The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-09-04
THIS EVENINGS D0lNCS.
THE SUGAR INDUSTRY.

al Sioool duC alUlSlI VII IllC SUttUC
of the sugar business the world
over, appears in the Melbourne 1ge
of the 10th inst. The writer is evil
IDENTIFY well stocked with facts and
figures from various sources. Notice
is taken, at the outset, of the adj
vance in prices which is said to have
taken marvellous strides of late.
Twenty four pounds, ten shillings per
ton, is the quotation from London,
or an advance of GO per cent. This
great change in the market is des-
cribed as phenomenal return to
prosperity" The writer then goes
on to investigate the causes of this
extraordinary change. The leading,
if not the only cause, is found to be
the general failure, in European
countries, of beet culture. Beets
can be raised by good cultivation in
soils of average fertility in unlimited
quantities in almost any climate,
while the cultivation of the cane is
limited to the tropics. But there
seems to be, in the raising of beets,
larger element of uncertainty than
in the raising of sugar cane. That
such is the case is about the only
guarantee that those interested in
cane growing have that they will not
be brought into such close, keen
competition in the sugar markets of
the world, as to leave them out in
the cold, any day. While the profits
of cane growing are contingent upon
the failure of some other crop in
other parts of the world, capitalists
will be more cautious than formerly
in investing their money in it.
Bounties have been offered on q
liberal scale by France and Ger
many for the encouragement of the
sugar beet industry. The indica-
tions are that England, too, will
adopt similar measures. Expert
ments recently made by English
farmers have given, on the whole,
satisfactory results. A distinguished
agricultural chemist of that country
has given his opinion to the effect
that the raising of sugar beet, in
England, will pay better than raising
wheat. The Australian Colonies and
New Zealand are also starting in the
competitive race against the sugar
cane. The Government of New
Zealand had bill passed a short
time ago authorizing payment of
one-half penny per pound as a pre-
MUM on the first thousand tons of
beet root grown in the colony. Vic
toria farmers, too,' have also mani
tested considerable interest in the
new enterprise. Government having
obtained quantity of seeds, for
free distribution, great many APP
plications were made. All that has
been done, however, is of an expert
mental character. The farmers will
go into this branch of agriculture
whenever they obtain reasonable
assurances of a market for the root.
But, should machinery for extract
ing sugar from the beet be erected
on any extensive scale, Australian
agriculturalists will be in the field to
compete with West India, American
and Hawaiian planters. OF course,
if failures in beet root crops con-
tinue, and thus frighten the culti-
vators of European lands out of the
business, no danger need be appre-
hended from their competition in the
European markets. And although
the probable shortage for the present
season in European beet root is
quoted at S75, 900 tons, II is not
reasonable to infer therefrom that a
like deficiency will occur in all parts
of the world where the beet is as
likely to flourish as in Europe.
When beet root can be cultivated,