The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1915-06-24
ssoo,ooo,ooo FOR SWEETS
Spent Annually in the United States To
Satisfy Sweet Tooth

| iht NpIiu idS iuu aWNNt tpoth "
many ages. People have been eating
sugar from time immemorial it woul'
seem, and growing sugar cane Is an in
dustry SO old that it antedates thu
Christian era by many centuries. Al
least that is what we gather from al
article by Edward Albes in the May
number of the monthly bulletin of the
Pan American union, Washington, d. G..
which gives comprehensive account OF
the cane sugar industry in the Americas
and incidentally embodies an interesting
lresume of what is actually known of the
history of the industry throughout the
world from the very lawn of civilization
to the present.
Scientists admit they do not know
just where the sugar cane original ted, y
he writes, "for nowhere has it been found
in its wild state. 1t has been cult
waited product for l..any centuries, and
the first mention to be found in written
records is in the sacred books of the
| Hindus. 4 have crowned thee with a
shooting sugar cane, so that thou shalt
not be aversc to me- was written many
centuries before the Christian era. In
the train of Alexander the Great dur
ing his Asiatic conquests were some OBJ
servant persons who made notes of what
| they saw, when not too busy killing off
| the inhabitants, and in these written
documents, according to later writer's
who fell heir to them, is told the story
of "a reed growing IN India which pro-
duces honey without bees Thus sugar
cane was evidently well known in that
country before 800 B. G.
Gas to the manufactured product OF
the cane, the first kind of sugar of which
mention is made was concentrated cane
juice called CUR in India Hgud' in San
skrit) and this seems to have been
known as a food from prehistoric times.
That its manufacture was a well-estab
lshed industry in India in the seventh
century is attested by the old Chinese
encyclopedia, the Pen-tsao- kang -mu,
which states that the emperor, Taitsung
who reigned from 627 to $50 A. D., sent
some of his people to Behar to learn the
art of sugar making. The manufacture
of sugar even in the early centuries of
the mere evaporation of the juice of the |
cane to dryness, for the Arabs and Egyp- |
tians had soon learned how to purify raw
sugar by recrystallization, and inciden- |
tally how to make great variety of |
sweetmeats, or candy, out of the prod
uct."
The author tells OF the introduction OF |
the cane into Sicily by the Arabs in FOB, |
whence il was taken to Africa, to Spain |
and all along the coast of the Mediter
sea, as well as to the islands and
borders Of the Indian ocean. The Cru
saders found extensive sugar cane plan
tations in Tripoli Mesopotama, Syria,
Antioch and Cyprus and by the l4th cen
fury the cane was being cultivated in
every part of the known world where
soil and climate were propitious.
1t came to South America by being in
troduced into Brazil by the Portuguese,
who brought il from Madeira, and thence
il spread to nearly all the other coun-
tries of that continent Columbus is
said to have brought it TO the island OF
Ssnto Domingo, whence il spread to Mex
GO and Cuba. II was introduced into
he other islands OF the West Indies as
,oon as they came under European dom
nation, The first sugar cane came 20
louisiana by being sent TO the Jesuits
rom Santo Domingo, in 1851, some Eng
ish authorities giving the date as 1897.
Although practically all of the countries
# the Pan-American union cultivate the
ane, Cuba is the greatest producer Of
sne sugar, not only in the western hem-
phere but in the world. The total pro. !
luction of the western hemisphere for !
he l9l3-l4 season amounted to 4,9l9,sl4
ons, of which Cuba produced 2.597,732l
ons, or nearly SO per cent. The total
ane sugar production of the world was
t773.34s tons, and deducting the 1882
100 tons produced by India and locally
onsumed. IL il seen that Cuba produces
early IS per cent. Of the cane sugar
hat is available in the markets OF the
World.
The United States il the greatest sug-
r consuming country of the world In
9l3 its total consumption amounted 20
,743.l39 tons-including cane. beet and
maple. This is a per capita consumpi
ion OF s5A pounds per annum. Much
/ this is consumed in the form Of candy
Yer S500.0000Oo being spent for that
veet commodity in the United States
very year. New York il the largest
andy consuming center In the world, and
D supply that city alone IL would take
We trains OF 50 cars each. loaded 10 the
NIT with candy. every week in the year
it had to be shipped In on a railroad.