Edible Products. 



[OCIOBBK, 1011. 



gave rise to so much trouble that a 

 period of inaction ensued. Agricultural 

 interests had consequently to drift 

 until the advent of Sir Henry Ward as 

 Governor in 1855 — and a wave of general 

 prosperity set in, as shown by the Re- 

 venue of the island exceeding £500,000 

 for the first time (1856). 



(To be continued.) 



ESTIMATED WORLD SUGAR 

 INDUSTRY. 



Sugar-cane Crops op the World 

 Show Decided Variations 

 from Fig ores by For- 

 eign Experts. 



(From the Manila Bulletin.) 



Willet & Gray's estimate of the 1910-11 

 sugar-cane crops of the world shows 

 some decided variations in the totals 

 for the chief producing countries 

 from figures previously published by 

 foreign trade experts, (See Daily Con- 

 sular and Trade Reports for December 

 7, 1910.) The foreign December estimates 

 gave the 1910-11 season's world crop as 

 8.519,000 tons; the June Willett & 

 Gray estimate places it at 8,445,178. 

 While less than the foreign total for 

 1910-11 this latter figure is an increase of 

 119,661 tons over the American firm's 

 statistics of the 1909-10 cane crops. The 

 later American estimate places British 

 India's 1910-11 yield at 76,400 tons more 

 tban the earlier foreign calculations; 

 Cuba's at 250,000 tons less ; Java's at 

 20,900 tons less ; Mexico's at 15,000 tons in 

 excess of the previous figures. 



The estimated production in the 

 world's cane-growing centre, according 

 to Willett & Gray, and the increase or 

 decrease as compared with the firm's 

 statistics of the 1909-10 crop are as 

 follows, in tons: Louisiana, 300,000 

 (— 25,0C0); Texas, 11,000 (plus 1.000); 

 Porto Rico, 295,000 (—13,000) ; Hawaiian 

 Islands, 485,000 (plus 22,387); Cuba, 

 1.600.000 (—204,349); Trinidal [exports], 

 40,000 (—4,139) ; Barbados [exports] 35,000 

 (—1,389); Jamaica [exports], 12,000; 

 Antigua and St Kitts, 18.000 (-2,000): 

 Martinique [exports], 39,000 (—950) ; 

 Guadeloupe, 40,000 (8,000); Dutch West 

 Indies, 15,000; San Domingo and Haiti, 

 85,000 [—8,003] ; Lesser Antilles, not nam- 

 ed above, 8,000 (this estimate being in 

 strong contrast to the 45,000 tons credit- 

 ed to these islands in the foreign 

 December report) ; Mexico, 150,000 (plus 

 2,095) ; Guatemala, 7,500 (plus 390); San 

 Salvador, 6,500 (plus 144); Nicaragua, 

 4,500 (plus 1,050) Costa Rica, 2.500 (plus 

 255) ; Demerara [exports J, 100,000 (—1,843); 

 Surinam, 13,000 (plus 945) ; Venezuela, 



3,000 ; Peru, 150,000 ; Argentina. 147,678 

 (plus 34,004) ; Brazil, 310,000 (plus 57,000) ; 

 British India, 2,226,400 (plus 99,300) ; Java, 

 1,229,100 (plus 28,482)— the estimate of 

 Java's harvest for the 1911-12 season be- 

 ing 1,230,000 tons; Formosa, 267,000 

 (plus 62,000) ; Philippine Islands, 160,000 

 (plus 33,146); Queensland, 207,000 (plus 

 72,416); New South Wales, 18,000 (plus 

 3,250); Fiji Islands [exports], 69,000 (plus 

 100); Egypt), 45,000; Mauritius, 210,000 

 (—34,598]— the estimate of the Mauritius 

 crop for the 1911-12 season being 240.000 

 tons; Reunion, 36,000; Natal, 76,000 

 (plus 14,000) ; Spain, 24,000 (plus 967). 



F. O. Licht calculated the European 

 beet-sugar crop for 191011 at 8,127,000 

 tons; Willett & Gray place that 

 season's American beet-sugar crop at 

 455,220 tons ; giving a total for cane and 

 beet-sugar of 17,027,398 tons, or an 

 estimated increase of 2,113,286 tons in 

 the world's production over the 1909-10 

 season. 



RICE AS A MUSCLE BUILDER. 



A recent editorial in the Lancet-Clinic 

 points out that the defeat of Russia by 

 Japan drew the attention of the whole 

 world to the power of endurance, exhi- 

 bited by the Japanese, and that much 

 surprise was expressed that a rice-eating 

 nation should develop such remarkable 

 physical power, says the Japan Adver- 

 tiser. In the United states, as well as in 

 Europe, rice has usually been considered 

 an inferior food owing to the excess of 

 starch in its composition, and this is 

 undoubtedly true of the rice as we meet 

 with it. But this defect in the grain 

 is the result of the removal of nutrient 

 matter for the purpose of making the 

 rice more presentable for the market by 

 what is known as the polishing process. 

 Not only is the outer husk taken off but 

 what is called the rice meal, which 

 envelops the inner kernel, is also brushed 

 away, although it is highly nutritious, 

 being the 'albuminous' portion of the 

 grain. 



It is, however, an unattractive brown 

 in colour. This rice meal is exported to 

 Europe by rice-growing countries, and 

 in England it is made into what is 

 named oil cake with which cattle are 

 fattened. Chemical analysis of rice 

 meal shows that it contains about 12£ 

 per cent, of albuminoids and 4£ per cent, 

 of phosphoric acid, and the former 

 appears to be easily digested by the 

 human system. 



As the Japanese, in common with the 

 other rice-eating nations, do not polish 

 the grain, they retain a large proportion 

 of nutriment and flavour to which virtu- 



