The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-23
DRY SPELL HAS SENT COUNTRY
 ON SUGAR SPREE

The assertion that the United States has gone on a sugar spree"
 since the advent of prohibition lends interest to a. series of com pilations by
 the National City Bank of New York which compare our sugar consump- ton In 1919 with that Of previous years They show that the quantity of sugar consumed in the United States in the fiscal year ending with June, 1919, was greater than in any year in the history of the country and the sums paid for it double those in the year preceding the war.
 The quantity If sugar consumed by our people, says the banks statement, aggregated nearly 9,00O,000,000 pounds in the fiscal year 1919 against about 8,OOO,00O,000 last year, 8,5OO,- O00,00O pounds in the year prior to the war, little over 7,5OO,O ,O0O,O 900 in 1910, 6,000,000,000 in 1905, 5,000,- 1 900, 900 in 1902, and 4,500, 0,OO0,OOO in i 1900, all of these being, of course, in very round terms. Thus the 1919 l consumptive Is about double that of 1 1900, although the population mean 1 time has increased only B per cent. 1 The average per capita consumption 1 in 1919 was S3 pounds against IT 1 pounds per capita in 1918, 7s in 1918, 1 1 and B pounds per capita in 1870. In 1 fact, our 100, ,eGe,o00 people, although | forming about per cent, of the ! worlds population, consumed last l year nearly 25 per cent. of the worlds sugar production.
 The sums paid for sugar by our people in 1919 were far in excess of l those of any earlier year. The aver 1 age import price for the raw product l brought in from foreign countries av- 1 eraged a little more than cents per
 pound (exclusive of duty) as against 1 an average of 9 cents per pound in i 1914, and the sums paid by the con- 1 sumers for ali sugar purchased dur ing the year will approximate $1,00o,- | 0o0,0oO as against a little more than l one-th4rd of that sum in the year 1 prior to the war.
 | About one-fourth of the nearly g. | 00o, 100000 pounds of sugar con
 stunned In the United States in the fiscal year 1919 was, according to the 1 banks statement, produced in the 1 United States, another one-fourth was 1 produced In our islands and the re- l mainder drawn from foreign coun- | tries, chiefly Cuba. About three fourths of the quantity produced in 1 our own fields was from beets, and 1 only One-fOurth from c3ne4 While all | of that brought In from our islands
 or from foreign countries was pro- | duced from cane. The average i'm | port price paid for the raw sugar l coming from Cuba was 5,01c per pound (exclusive of tarff) as against I Pc per pound in 1914; the average 1 price paid for that entering the coun- l try from Hawaii In the fiscal year l 1919 was Gle per pound and from i Porto Rico 6.sc per pound, these figures being in all cases those of the raw product, which is refined in 1 the United States before entering 1 consumption.
 1 The above figures, says the bank 8 l statement are necessarily in very i general terms, The exact figures of consumption, baslng the aggregate upon production at home, quantities l brought from our islands. imports | from foreign countries, minus the 1 quantity exported after refinement,
 was S,S5o, o,00O,e00 pounds; the import i value. exclusive of duties, $435, ,00O,-
 900, and the quantity exported In the refined state 1, ,11e, 100000 pounds, and
 in the unrefned state about 3.OOO,O0O
 hounds. Of the 1919 exports about l one-thtrd went to Great Britain, one i third to France. and the remainder i chiefly to Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland, with smaller | quantities to Argentina and certain l other South American countries.