The National tribune., 1885-07-09

SUGAR-NAKING In THE UNITED STATES.
The one economic question of paramount
importance to the whole of the people of the
United States is the production of their own
sugar. Nowhere else have we such drain
upon the money Of the country as the enor-
nous sums sent abroad every year to buy
sweets. 1t runs from $95,OOO,0O0 to $685.
100000, or from two to three times as much
as we spend abroad for any other class of
goods that we purchase. What is a still
worse feature about this heavy drain upon
our wealth is that it goes to people who
buy very little of us in return. Less than
100000 people in Cuba and Porto Rico
raise the bulk Of the sweets that we import.
They are poor, shiftless people at best, and
if they bought every dollars worth of the
goods that they consume from US it would
still be petty return for the immense pur-
chases we make of them. Most of the money
we pay for sugars and molasses goes to fatten
leeches that suck the life blood of the Cuban
industries
Every other civilized nation in the world,
except England and ourselves, have recog-
nized the necessity of putting stop to the
drain of the country's wealth for tropical
products and have developed the production
of sugar at home. France began by making
sugar from beets at a cost of $3.50 pound,
and persevered until she could make her
sugar cheaper than she could buy it in the
West Indies. Other nations have profted
by her experience, until England and the
United States are the only customers the
Antilles have.
With us the question of raising our own
sugar has two-fold Importance. In the
first place we want to stop this immense out
flow of money, very little of which comes
back to us, and in the second we want to re-
lieve the excessive production of cereals by
having part of the men and the land now
occupied in raising grain employed in pro-
ducing sugars. If we could pay the farmers
of the Mississippi Valley the S100,000,00O
which we pay this year to the Cubans and
Porto Ricans, it would go a long way toward
breaking up the present depression in busi-
ness and establishing better prices for wheat
and corn.
The Agricultural Department has done
and is doing great deal toward fostering
the production of native sugar, by its exper-
iments and the diffusion of correct knowl-
edge as 10 the best methods of raising and
handling cane, sorghum, and the sugar beet.
In this work Prof II. w. Riley, the head of
the Chemical Division, has been distin-
guished for his efficiency. His investiga-
tions have been thorough and the conclu-
sions he has arrived at can be relied on to
the uttermost The results of his researches
have been compiled into very valuable
pamphlet, which is Bulletin No. s." of the
Agricultural Departments publications, and
is now ready for distribution to all who
may apply for it. It is divided into four
parts Part 7, deals with Cane Sugar; Part
II, with Beet Sugar; Part III, with Sorghum
Sugar, and Part ~, with Maple Sugar.
Each of these parts have full discussions
of the best methods of producing the plant,
and of handling it so as to get the greatest
yield from its saccharine juices. Accompa-
nying these are carefully prepared tables of
results attained by trials and analyses, and
diagrams of machinery best adapted for the
extraction of the juices and the reduction
of them to sugar. 1t is work exceedingly
| creditable to its author and to the Agricul-
tural Department, and we know it will be
| of great benefit to the country.
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