12 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



plied as not to materially advance prices. It is possible that for a year or two the con- 

 sumer may not be able to get within from one to two pounds as much sugar for a 

 dollar as under the unprecedentedly low prices of the past year. The average value 

 of vacuum-pan Louisiana sugar during the period covered by the tariff of 1883 was 

 5.68c per Ib, while under the Wilson bill it was 3.45c. Adding the difference between the 

 average duty in 1889, 2.02c, and the present average duty of 0.87c, say 1.15c, we get 

 4.6c as the selling price under the proposed rate of duty. This price is fully one cent 

 below the price prior to 1890. 



In no market of Europe where the 5,000,000 tons of beet sugar are produced can the 

 retailer procure his supply of consumable sugar so cheaply. It appears paradoxical 

 that this very sugar, which by its cheapness in outside markets breaks down the value 

 of American sugar to the starving point, should be so costly at home, but the explana- 

 tion is easy. These countries impose a heavy tax on their home consumption in order 

 to pay an export bounty on the crop. The German empire this year will produce 

 some 2,000,000 tons of beet sugar and consume less than 600,000 tons, exporting 1,400,- 

 000 tons. In Germany each factory pays a license of from $800 to $2500, according to 

 size, and a tax of 2. Ic per Ib on all sugar sold to be consumed in Germany. 



WHY HAS NOT THE AMERICAN SUGAR INDUSTRY DEVELOPED MORE RAPIDLY? 



Because when the sugar beet was first tried, 20 and 25 years ago, other crops paid 

 so much better that farmers did not have the patience to learn how to grow beets. 

 The first factories were not well located to secure an abundant supply of rich beets. 

 The whole thing was comparatively new, and beets were of poorer quality than now. 

 Then, 10 and 12 per cent of sugar in the beets was considered fair; now any- 

 thing below 12 per cent is not accepted at the factory, averages of 14 to 15 per 

 cent over large areas are not uncommon, while tests of 18 to 24 per cent sugar in 

 American beets are on record. The beet is a thoroughbred that improves in richness 

 as a result of proper inbreeding and care. Another powerful obstacle to the beet- 

 sugar industry in America 10 and 20 years ago was, that with dollar wheat and virgin 

 land free of cost, other crops were more profitable in comparison with the labor 

 involved. 



With sugar cane, the industry prior to the war was conducted by slave labor and 

 without much enterprise, the increase in slaves being an element of the profits. The 

 industry was destroyed during the war. It took 20 years thereafter and an expendi- 

 ture of $21,000,000 to rebuild the levees and reclaim the plantations, and it was not 

 until 1878 that Louisiana's product was restored to the figures of 1844115,000 tons. 

 From 1878 to 1886 there was much trouble with high water and crevasses, while as 

 early as 1884 an era of low prices set in, which were helped by a reduced scale of 

 duties. Almost any other industry would have succumbed to such adverse influences, 

 but our sugar producers, though discouraged, would not admit defeat. They estab- 

 lished an experiment station to learn more about fertilizing and chemical control of 

 sugarhouse work, changed in a large measure to the central factory system just as 

 the dairy people have done improved the sugarhouse equipment and by 1890 had 

 doubled the crop of 1878. Then came the "bounty" period, in which the growth of 

 production in four years was from 165,000 tons to 324,000 tons. Had that law been 

 kept in force we would, at that rate, have produced 1,830,000 tons in 1905 and from 



