Sugar

SUGAR. By the term sugar is usually meant cane sugar. Before the war this industry reached (in 1861) a total iu Louisiana of 528,321,500 pounds. In 1862 and 1863 it dwindled to noth ing In 1864, 7,668,200 pounds were manufac tured, which in 1870 reached 166,613,150 pounds, then again running down until in 1876 the pro .duction was 190,672,570 pounds; in 1877, 167, 101,941 pounds; in 1878, 250,094,160 pounds, the total consumption being about 1,731,573,553 _pounds. Since this time these figures have not varied materially, so it will be seen that the con sumption of sugar is seven times greater than the home production. Even supposing that the yearly sug,ar production will again reach the fig ures before the war, we shall with our increasing population have to import three, four or five times as much as we produce, unless the differ ence can be made up hy the production of sugar from sorghum, maize or beets, or all combined, since the production of maple sugar can not pos sibly be extended, and this from the increasing scarcity of maple trees. If the better cultivation of cane and improved processes for ruanufacture could be backed up by capital, then indeed there iS DO doubt but the sugar- producing district of the South, narrow as is the strip along the Gulf, might easily be made to produce sugar enough to supply the wants of the nation. The north ern limit of cane sugar production in the -United States, may be given as belonging to Florida and the gulf region of Georgia, Alabama, Missis sippi, Louisiana and Texas. It is true that cane sugar has been made in Arkansas, and even in Missouri, yet the mauufacture can never be profitably carried on outside the Gulf States. Even Louisiana gives only 1,200 to 1,800 pounds of sugar per acre, while in the West Indies, 3,000 and even 5,000 pounds per acre is pro duced, and in the Mauritius, and in the East Indies the product sometimes runs up to 7,000 per acre. Australia is earnestly pushing her young sugar industry aud if we may credit re Pons from there, her lands are but little if any less productive than the more favored regions of the West Indies. The sugar production of the -world has uot kept pace with the increasing wants of the population; yet there are twenty four principal sugar countries in the world, six of these are European ones in which are pro -cluced beet sugar to over one-half the amount of the entire cane sugar productiou of the whole world. The real difficulty in the way of the production of cane sugar in the United States does not really lie so much in the want of land available for sugar, so much as in the fact, that laborers will not work in a climate so unhealthy as a cane sugar climate must necessarily be, so long as they can find more congenial labor. Where slave labor is employed, the case is differ ent. If they die others can be bought, and, re volting as is this system of labor, it is the. only one yet found except that of peonage, serfdom, caste, and that other one of enforced labor from superabundant population, where sugar makiug has really given steadily large profits to the planters. The following table will show the countries of the world producing cane sugar and also those producing beet sugar. It will be seen that the great cane sugar producing countries are those AA-here the labor is either owned or en forced by means entirely beyond the control of the laborers. The tables give the yield for the year 1875, which for all practical purposes may be taken as an average one of the productions of the world. The first table shows crop of cane sugar in round numbers and the second that of beet root sugar. We may therefore assurne that the South Avill not again be a great producer of cane sugar without a change in the present labor system. It is true, she has land enough, so has every other country where sugar is produced, and in the most of which the annual yield per acre is double that of the South. Yet even there, with the yearly increasing price of sugar, there is not the expansion one might expect. The risk to health is too great except in those cases where the labor is enforced. The steadily growing feeling in all enlightened communities against this system of labor, would alone prevent great expansion in sugar production if other disabili ties did not exist. There seems but one way in which the South can extend the area of cane cul tivation and largely increase her production of cane sugar. This is by allotting land to tenants, and with the aid of owners of small tracts of land, raise the cave to be carried to central factories to be worked up, at an agreed price, or on shares. as has of late heen done to a considerable extent with sorghum cane in the North, and which system has proved valuable in the French West Indies. Where capital can be secured in legitimate investment it is not slow to seek remunerative channels, and plenty of it might be forthcoming to put the sugar lands of the South on a paying basis if first there could be an assurance that the cane sufficient would be grown from year to year; and second, that capi tal might be secure from destructive influences. How well this system works in the French West India islands, the following synopsis of a com munication to the Department of' State, of the United States, will show. It is as follows: A system of central factories has been adopted in the French West India islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, for the manufacture of sugar. The system is a substitute for the 4ong practiced method of making the sugar hy individuals upon the plantations where the cane is produced. The design is to separate agriculture from manufac ture, and by a concentration of capital, some what upon the eo-operative system, to accomplish what the isolated planter was unable to do. The experiment, made upon a large scale during a series of years, it is maintained, has fully demon strated the soundness of the principle. The cen tral factories, or usin,es, as they are called, are owned by joint-stock companies, by which the sugar cane is taken from the plantation and transported to the mill upon railroads, or tram ways, constructed by those companies, a certain per cent. of the value of the carte being allowed

