8 THE CHINESE SUGAR-CANE. 



the coolers, the sugar-maker announced to the 

 anxious crowd, in technical language, ' It 

 grains ! ' shouts of joy rent the air, and the news 

 spread with rapidity that the juice of the cane 

 grown in lower Louisiana had been manufactured 

 into crystallized sugar, and a new impulse was 

 given to the cultivation of cane." Year by year 

 this crop has increased in value, and has now 

 become a very valuable one, and a great article 

 of commerce. What variety of cane was first 

 brought from China and India, I do not know, 

 but probably one of the sorts that are now culti- 

 vated in the West Indies, and in our own sugar- 

 producing state, Louisiana. 



It may be well to give a few statistics con- 

 cerning the amount of sugar consumed in this 

 country, and other facts connected with the trade 

 in this article. There is, annually, consumed in 

 the country, upwards of 800,000,000 pounds, or 

 about 30 pounds to each person ; which is cer- 

 tainly a large amount, much larger than is con- 

 sumed in any other country, in proportion to its 

 inhabitants. In Great Britain, each person con- 

 sumes 24 pounds ; Belgium, 18 ; Holland, 17 ; 

 France, 8 ; Denmark, 6 ; Sweden, 4 ; Russia, 

 21. This shows conclusively that the people of 

 the United States consume more sugar than those 



