March 1, I901.J THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
60t 
1900 
Increase 
Acres 
Per Qeufc 
1,090,521 
31 
839,151 
4-4 
685,391 
9-4 
l,35i),075 
7-5 
170,028- 
150 
112,878 
2-9 
71,271 
9-2 
34,59-1 
THE WORLD'S SUGAR. 
The map whicli we print on pa^e II shows 
roughly the area of the world where sugar is pro- 
duced. It will be seen that the sut^ar-oane is not 
cultivated beyond the 40tli parallel of latitude 
while the beet can be grown to the 60th parallel. 
Until a few years ago .^ui^ar was extracted from 
the cane in the warmer lai itudes by an antiquated 
method of labour and infffective system of machi- 
nery, but as a pood price was obtiiined for the 
sugar no attempt was made to improve tlie me- 
thods of production. It was never anticipated that 
sugar could be produced in a comparatively cold 
climate, and when the beet sugar came in the'sngar- 
cane planters were quite unprepared for "the 
new development. They had to face a fall in 
prices, the introduction of bounties, and improved 
methods by capitalists and companies in other 
liands and they went under. 
Beet sugar is now grown in most of the coun- 
tries of Europe, and the i'oUowing figures, which 
are published by the International Union for Sta- 
tistics on Sugar, sh jw the number of acres Dhat 
have been planted with beet sugar seed. 
BEET SUGAR PLANTING. 
1899 
Country Acres 
German ■ 1,057,939 
Austria-Hangary 804.063 
France 626,480 
Russia 1,261,614 
Belgiiim 158,235 
Holland 109,703 
Sweedeu 65.238 
Denmark 34,594 
The beet sugar production ui iLurope cms year 
is over 5,500,000 tons, while the production in the 
United States amounts to 73,000 tons. The beet 
sugar shows an iircrease over 1899 of 500,000 ton? 
while cane sugar shows a decrease of 250,000 tons.' 
Tlie Louisiana crop, according to the New York 
Journal of Commerce is put in at but httle more 
tlian half of what it was last year, the Porto 
Rico crop is charged with a large ratio of decline 
and the Cuban crop is sat down for 45,000 tons 
less than last year, and at much less tlian one-third 
of what it was in each of the two years next pre- 
ceding the revolution. In Queensland and New 
South Wales the crop is estimated ac very mnch 
below last year's figures, the decrease in the for- 
mer colony being 40,000 tons or nearly one-quarter 
and in the latter 12,500 tons, or not much less 
than one-balf. 
To cope with the unremunerative nature of the 
cane industry, Barbadoesis endeavouring to obtain 
the capital to erect central factories which would 
enable the colonists to extract more juice out of 
the canes, and also to produce a better quality of 
sugar which would be more suitable to the Cana- 
dian and British markets. At present nearly all 
their sugar finds its way into the United States. 
PROGRESS OF THE EUROPEAN INDUSTRY. 
To show the progress of the Euiopean beet 
sugar industry, it may be stated that there are 
213 factories in Austria-Hungary alone, the total 
output of ra>v sugar from this country in 1899 bein"- 
computed at 1,083.000 tons. The Government set 
aside a sum of £750,000 for the payment of export 
bounties. The decision of (he Legislative Council 
in Calcutta— following the example of the United 
States— to introduce a countervailing duty on 
bounty-fed sugar imported into India has made no 
change worthy of special notice in the trade 
between Auetm and India, Tlie chief burden of 
the countervailing duty, which is equal in amount 
to the export premium accorded to sugar in its 
country of Oiigiii, is thrown upon the Indian con- 
sumer, who has not only to )>ay more for the 
bounty-fed sugar, but also for the colonial sugar, 
which sympathetica ly rose in price. 
Russia is now the largest i)r()ducer of beet sugar 
in Europe, there being altogether 23 beet cultiva- 
ting provinces in this country. Ihe industry in 
Germany is able to keep going 400 raw sugar 
works and 150 refiners. 
There aie about 230 sugar factories now at work 
m Cuba, which is only about 60 per cent of what 
there were before the war. Owing to the present 
competition of .beet sugar, it , is unlikely that the 
mills which have been' destroyed will be replaced. 
During 1899 about 324,000 tons were exported. 
There has been an improvement in the sugar 
industry in Jamaica after a persistent decline for 
many_ years ; 360,748 tons were exported last year.. 
In British Guiana many of the sugar plantations 
can hardly pay their way, and future prospects 
are noc encouraging. A'bout 100,000 tons were 
exported from Georgetown, Demerara, in 1899. 
The whole of the sugar production of the Hawaiian 
Islands, amounting to 282,807 tons in 1899 went to 
the Un'ted States, 
Large quantities of cane sugar are produced 
in Southern China, Formosa, Java, Philipines, 
Mauritius, Central and South America and other 
tropical and sub-tropical countries, but the rise 
of the best sugar affects them all. The bounty 
system has also meant the ruin of more than one 
commercial house in thi?? country. Brislol, which 
was once the centre of an extensive sugar-relining 
industry, closed the last of her refineiies a little 
while since. In this country there are now only 
about five refineries — two in Loudon, two in Liver- 
pool and one down Greenwich \\Ay,~-Honiepaper, 
THE REDUCTION OF THE TEA OUTPUT. 
(To .the Editor of The Home and Colonial Mail.) 
SiH,— Last week you were kind enoiiKh to publish 
a letter we wrote you on the subject of over-supply 
and consequent low prices. 
We are pleased to learn that this matter is being 
taken up energetically by influential producers. 
Some three weeks ago we wrote a similar letter 
to that published by you to the Editor of the Ceylon 
Observer, and according to a telegram published iu 
the Daily Express this week the idea has evidently 
caught on iu that island, as the telegram reads aa 
follows :— 
"With a view to redncing the excessive produotiou 
of tea, Mr. H. R. Rosling, chairman of the Ceylon 
Planters' Association, suggests that all Ceylon and 
Indian tea planters shall leave one-tenth of their tea 
unplucked for two years." 
There can be no getting away from the fact that 
the law of supply and demand dominates the tea 
market as it does all others. In other words, the 
pi'esent demand must be increased or supplies must 
be curtailed in order to beneficially affect prices. 
The demand, or consumption, has been artiticially 
reduced by the advance in the duty, and if any 
further change is made at the next Budget anuounco- 
ment the chances appear more in favour of a further 
advance than any rocluotioii in the tax. There is, 
therefore, no hope of relief from materially inoreased 
demand, so that the question of supplies must be 
dealt with if the situation is to be improved, or even 
saved. If nature does not produce a diminished crop 
then some scheme of artiticially accomplishing that end 
must be devised, and such a scheme must be 
thoroughly and enthu?iastioally carried out by ail 
