96 THE CHINESE SUGAR-CANE. 



under the disadvantage of bringing it here for a 

 market, while we shall have ours on the very spot. 

 After the mill has been set up and the boilers 

 arranged, there will be but little expense except 

 for labor and fuel. In regard to the former, I 

 believe free labor can and always will compete 

 successfully with slave labor, give it an equal 

 chance ; in regard to the latter, the begass may, 

 and possibly will, be used for fuel in some 

 places, as in the West Indies, where it supplies 

 nearly all the fuel required both to run the steam- 

 engine and to boil the syrup. I believe the 

 time will come when we may revel in sweets 

 grown upon our own free soil, either from this 

 cane or other saccharine plants that will be 

 introduced. Glorious results are to follow the 

 introduction of this plant, if all our anticipations 

 are realized, when the poor as well as the rich 

 shall have the sweets of life within their reach ; 

 for it is the masses we would benefit. The rich 

 can obtain sugar, let it cost what it will; but not 

 so with the laboring man, — he must be deprived 

 of this luxury, if the prices advance as they have 

 for the past two years. But let us not get 

 excited on this subject, so that the Chinese 

 Sugar-cane excitement will be classed with the 

 Merino sheep fever, the Morus multicaulis, 



