Evening star., 1924-09-05
SUGARS BIC PART
IN CANNING ART
Five Million Tons Is Annually
Consumed in Homes of
America.

Home Gamers of the country are
! now in the midst of the annual food
conservation battle. Mrs Housewife
and little Miss Housewife have put
| up" the small fruits and now the big
ones are being put under the rubber
'.ring. The chief ally in the annual
warfare is sugar
County fair time follows the can
ming period. For what would the
Rockville fair be without Montgom-
cry County'S best canning? In the
United States about 100000 tons of
sugar are used every year. The part
nature plays in providing you with
thi Is sugar reads like a romance, says
the American Nature Association. In
the colonial days sugar was 75 cents
pound. Keep that in mind when
the monthly bill comes in and you
see a big item" for sugar costing
around or cents a pound.
Sugars of commerce are derived
from sugar cane and from sugar
beets. Sugar beets will grow in diff
ferent climates If the soil is favor
able, bsIt sugar cane is a grass that
requires the warmth of the tropics.
The consequence is that much more
beet than cane sugar is produced in
continental United States. Our island
possessions, on the other hand, being
in a warm climate. produce sugar
cane exclusively. The following sta
tisticS for last year show the relative
Importance of the two crops in what
is known as "the United States field:
Cane Oong tons)-Cuba. S,602.91O;
Hawaii, $4,000: Porto Rico, 33S,456;
47s: Texas. 2,S75; Virgin Islands,
l,739. Total 4.942.45s.
Beet. continental United States,
615,936.
Beet Sugar States.
Beet sugar is produced in 16
States-Washfngto California, Ne
vada. Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Colo
RADIO, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota,
Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan.
Indiana and Ohio. Cane sugar come
mainly from Louisiana. Cane is grown
also in Texas and Florida and else
where throughout the South, but it is
used in these States almost entirely
for making sirup ,and molasses.
Sugar is a munificent gift of ma
ture. But 1t is a gift that is not to be
had without human effort and indus
try. Therefore upon natures bounty
has been built an immense agricultu-
raj, industrial and commercial or
ganization.
Production of cane sugar begins in
the tropics. Cane fields are planted
with cuttings about foot long
which contain two ortthree seed buds.
The method of planting is necessarily
primitive, owing to the rough char
acter of the soil. One imam drops the
cuttings every three or four feet.
He is followed by another man. who
with a pickax makes a, hole in the
ground, into which he, thrusts the
cane cutting, trampling the earth
above it with his feet. Vegetation
grows so luxuriantly in the tropics
that this simple method suffices to
produce a plant with several shoots
that soon start from a clump or stool
Of cane. One planting on virgin soil
is enough for 10 or IL years.
Resembles Corn.
The numerous stems of the cane
plant resemble cornstalks in appear
ance and often attain height of Is
to Is feet. They are thick and un-
branched, with broad, fiat leaves
plant natures with the approach of
the dry season.
When the cane is harvested the
stalks must be cut by hand. although
many attempts have been made to
produce a machine that will cut cane.
By means of the heavy knife or
machete an expert can cut and load
six tons of cane a day. A long
process then follows before the sugar
gets to your table.
Manufacture of beet sugar, unlike
the refining of the cane product, is a
direct process. To obtain high-grade
cane sugar raw sugar is first made
of the juice which is pressed from
tho cane. The raw sugar in turn is
refined. Our beet sugar industry,
however. has no intermediate raw
product The beets literally go in at
one end of the factory as they are
taken from the ground and they
leave at the other end in the form of
white sugar ready for consumption.