138 



Atlantic side of the "Western continent, it will not thriye beyond 

 the thirty-third degree of north latitude and the thirty-fifth 

 parallel south. On the Pacific side it mil perfect its growth some 

 five degi^ees further north or south. From the fiexibility of this 

 plant, it IS highly probable that it is gTadually. becoming more 

 hardy, and will eventually endure an exposure and yield a 

 profitable return much further north, along the borders of the 

 Mississippi and some of its tributaries, than it has hitherto been 

 produced. In most parts of Louisiana the canes yield three crops 

 from one planting. The fir^st season is denominated plant cane," 

 and each of the subsequent growths, ''ratoons." But, sometimes, 

 a-s on the praii'ies of Attakapas and Opelousas, and the higher 

 northern ran^-e of its cultivation, it requires to be re-planted every 

 year. Within the tropics, as in the "West Indies and elsewhere, 

 the ratoons frequently continue to yield abundantly for twelve or 

 fifteen years from the same roots. 



The cultivation of this plant is principally confined to the West 

 Indies, Yenezuela. Brazil. 3Iatu'itius. British India, China, Japan, 

 the Sunda, Phillippine, and Sandwich Islands, and to the southern 

 districts of the United States. The varieties most cultivated in 

 the latter are the striped blue and yellow ribbon, or Java, the red 

 ribbon, violet, from Java, the Creole, crystalline or Malabar, the 

 Otaheite, the purple, the yellow, the purple-banded, and the grey 

 canes. The quantity of sugar produced on an acre varies from 

 five hundred to three thousand pounds, averaging, perhaps, from 

 eight hundred to one thousand pounds. 



Six to eight pounds of the saccharine puce of the plant, yield one 

 pound of raw sugar; from 16 to 20 cart-loads of canes, ought to 

 make a hogshead of sugar, if thorouLrhly ripe. The weight 

 necessary to manufacture 10,000 hhds of sugar, is usually estimated 

 at 250,000 tons, or 25 tons per hhd. of 15 or 16 cwt. 



The quantity of sugar now produced in cm colonies is in excess 

 of the demands of the consumers, that is. of their demands cramped 

 as they are by the duties still levied on sugar consmned in Great 

 Britain, imposed for the purposes of revenue : the higli duty on all 

 other but indigenous sugar, consumed all over the continent, 

 imposed to promote the manufacture of beet-root sugar, and 

 the legal duty levied on all other than indigenous sugar used 

 in the United States, for tlie purpose of protecting the sugai' 

 production of that country; and so long as that excess exists — 

 until a further reduction of duties shall mcrease consumption 

 and cause sugar to be used for many purposes wliich the present 

 high rates prohibit its being applied to — any improvement which 

 may be eftected in the quality — any increase wliich may take place 

 in the quantity- of colonial sugar — vdll only result infinitely more 

 to the benefits of the consumers than the producers. In 1700 the 

 quantity consumed in Great Britain and Ireland was only about 

 200,000 cwt. In 1852, includmg molasses, etc., it was not less than 

 S,000,000 cwt., a forty -fold increase in the century and a-half. 

 Taking the whole population last yeai', it was nearly 2Slbs. per 



