746 



SUGAR. 



Of this quantity there was received at 



In addition to the foregoing, about 13,380 

 tons were received at Portland, New Haven, 

 and other Eastern ports, mostly from Cuba and 

 Porto Rico. At New Orleans and other South- 

 ern ports 3,886 tons were received from Cuba, 

 etc. The total receipts of cane-sugar were 

 941,742 tons. The effect of the new tariff is 

 felt in the increased receipts of sugars of a 

 lower grade. Large quantities of these infe- 

 rior sugars, coming both from the East and the 

 West Indies, are now refined in this country ; 

 formerly they were sent to England. The re- 

 sult of this increased importation has been the 

 lowering of the price ; and the condition of the 

 market during the year is described as dull and 

 In January the price of fair refin- 



ing sugar was 6f| cents ; this advanced to 7 T 8 R- 

 cents in May, and has since steadily declined till 

 it closed in December at 6 cents. 



The low prices and greater importation of 

 raw sugar show an increased consumption for 

 1883 of 86,482 tons over that of 1882, which, 

 on a basis of a population of 55,000,000, shows 

 a per capita consumption of 47-^ pounds against 

 45 pounds for last year. 



The crop of cane sugar produced in the South- 

 ern States, during the season of 1882-'83, was 

 the largest obtained since the war. In Louisi- 

 ana the yield was 241,220 hogsheads, or 135,- 

 298 tons, which, compared with 122,982 hogs- 

 heads, or 71,373 tons, shows an increase of 

 118,238 hogsheads, or 63,925 tons, over last 

 year. From the remaining Southern States the 

 product was about 7,000 tons, making a total 

 of 142,298 tons of domestic cane-sugar. The 

 crop for the season of 1883-'84 is estimated at 

 240,000 hogsheads, which is lower than that of 

 the preceding season. At San Francisco the 

 importations of sugar have largely increased 

 during the present year, as the following fig- 

 ures show : 



Beet-Sugar. The production of beet-sugar 

 in this country has of late been very unsat- 

 isfactory. In 1880 there were six factories 

 in active operation, while at present but one 

 refinery is working, the Standard Sugar Manu- 

 facturing Company of Alvarado, Cal. The 



out-put of this establishment is given as 1,200,- 

 000 pounds for 1883, against 1,000,000 for the 

 previous year. The difficulty experienced by 

 those who have attempted to produce sugar 

 from the beet in the East, has been the impos- 

 sibility of inducing farmers to cultivate the 

 beet-root at prices which the factories could 

 afford to pay. The beet-crop in Europe was 

 unusually large during 1882-'83, and the pro- 

 duction is given by Licht as follows : 



Tons. 



Germany 798,124 



France 423,194 



Austria 473,000 



Kussia 250,000 



Belgium 82,723 



Holland, etc 85,000 



Total 2,062,000 



As the beet-sugar coming to this country is 

 exported almost entirely through German ports, 

 it is impossible to ascertain exactly where it 

 comes from, but it is supposed to be the surplus 

 stock of Austria and Germany. The following 

 data show the receipts of beet-sugar at the port 

 of New York, with their corresponding polari- 

 scopic test, for the last three months of 1883 : 



October 1,007 bags, testing 91 degrees. 



November 16.733 bags, testing 93 degrees. 



December T8,996 bags, testing 94 degrees. 



The second product consisted of 



October 300 bags, testing 84 degrees. 



November 7,701 bags, testing 87 degrees. 



December 8,894 bags, testing 88 degrees. 



Maple-Sugar. It is impossible to estimate, ex- 

 cept very roughly, the crop of maple-sugar, not 

 only because no data are available concerning 

 its manufacture, but also for the reason that 

 large amounts of a spurious article are thrown 

 on the market and openly sold as maple- sugar. 

 More of this sugar is produced in Vermont than 

 in any other section of the country, and during 

 the past year the cold weather .and heavy 

 snows have materially decreased the out-put. 

 In 1882 the total product, East and West, was 

 estimated at 20,000 tons, but in 1883 not more 

 than 18,500 tons were manufactured. 



Starch-Sugar. The manufacture of sugar and 

 sirup from starch derived from corn is an 

 industry of comparatively recent origin. In 

 1863, at Buffalo, F. TV. Gessling and Lyman 

 Bradley began the manufacture of this product, 

 and in 1864 the first patent on this subject was 

 issued for the process which they devised. At 

 present the starch-sugar industry in the United 

 States gives employment to 29 factories, having 

 an estimated capital of $5,000,000, consuming 

 about 40,000 bushels of corn a day, and pro- 

 ducing grape-sugar and glucose to the annual 

 value of nearly $10,000,000. The process of 

 making starch-sugar consists, first, in separat- 

 ing the starch from the corn by soaking, grind- 

 ing, straining, and settling ; and second, in con- 

 verting the starch into sugar by the action of 

 dilute sulphuric acid, this acid being subse- 

 quently removed by the action of chalk. To 

 make the solid " grape-sugar," the conversion 

 is carried further than to make liquid " glu- 



