Edible Products* 



their maximum crop of 300,000 tons for 

 their sugar supply to sweeten an ocean 

 of tea and dry and preserve a world of 

 fruits. In her war with Japan, about 

 15 years since, China lost ner only isle 

 of sugar, spices and camphor, Formosa, 

 and now has no territory adaptable to 

 cane-sugar-production. Her promoters 

 and financiers in default of cane-sugar 

 lands are proposing to start the beet 

 sugar industry on an extensive scale in 

 Manchuria and Mongolia. Manchuria is 

 at present so overcropped with political 

 issues that the beet sugar industry will 

 be unlikely to flourish there some years 

 to come. 



Thus China (if it ate sugar or craved 

 for it like the great American Republic 

 nearly its size), which might eat 

 18,000,000 tons of sugar a year, has less 

 than 2,000,000 tons of cheap sugar near 

 at hand, available now or prospectively 

 in the early future for all of its vast 

 population. 



Probably not before very long it will 

 take all of the Java crop and all of the 

 possible Philippines crop and eat up a 

 sizeable beet sugar crop made at home. 

 They are a conservative race, and from 

 once being 5,000 years ahead of the times, 

 appear to be half willing now to remain 

 5,000 years behind them. But within a 



404 [May, 1910. 



living generation their conservatism has 

 capitulated to modern steam and modern 

 statesmanship, and even the Chinese 

 peasantry is beginning to learn that re- 

 fined sugar id at least as palatable and 

 fortifying to the stomach as the roasted 

 rats of the old legends. ' 



There are propositions to follow in 

 other home-governed cities the example 

 of British ruled Hong Kong in the 

 building of refineries. When that is done 

 and Chinese capital develops the pro- 

 posed beet sugar iudustry in some of the 

 most adaptable and populous provinces, 

 it is more than likely that a taste for 

 that sweet, which has become a leading 

 food-product of most other lands and 

 races of the world, will be stimulated 

 among the Chinese people, which must 

 lead to a marvellous increase of consump- 

 tion in that overcrowded land of the 

 Orient. 



When the uncounted and uncountable 

 millions of the Chinese and Russian 

 Empires learn to appreciate the value of 

 sugar as a cheap and wholesome food, 

 the political economists and industrial 

 statisticians need never bother their 

 brains about the world's possible or 

 probably over-production of sugar for 

 many a long year to come. 



TIMBERS. 



FORESTS OF THE GOLD COAST. 



(From the Kew Bulletin, No, 2, 1910. j 

 The recently issued Report on the 

 Forests of the Gold Coast by Mr. H. N. 

 Thompson, Conservator of Forests, 

 Southern Nigeria, demand careful perusal 

 and attention since the general principles 

 laid down are applicable not to the Gold 

 Coast only but to tropical forests" in 

 general. 



The Report occupies 238 pages, and 

 is divided into three parts with an 

 appendix, list of vernacular names, 

 twenty-four plates and a comprehensive 

 index. 



In the first part the various forest 

 areas of the Gold Coast are described in 

 detail, the value of their component 

 trees is discussed and suggestions are 

 made for their preservation or exploit- 

 ation. Mr. Thompson is careful to point 

 out the prime importance of the Forest 

 to the Gold Coast Colony, and brings 

 forward many illustrations of the 

 irreparable damage which is being done 

 by the reckless felling of trees, in connec- 



tion principally with clearings for native 

 cultivation. Before making any detailed 

 comments on the first part, the second 

 and more general part of the Report 

 may be considered. This is in some 

 ways the most important portion and 

 certainly the part of most interest to 

 the general reader. 



The importance of Forests is so well 

 stated that the paragraphs relating to 

 their effects on the physical and climatic 

 conditions of a country are taken verba- 

 tim from the report. 



"1. They mitigate extremes of tem- 

 perature and render the climate more 

 equable. 



"2. They exert a marked effect in 

 regulating the water supply more espe- 

 cially by ensuring the sustained feeding 

 of springs and thus rendering the flow 

 of water in rivers more continuous, and 

 in tending to reduce the danger of 

 violent floods. 



"3. They increase the relative humi- 

 dity of the air, and in consequence 



