Cane vs. Be e t 



'80s that the cane planter woke up 

 from his long sleep. 



The typical owner of a sugar plan- 

 tation lived in tropical style, well up 

 to his income and invested the least 

 possible money in improvements. 

 He was prone to spend all he made 

 without thinking of creating a re- 

 serve fund, and consequently, when 

 the beet all things considered, a 

 much inferior plant to the cane for 

 the purpose began, by sheer dint of 

 scientific handling, to encroach upon 

 the cane, he was absolutely unpre- 

 pared for the struggle for existence 

 which lay before him. This condi- 

 tion, however, did not continue long, 

 and in the early '80s, capital, in 

 moderate amounts, began to be 

 available to sugar planters, and cane 

 sugar manufacture began to shake 

 off its primitive shackles. 



In 1870 the production of cane 

 sugar was almost double that of beet 

 [43] 



