AMERICAN BEET SUGAR. 45 



article, of which the use, like that of any other created thing, may be abused, but 

 whose supposed unhealhtfulness has largely vanished from sight since its purchase 

 does not tend unduly to deplete the purses of parents. The tables below, show- 

 ing the consumption of sugar per capita during different periods and in differ- 

 ent countries, may serve to allay the apprehension of those who fear that sugar 

 will shortly become a drug in the markets of the world. 



Table showing consumption of sugar in the United States, per capita, from 

 1867 to 1896, inclusive : 



Year. Sugar Consumption. 



1867 28.9 pounds 



1877 36.2 pounds 



1887 52.6 pounds 



1896 62.7 pounds 



It thus appears that in thirty years covered by this table the consumption of 

 sugar in the United States has more than doubled. In England, in a portion of 

 the same period, the figures stand as follows : In 1876, 59 Ibs. ; in 1894, 86.1 

 Ibs. In the corresponding years the consumption in the United States was only 

 37.1 Ibs. and 62.6 Ibs. But while the population of England is thus ahead of the 

 United States in the consumption of sugar, the rate of increase in consumption 

 has been greater in the United States than any country in the world, as shown in 

 subjoined table 



Consumption of sugar per head for various countries, 1894-95 : 



Countries. Pounds. 



United States 62.60 



England 86.09 



France 30.61 



Germany 26.78 



Austria 19.87 



Russia 10.94 



Two prominent facts are shown by the above tables. The first is that in the 

 United States and in England the consumption of sugar increases in a more rapid 

 ratio than the population ; and similar tables show the same to be true of all 

 European countries at least. There is probably a natural limit to the possibility 

 of sugar consumption even by the American boy and his elders ; but it is not 

 likely that that limit will be reached within the next quarter century. 



Another point shown is that if sugar consumption is not, like that of soap, to 

 be considered the criterion of the most civilized nations, it seems certainly to follow 

 closely the ratio of their progressiveness and commercial relations with the world 

 at large. Thus England stands at the head and Russia at the foot of the scale. 

 But if this is true, it inevitably follows that as social progress and intercommuni- 

 cation of all nations advance (and that this will be the case no sane person will 

 question) an increase of sugar consumption will be sure to follow. The time 

 between the present and that when the sugar consumption of all nations shall 

 have reached its natural maximum, would seem to offer an ample margin of 

 safety against the glutting of the market for some generations to come." 



ROTATION OF BEETS AND WHEAT. The "Pajaronian" of Watsonville publish 

 es an interesting statement of the returns of wheat crops in Pajaro valley in 1897. 



