The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-11-14


country and review of the legislation
and the inventions that have aided or
retarded its progress since the first
protective decree under Napoleon 1 up
to the ninety-eighth law enacted dur
ing the presidency of the late Felix
Faure.
The beginning of the industry in
France was really under Napoleon 1,
in 1S1O-12, when he established five
great schools for study and instruction
in sugar chemistry" and four large
imperial sugar mills exempt from all
taxation.
Napoleon found himself so cut off
from the West Indies firm whence the
sugar supply at that time came, that
he had to find a substitute in the tenn
perate zone, and thus the Napoleonlc
wars between England and France and
of the beet industry.
NJ. Helot follows the discoveries and
inventions by which the yield of the
beet has been increased from per cent
in 1910 to II per cent in 1900.
There are now in France three hun
dred and forty sugar factories, the
average production of which has in
creased threefold in eighteen years.
They consume $4,000 pounds of beets
every twenty-four hours. The average
daily consumption of Germany is $780,
600 pounds Since 1888, the consumption
rF 10, he ,f
has fallen from 442 pounds to 2S6 pounds
per ton of beets.
In France, 255,OOO hectares $3.50, 1O5
acres) are devoted to the cultivation
of the beet, against $4,000 hectares
0,O55, III acres) in Germany. The pro-
duct of beets per hectare in Germany
is nearly 10000 Kilograms, and in
France it is $4,000 Kilograms. More
over, in France the yield is IL per cent,
while in Germany it is over 10 per cent.
Since 1885, while there has been a
very high protective tariff on sugar
in fact, an increasing tariff-the price
has been steadily declining.
How long the beet industry will con-
tinue in Europe is problematical. In
every state it is kept up by state sub
idies and though large fortunes are
made out of beet cultivation and beet
most inadequate wages Indeed in
Germany there is no more down trod-
den laborer, or one who leads a more
colorless and hopeless life than that
which the beet fields employ. The pay
is but few cents a day. The cottages
occupied are as far behind the cottages
occupied by the laborers on the Hawai-
ian plantations, as the pay is. Then
there is the rigor of the climate and
the loss of work during the winter sea-
son to be taken into consideration. The
beet industry has driven hundreds of
thousands of Germans to the United
States, and their places have been filed
by the lowest classes of Poles, Russians
and Galicians. The beet industry has
not been an unmiXed blessing to Ger
many to France or to Europe in Cen
eral.
1t is a curious thing that England,
the only country that excludes the
manufacture of beet sugar consumes
more sugar than any other nation and
buys it at the lowest price. A pound
of sugar in England is cheaper than
a pound of bread and the Englishman
pays no more to consume SO pounds of
sugar per year than the Frenchman
pays for 321a pounds. The per capita
consumption in France since 1870 was
SO pounds, while in England it was
over so pounds.
1t is perhaps proper to state that one
reason why the French people consume
so little sugar is because their ways
of living require less of that article.
For the great mass of the French peo-
pie, breakfast consists of a bowl of
soup, which is also frequently a part
Of the two other meals. Their drink is
or coffee, especially in the country,
there is scarcely any demand for SUI
gar. They make neither preserves nor
cake in the family. The usual dessert
IS fruit and cheese. The French are
usually regarded as a coffee drinking
United States is the great coffee drink
ng nation at the resent time.
The high tax of cents per pound on
sugar is pretty fully paid by the we'll
-o-dO French people who live in the
cities and who take coffee or chocolate
'or breakfast and a small cup of black
coffee after dinner.
Viewing the effect of the beet sugar
industry upon the European nations
me is unavoidably drawn to the con- !
liberation of what the future holds out =,
o the American beet farmer. At pres
mt he is gettinT good prices, but the
ime will come when the factories will |
'wn land and cultivate with Poles,
Russians a..d Galicians.