The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-15
CAUSE OF SHORT
 SUGAR SUPPLY
ny HOLLAND

New York. December H.--(Special) Sugar shortage is now spoken of as be- ing without any precedent. and further more that no one has been able author, atively to evxplain why the supply is vastly below the demand. It is true that not yet has any satisfactory explana tion been made of the reason why the sud- den shortage of sugar has come upon
 us but when it is said that the sugar
 famine is without precedent it is only
 necessary to recall the experience Of
 civil war days to deny the accuracy oi
 the statement. Sugar was very scarce in those days of 1881 and 1865 All sorts Of
 expedients were resorted to in order
 to make good in some way this deficiency. Sorghum sugar and mollasses were man.
 ufactured and served, unsatisfactorily
 to eke out the supply Chemists under took to eliminate the sour qusiity which was in sorghum sugar. but without suc- cess Had the chemists been able n dis cover methods by means of whit this tant could be removed there would have been very great cultivation of sorghum, rnd it might have furnished suffi- cient supply of sugar to make us almost independent of Cuba. Maple sugar was cultivated as never before There was little rationing of white or brown sugar because not enough sugar of that kind
 was in the market to make rationing available. 1T now we uO DOt kHOW WHS there is such a shortage of sugar as that which began about October I every
 one did know ir civil war days why sugar was scarce. The shortage was entirely due to the war
 WHAT WILL BE THE EFFECT?
 One result of the present shortage, fol- lowing as it has so speedily upon an ear
 Her rationing of sugar. may be the development in the United States of
 tpvA which ultimately may become so great development as to furnish this country with almost all the sugar we need f< domestic purposes The experts say that there are two natural resources upon which this country may rely for very great increase in the production of sugar for domestic purposes One of these re- sources is the isotf ernal belt, averac ing about 100 miles in width which stretches in a curously irregular manner from western New England across New York state and Michigan. then turns suddenly to the south, reaching into Texas, then northerly to the Paci1c coast Tn this isothermal belt are found inc best conditions for the sugar beet cultivation If this natural resource IS fully developed the output of beet sugar should be vastly increased. Already ry manufacturers are making as excellent heet sugar as was that made in Europe. That the tendency is strong towards much greater development of the beet sugar interest is shown by the actioS of the state authorities of Utah. The governor supported by the administra- fion of the state. is now seeking to finance a proposition, and if he is successful in doing this. many thousand acres of land aspecially suitable for beet suetr culti- vation will be ~-en for development, all though it will need railroad in order to secure transportation.
 FLORIDA AS SUGAR GROWING
 Reports come to New York that tell or the probability that southern Florida will within a few years have advanced so greatly in the cultivation of sugar cane as to make it reasonable to predict that the production and output Will be fairly comparable with the sugar cane indus try of Louisiana It wifi depend sous-