The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1911-02-01
We HAVE A SWEET TOOTH
Enormous Quantity of Sugar
Consumed Yearly in the
United States.

The people of the United States con-
sumo half their own weight in sugar
every year. This may seem a startling
statement, but ii we take the quantity
of sugar produced in the United States
and add to this the sugar brought from
our own islands and the quantity i'm
ported from foreign countries. and sub
tract the amount exported we get a
grand total of considerably more than
7 billion pounds consumed in the co1n-
try; and by dividing the population into
this grand total, we get an average of
81 u pounds per capita, speaking in
round terms, for 1910, and about like
quantity for 1909. 1t is not assumed,
of course, that each person necessarily
consumes sugar equal to one-half his
individual weight; but taking the total
consumption and comparing it with the
total population in the section known
as continental United States, the
average yearly consumption is found to
be about 81 x pounds per capita.
In fact the people of the United
States are larger consumers of sugar
per capita than those of any other
country of the world except England,
for which the latest figures show a
consumption averaging sc pounds per
capita, against our own average of 81 y
pounds per capita. The next largest
per capita consumption is in Denmark,
7734 pounds; followed by Switzerland,
GA pounds; Sweden, 81 pounds; and
Germany and Holland, each about 43k
pounds.
Not only is the United States the
second largest sugar consumer per
capita. but the total amount consumed
annually is much greater than that of
any other country, aggregating, as
above indicated, more than billion
pounds per annum, against about bill
lion. pounds in England and billion
pounds in Germany.
About one-half of the sugar con-
sumed in the United States is brought
from foreign countries, about one
fourth from our own islands, and the
remaining one-fourth is produced in
this country. The total production of
sugar in the United States now
amounts to Ia billion pounds a year,
of which billion pounds is beet sugar
and q of billion is cane sugar. 1t is
only recently that the production of
beet sugar in the United States has
come to exceed that of cane sugar. In
1900 domestic production of cane sugar
was twice as much as that of beet
sugar and 20 years ago was more than
60 times as great; but the growth of
beet sugar production has been very
rapid in recent years and in 1907, for
the first time, exceeded in quantity
that produced from cane and has so
continued since that time.
OF the sugar brought from. other
countries, nearly all is made from cane.
While about half of the worlds sugar
is made from beets, most of it is pro-
duced in Europe and consumed in the
country of production or in other parts
of that grand division, while most of
the world outside of Europe obtains its
supply from cane, grown of course, in
the tropical and subtropical sections.
Of the cane sugar which we consume,
most of that coming from foreign
countries is drawn from Cuba, the
Dutch East Indies, and smaller amounts
from the West Indies, Mexico, Central
and South America. All of that CON-
ing from our own islands-Porto Rico,
Hawaii, and the Philippines-is cane
sugar, while of the domestic product
about 40 per cent is produced from
cane. The beet sugar of the United
States is grown chiefly in Colorado,
California and Michigan, and some in
Utah, Idaho and Wisconsin; while most
of the cane sugar is produced in Louisi-
ana, with smaller quantities in Texas,
Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
The sugar "habit" is evidently a
growing one with the people of the
United States and probably with those
of other countries, since the total
world production of sugar, including
all countries for which statistics are
available, has increased 80 per cent in
the last decade and about doubled in
Is years. In our own case the con-
sumption has shown a rapid growth,
the per capita consumption having
been in 1880, 40 pounds; in 1890, 81
pounds; in 1900, SO pounds and in 1910
approximately Sl19 pounds.
What is the cost of this quantity of
sugar consumed in the United States?
This is more difficult to answer. The
valuation of that brought from foreign
countries and our islands is set down
at about l75 million dollars in 1910, and