The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-04-19
Reason for the Present Rise in
Increased Consumption and Shortage in
Worlds Supply,

of the sugar crop of 1892 are now to
hand, and we can figure on the pres
ent supply For some years it has
been usual to reckon the worlds
sugar crop at something over $780,
600 tons, rather more than half of
which is beet sugar, and rather less
than half cane sugar. In the season
of 1912 this figure was exceeded,
the total product being about 6,2S5,-
coo tons, of which 3490,OOO were
beet sugar and 2,795,0OO cane sugar.
This year the crop is reckoned at
100000 tons, of which 100000 are
beet sugar and 2,760,0O0 cane sugar.
Thus the world goes into the season
of 1S93-4 with 125,000 tons less
sugar on hand than it had twelve
month ago. The deficiency is al
most wholly in Germany. They
write from Magdeburg that the esti-
mated falling off in the crop may be
Offset by an increase in the beet
sugar crop of California, regarding
which they apparently have no in
formation. That crop will not be
large enough to cover the deficiency.
There is no article of general use
whose consumption increases so fast
and SO uniformly with the growing
of population and civilization as
sugar. Primitive races use no sugar
TO this day the Chinaman drinks
his tea, the Arab his coffee, without
sugar. But as the comforts of civil
lied society develop demand arises
for sweet solids and sweet liquids
and the demand becomes imperative.
A few years ago the consumption of
sugar in this country was reckoned
at twenty-five pounds per head; it is
now over sixty pounds. Doctors
used to condemn the use of candies;
now they recommend them in moder-
alton because they make blood. By
the admixture of sugar with fruits,
the life of those valuable products
of the earth is perpetuated indie
iinitely. The apricot of Alameda
becomes worthless in few days
after it ripens il it is let alone; mix
it with sugar and ii will remain a
nourishing and palatable food for
| years. Hence every year the con-
sumption of sugar increases, and, if
it is TO be kept within the reach of
> the modest purse, the supply must
/. be made to keep pace. 1t is this
fact which underlies the uneasiness
. caused by the recent report of a
falling oil in the crop of 1928.
For some years III this country the
supply of raw sugar has been so
! large and the competition among re-
i liners so brisk that sugar has been
too cheap to attract attention. At
I the close of the war it was different.
/ In common with other commodities
5 sugar then sold at an inflated paper
y money value. In 1864 raw sugar ac-
. tually sold in New York at % cents
a pound. Now the same article is
q only worth fraction over 3 cents,
y and the standard grades-granulat-
I" ed and Standard A-are selling at
retail at about ) cents, both at New
y York and here. At this price few
+ people pay attention to the item OF
II sugar in their grocery bills. But it
- may be well to remember that the
i price is not like the laws of the
: Modes and Persians. The sugar
trade has been so perfectly organic,
y ed by the sugar trust that on d
I. slight preteXt the price might easily
l. be advanced. If the returns of 1893
:. 81 should show a further reduction
J. in the crops, it would be the easiest
d thing in the world to mark up tn,
II price of sugar at any rate to the
" figures of five or six years ago, whel
Dc housckeepers who were addicted to
u pies and buildings found their suga
bills a serious matter.
The situation should teach Cali
fornians the duty of extending thei
beet acreage. Since the Spreckel
v took hold of the beet-sugar industr,
u: it has been success as Il bushes
}; proposition. There is big money il
~ growing beets and converting then
ei into sugar by the new German pro
"a cesses, which, it is said, enable al
l93 expert reiner, buying his beets a
~ the present market price, to turn on
ia refined sugar at a cost of less than
Is cents Il pound. There is only on
Is sign of danger in the way, and tina
o. not likely to be formidable RICH
OF away. That is the possible develop
re ment of the manufacture of sacchtt
rine. Saccharine is a product c
coal tar, which is far less bulky tina
sugar and three hundred time
in SWcelef Nnen we say tnat IL Is "a
rh inner enhydride of ortho-sulphamin
TO- benzoic acid" we have explaine
On what it is in language suited to tn
he meanest capacity, 1t is whit
ed powder, which can be used in cool
ng ing, in the arts and in medicine.
m. is certified to be harmless, and it h;
en- the advantage over sugar that
lia does not produce fat. At presel
he there is only one factory--on ii
be Elbe, in Germany Engaged in i
nd manufacture, but when il is success
llk fully introduced to public motto
others will be established, and |
and by it may become as familiar
ed the public as antipyrine, Und'
81 present conditions il is importal
Ne that the beet-sugar interest be g
nd Outraged, either by bounties on Il
1rt home product or duties on the fo
eign product. Francisco CdH.
iii The highest praise has been W,
lac by Hoods Pills for their easy, y
nd efficient action, Sold by all dru
of gists. Price % cents,
.