sufficient 

 scientific knowledge. Errors even then occur, fre- 

 quently due to the existence of " dextro-glncose," Avhich 

 has been fraudulently mixed with the raw sugar.^ 



It would require much time to discuss the above in 

 all its details, but it is sufficient to say that none of 

 them are perfect, but it is to be hoped that the time is 

 not far distant when the country will not be subjected 

 to such uncertainty in the collection of the duty upon 

 this article. 



' This is an optical instrument based on the property that saccharine solu- 

 tions possess of turning a certain angle, the plane of polarization of a cluster 

 of ordinary light passing through ; the so-called dextro-glucose causes this ray 

 to turn to the right to a greater extent than would the ordinary sugar, thereby 

 causing an error. 



* It is admitted that the above never exists in normal sugars. 



