April, 1912.] 



323 



Edible Products, 



one of the latter type beat several power 

 mills in open competition, though it 

 must be here noted that the latter were 

 only " single " crushers ; that is, the 

 begass was not treated with water and 

 then again crushed, as in the more perfect 

 types. Thirdly, very large quantities 

 of cane are required to feed a good 

 steam-driven mill, and this means al- 

 most necessarily a serious delay after 

 cutting the cane before it is crushed. 

 For instance, cane has to be brought 

 some 40 or 50 miles by rail at the present 

 time to some of the mills in India, and is 

 certainly not crushed before the second 

 or third day after being cut in the field. 

 Mr. Noel-Paton in his valuable paper 

 " Notes on Sugar in India " places great 

 weight on the importance of this factor. 

 Cut cane suffers depreciation if not 

 crushed within twenty-four hours. But 

 he errs when he attributes (p. 38) to the 

 general Indian practice, loss from this 

 cause. One of the great advantages of the 

 present system in India is that the cane is 

 cut only as it is required, and hence does 

 not suffer from this source of depreci- 

 ation. Indeed loss of sugar from this 

 cause would have to be set against the 

 various advantages which the steam- 

 driven factory offeis. In any case, 

 whatever extension of steam power 

 crushing there may be in the near 

 future, it is certain that this will not 

 make any large difference in the amount 

 of sugar which is obtained from the 

 cane grown. 



So long as the greater part of the 

 people of India are satisfied with gur, 

 its production is neither a loss nor a dis- 

 advantage, but rather the reverse, 

 because both in the sense of a sweetmeat 

 as also in that of a food-stuff the 

 molasses included in the gur is just as 

 valuable as the cane sugar. An increase 

 in the number of factories in India is no 

 doubt desirable in order to supply a part 

 at least of the demand for white sugar, 

 but they will not be a means of increas- 

 ing the sugar production in any marked 

 degree. If the production is to increase, 

 it must by means of (i) a larger outturn 

 of cane per acre, (ii) the cultivation of 

 cane yielding more sugar at the mill, and 



(iii) an extension of the area under cane, 

 and the problem is largely independent 

 of whether the cane is crushed by the 

 cultivator or goes to a factory. In ap- 

 proaching this subject it is well to com- 

 pare the outturn of sugar per acre which 

 is realised in different countries ; Java 

 seems to head the list with an average 

 of 3 to 4 tons per acre ; Demerara, Mauri- 

 tius and Queensland produce rather 

 under two tons. Coming to India we 

 have • — 



2 - 5 tons per acre. 

 1*9 „ 



1*05 „ 

 9 »« 



'8 ,, 



•6 ,, 



Bombay 

 Madras 



Eastern Bengal and 



Assam ... 

 Bengal 



United Provinces 

 Punjab 



Although these figures for the several 

 countries are not strictly comparable, 

 because "sugar" in countries outside 

 India means more or less refined sugar, 

 whilst in India it means gur, they are 

 nevertheless useful for our purpose. 



Firstly, they show how much more is 

 obtained per acre in most countries than 

 in India. It seems certain that, so long 

 as the disparity is so great as it is, so 

 long will these other countries be able to 

 produce sugar cheaper than India can. 

 That is not principally due to the central 

 factory system is certain. The figures 

 represent principally differences in the 

 field. 



Then, secondly, considering the Indian 

 outturns, it is evident that the tropical 

 parts of India produce considerably 

 more sugar than the United Provinces 

 and the Punjab. And in this lies prob- 

 ably one of the " keys " of the situation. 

 It so happens that by far the greater 

 part of India's sugarcane area lies out- 

 side the tropics, and concurrently a 

 considerably lower yield per acre is 

 realised. The question then arises, is it 

 reasonable to expect that these sub- 

 tropical countries can ever produce such 

 yields as the tropical countries do ? And 

 here let it be noted that India's cane is 

 not of low quality in so far as propor- 

 tion of sugar in the juice is concerned. 

 Average cane-juice in Java contains 



