PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 197 
may be remedied, depending upon more scientific methods 
of agriculture and chemical methods. Maple sugar is costly; 
the trees yielding this product are of slow growth, and their 
territory of cultivation limited. An adequate supply cannot 
be expected from this source, nor from the sugar-cane of the 
South during the present stage of this industry. 
If it is admitted that the prosperity of a country is shown 
by its advance in agriculture, then the onward march should 
be encouraged by every means in our power. We should look 
to our own acres for our sugar supply, since this can become 
practicable, and not abroad. The encouragement of a sugar 
industry in this country is of importance, when it is considered 
that over $100,000,000 is sent out of the country for raw sugar, 
annually. 
The problem of how to reduce our revenue does not apply 
to this industry; in a recent letter on a plan of tariff re¬ 
vision, Mr. E. H. Ammidown says: “Legislation to reduce 
the duty on sugar should be deferred until the conditions 
and prospects of the whole sugar industry have been more 
carefully investigated and are better understood. An indus¬ 
try which, if established, would produce $150,000,000 in value 
of a staple article of food required in every American house¬ 
hold, and save $100,000,000 now or in the immediate future, 
annually paid to foreign producers, — such an industry, with 
the example of France and Germany to encourage us, is of 
too serious importance to this nation to be treated by the 
national legislature otherwise than with the utmost caution 
and most cautious deliberation.” 
The following statistics will show the sugar and molasses 
importation: — 
For the year ending June 30, 1886, 1 free of duty from 
the Hawaiian Islands: — 
Amount. Value. 
Molasses ... 61,171 gallons. $7,786.00 
Sugar...191,623,175 pounds. $9,174,612.00 
Total.....$9,166,826.00 
1 Bureau of Statistics, Treas. Dept. 1886. 
