EDITORIAL. 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



It is supposed that the sugar cane (Saccltarum officinarum) 

 was originally found in India, probably in the region of the 

 Ganges. There is no sugar cane known anywhere to-day in the 

 wild state although there are several species of mammoth grasses 

 closely akin to this plant. 



As various portions of the earth's surface were explored 

 and finally settled the sugar industry was extended until to-day 

 one finds it flourishing in practically all tropical countries and 

 many subtropical countries as well. Perhaps the last semi- 

 tropical region to attempt this industry in a commercial way 

 was the State of Arizona, U. S. A., where the desert wastes 

 were turned into flourishing beet and cane fields by the aid 

 of irrigation from the Government storage dam. 



During the reign of Napoleon in France trade in the sugars 

 from British and other foreign possessions was destroyed by 

 the war with England but this decline in the cane-sugar trade 

 served only as an impetus to the new beet-sugar industry then 

 being started. In the meantime there was such a dearth of 

 sugar and such a fabulous rise in prices, that attempts were 

 made to secure sugar from various plants and fruits growing 

 in France, such as beets, sorghum, maize, grapes, apples, pears, 

 figs, etc. 



At that time the manufacture of a kind of sugar from grapes 

 became quite important so that during the period from 1811 

 to 1813 considerable quantities of this class of sugar were made. 

 Simultaneously with this new venture the beet root was gaining 

 in importance year by year, especially in France, and to a 

 certain extent as well in other European countries, until after 

 extensive experiments in plant breeding it was learned that 

 the sucrose value of the root could be very much improved. 

 From this work varieties of beets used to-day have evolved which 

 often contain as high as 20 to 25 per cent sucrose. Another 

 obstacle in the way was the bad taste and odor of the low- 

 grade sugars from the beets and the difficulty of making a 

 high-grade sugar. To-day the heavy liming and the carbona- 



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