The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1911-01-26

n
This may seem a startling
statement, but if we take the quaint
ty of sugar produced in the United
States and add to this the quantity
brought from our own islands and
the quantity imported from foreign
countries, and subtract therefrom the
amount exported, we get grand
total Of considerably more than 7bil-
lion pounds consumed in the country;
and by dividing the population into
this grand total, we get an average
of 81 II pounds per capita, speaking
in round terms, for 1910, and about
a 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 popula-
ton in the section known as CONT
mental United States, the average
yearly consumption of sugar is
found to be about 81 IL 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 ~ pounds per capita. The next
largest per capita consumption is in
Denmark, TIN pounds; followed by
Switzerland, GA pounds; Sweden, "a
pounds; and Germany and Holland,
each about 43 u pounds.
Not only is the United States the
second largest sugar consumer per
capita, but the total amount cOnsum-
ed annually is much greater than
that Of any other country, aggregat-
ing, as above indicated, more than
billion pounds per annum, against
about billion pounds in England
and about billion pounds in Ger
many.
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 produced in
this country. The total production
of sugar in the United States now
amounts to q billion pounds year,
of which more than l billion pounds
is beet sugar and about three-Quart-
ers of a billion cane sugar. 1t is
only recently that the production Of
beet sugar in the United States has
come ia exceed that of cane sugar.
In 1900 domestic production of cane
sugar was twice as great 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, ex-
ceeded in quantity that production
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 produced in Europe and
consumed in the country of produc-
ton or in other parts Of that grand
division, while most of the world
outside Of Europe obtains its sugar
supply from cane, grown of course,
in the tropical and subtrOpical Sec
tons. 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, Mex
leo Central and South America. All
of that coming from our own islands
Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Phil
ippines-is cane sugar, while of the
domestic product about 40 per cent
Sc rOrn1n0od from oann Tho host