32 



THECUBA REVIEW 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



DIFFERENCES IN CANE AND BEET SUGAR WHERE THE WORLD's 



SUGAR IS DISTRIBUTED 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE WORLD S SUGAR 



The distrilnition of the cane sugar pro- 

 duction of the world is a rather simple 

 thing. The great countries having a large 

 population consume the sugar from their 

 own fields, and require somewhat from 

 abroad, which is generally furnislied by ad- 

 jacent producers. 



In this way British India consumes her 

 own produce, together with the greater part 

 of that of Mauritius, and one-third of that 

 of Java. The United States complete their 

 own scanty production with that from 

 Cuba, Porto Rico, the Hawaiian Islands, 

 and. many of the Antilles. China and 

 Japan take their suppply from Formosa, 

 strengthened by sugar from Java and the 

 Philippines ; while Australia takes what she 

 has short from Fiji, Java, and Mauritius. 

 The South African Continent contents it- 

 self with sugar from Natal, together with 

 small amounts from Mozambique and Mau- 

 ritius. 



There is, therefore, very little sugar left 

 for those countries which do not produce 

 sugar themselves, or are situated in the 

 neighborhood of the producing centre. 



The only sugars left for exportation 

 abroad are those of Demerara, Surinam, 

 some of the Antilles, and South American 

 republics, such as Peru, Brazil, etc. On the 

 other hand, there are also very few mar- 

 kets free for the importation of disposable 

 sugar. 



Formerly it was chiefly Great Britain, the 

 United States and Canada which availed 

 themselves of the sugar from remote parts 

 of the globe; but the United States have at 

 this moment all the sugar which they want 

 close at hand. A year ago Canada con- 

 cluded a treaty with a part of the British 

 West Indies, by which they granted each 

 other a rebate on import duties. As a 

 consequence, the sugar trade between those 

 possessions and Canada will be greatly pro- 

 moted, so that only Great Britain is left as 

 a recipient of those sugars produced in the 

 various countries as surplus of their own 

 or of their immediate neighbors. 



We see then that notwithstanding the 

 great extension of sugar production, all 

 the sugar turned out finds a buyer ; and as 

 the consumption of the article is steadily 

 increasing, the prosperous development of 

 the sugar industry may continue still for a 

 long time, without any fear of sugar re- 

 maining unsold in stock. — From a paper 

 by H. C. Prinsen Geerligs, read before the 

 International Colonial Congress at Ghent 



on August 27t]i last. — Iiiteniatioiial Sugar 

 Joiinial. 



CANE AND BEET SUGAR DIFFERENCES 



The question of the detection of the dif- 

 ference between cane and beet sugar is one 

 which is often raised, and has given rise to 

 much discussion. In the case of raw cane 

 and raw beet — and we use the terms raw 

 and refined in the commonly accepted sense 

 — the olfactory organs at once determine 

 the difference, but where refined sugar is 

 in question, we may at once admit that 

 there is no known test by which they can 

 be diferentiated. But when it comes to the 

 question of physiological value there is 

 every reason to believe that there an im- 

 portant difference exists. It is an estab- 

 lished fact that raw cane sugars, especially 

 those in which the character of the juice 

 from which they are made is preserved, are 

 valuable and appreciative food products. 

 Raw beet is impossible as an article of diet 

 owing to its objectionable effluvium, which 

 bears such a strong resemblance to that 

 which emanates from the useful but 

 malodorous glue pot. The more the sugar 

 is refined the less the proportion of the 

 original impurities becomes; but these never 

 entirely disappear. It may be assumed that 

 the same conditions obtain as regards these 

 impurities in refined as in raw sugar, the 

 difference being one of degree and not of 

 kind. If the sugar were chemically pure, 

 there would be no ground for saying that 

 beet sugar is different to cane. But it is 

 not absolutely pure and this point of im- 

 purity is the crux of the whole subject. It 

 is a question of palate, of sensitive nerve 

 stimulation through which the digestive 

 organs are acted upon. Reasoning by 

 analogy, we may then conclude that the 

 same conditions which bring about the 

 relative dietetic values of raw cane and 

 raw beet, exists, altliough in a much less 

 degree, in the refined articles. From the 

 point of view of nutrition, all people should 

 consume raw cane sugars, but these are in 

 many instances too luscious for their flavor 

 to blend with that of the article to which 

 they are added. In this connection it is 

 essential to distinguish between sweetness 

 and flavor. It is the flavor of the cane 

 sugar which gives it its value, and which 

 exists, although to a very much lessened 

 degree, when the sugar is refined. — Jf^esf 

 India Committee Circular. 



