ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF SUGAR. 7 



total consumption during this period. The table also shows that not only did the 

 total consumption of sugar double in less than sixteen years, but the per capita con- 

 sumption increased fully one-half during the same time. 



It also appears that the United State paid out for imported sugar during these 

 16 years almost $1, 500, 000, 000. Jf the imports of molasses, etc, were included and ex- 

 ports of saccharine deducted, the figures would show fully this amount. In other 

 words, this country has paid out an average of just about $100,000,000 per year for 

 sugar for nearly two decades, in the face of the steadily declining values of sugar 

 indicated in the last column. Still more startling is the fact that our per capita 

 consumption, around 65 pounds annually, is two and three times as much as the 

 consumption in Germany, France and other sugar-producing countries. 



THE AMERICAN FARMERS DEMAND 



a fair chance to produce everything our people consume that can be grown in the 

 United States. They want to begin with sugar, both cane and beet. Why? Because 

 with reasonable protection and factories to work up these crops, sugar cane and sugar 

 beets promise to afford farmers the new source of reasonable profits that are impera- 

 tively required to help relieve agricultural depression. Sugar beets at $4 to $5 per 

 ton, or cane at corresponding prices, are fairly profitable crops compared to cereals, 

 potatoes, tobacco, cotton, etc. 



An acre of corn at the west, yielding 40 bushels of grain worth 15c per bushel, 

 will buy something more than 100 Ibs of granulated sugar at the grocery store. That 

 same acre or' land devoted to sugar beets will produce 2000 to 3000 Ibs of refined sugar, 

 like the finest white sugar you can buy. The corn under such conditions returns 

 about $6 per acre for all the labor and capital invested in that crop. Sugar beets 

 yield $25 to $50 per acre, and while they require far more labor, they pay for it ?nd 

 leave a net profit of $10 to $25 per acre, which is handsome compared to the meager 

 returns from corn, wheat, oats, etc. 



SUGAR AND THE MONETARY PROBLEM. 



The country has been convulsed over the proposition of free silver coinage at 16 

 to 1. The most ardent advocates of that policy have not proposed to coin more than 

 100, 000, 000 silver dollars per year. Now without discussing the pros and cons of the 

 silver question, no one will deny the benefits that would accrue by keeping at home 

 the 100,000,000 of (gold standard) dollars that are sent out of the country each year 

 for sugar. If this sugar is all paid for in money (instead of partly in merchandise), 

 keeping at home this vast sum would inflate our per capita circulation nearly $1.50 

 each year, or $15 in ten years, and in 15 years it would double our present per capita 

 circulation. Certainly ic would help to solve the currency problem to keep at home 

 the money that now goes abroad for sugar. 



CAN THIS COUNTRY PRODUCE ITS OWN SUGAR? 



There is no longer any doubt about it. The sugar beet can be grown over a large 

 part of the United States, and in some sections attains a perfection never approached 

 in other countries. 



The sugar cane is adapted to a far larger area than has been generally supposed. 



The maps forming the frontispieces to this book show the probable possible dis- 

 tribution of these commercial crops. The lines on the map No 3 are based on the 