the planter, the price being regulated by the market at Point-A-Pitre at the time the cane is delivered. The systeni seems to have proved a success, affording to the manufacturing interest a handsome profit, and, by leaving the planter free to devote himself to his peculiar vocation, largely increasing the cultivation of the cane. The government of the island of Jamaica recently appointed a commission to visit the French islands and inquire into the working of this cen tral sugar factory system. The Department of Agriculture has received, through the Depart ment of State, the report of these commissioners. Their examinations were made during the last summer, and the results, as stated by them, are not without interest and value to the sugar producers of, the United States. The largest central factory in the French islands is that which is commonly called the Usine d'Arbous sier, at Point-9.- Pitre (Saint Louis), the chief commercial station of the island. The factory is in the suburbs of this seaport, and is constructed upon the grandest scale, having all the improve ments in machinery and manufacture of sugar devised by modern science. The cost of it was upward of a million of dollars, and its capacity of manufacture is equal to 10,000 tons of sugar during. the first six months of the year, which is the manufacturing season. The process of manu facture, as described by the commissioners, is as follows: The canes are brought by the planter to a siding of the main tramway on his estate. The wagon generally carries two tons of canes, and one mule on a good level ordinary tramway can draw easily two wagons. The wagon, when brought to the mill itself, conveys the canes to the rollers. The bagasse being elevated by power to a platform over the boilers, the juice, on leav ing the mill-bed, falls through three strainers into a tank, which has a double bottom, heated by steam. It is treated here with a little bisul phite of lime, and is then run into a montejus. This montejus, by steam, sends the juice up to the clarifiers, where it is heated in the ordinary way and tempered with lime properly. Fronk this it is passed to the charcoal filters, through which it gravitates, and then passes by a gutter into a receiver. From this it is passed to a montejus and is thrown up by steam into a cis tern over what is known as the triple-effet. From this cistern it gravitates into the triple-effet, passing from the first to the second, and from the secon d to the third boiler, as the attendant wishes. When it leaves the boiler it is immediately passed over new reburned charcoal. It gravitates through this and falls into another receiver, from which the vacuum-pan takes it up and boils it to sugar. The first-quality sugar is generally crystallized in the pan, and then is dropped into sugar-boxes, which stand seven feet from the ground; under these boxes a little charging-vessel runs on a railway that is bung from the bottom of the said boxes, and this vessel conveys the sugar over the centrifugals, where it is cured, the molasses from this being boiled up, when found in good condi tion, with the syrup of the following day. When this molasses is thick and clammy it is boiled into a jelly by itself and dropped into sugar boxes, where it is allowed to granulate for a number of days. ,This makes the second-quality sugar, and the molasses from this, along with the skimmings. and subsidings of clarifiers, goes to make rum. The juice that leaves the clarifiers does not pass. over fresh charcoal, but follows the syrup from. the triple-effet, thus assisting to wash out the sweets which may have been left by the syrup. The weight of canes delivered at the factory- last year was 75,000 tons, although it was a season of drought. The factoiy can receive 100,000, tons a year. Last year 5,325 tons of sugars were obtained from 68,725 tons of gime, or about seven and three-quarters per cent. In April last the factory company declared a first dividend of twenty-four per cent. In other words, a net profit of $181,585 was made upon the manufac ture of 68,745 tons of sugar and 182,798 gallons of rum. The processes of manufacture in all the factories, both in Guadeloupe and Martinique, are identieal, the only difference being the adop tion in the new factories of the appliances of modern science, and improved mechanical and other arrangements. The clarification of the juice, its reduction to a syrup at a low tempera ture, the perfect crystallization and color of the sugar, and a maximum return, are obtained by repeated filtration through animal charcoal, the triple-effet and vacuum-pan processes, and, last of all, centrifugal machines. In Martinique the mean weight of canes was found to he equal to twenty-eight tons per acre, producing, say two and a quarter tons of sugar, and the sugar sells at $200 a ton. The central factories, or usines, are represented as in the highest popular favor. Capital, both local and in France, is freely subscribed to establish new usines upon a large and extensive scale. Eight of the factories, at considerable cost, have been erected within the last few years, and others are now in process of erection. They seena everywhere, by increasing the facilities of manufacture, to have stimulated the planters to increased production of the cane. In speaking of the difference between the tillage of those who sell their canes to the usines and those who manufacture at home, .t is remarked that in the one case the canes are uo sooner out of the fields than the 4-rangs and stock are at work. preparing the land for the next crop, and all the tields are tidy and clean. In the other case, fields are left to take care of themselves until the crop season is over. Estates which, before the estab lishment of the usines, were in debt, are now said to be in a flourishing condition, and others which had almost fallen out of cultivation are now making excellent erops In most of the factories hydraulic or other presses are employed for extracting the remnants of juice from the skimmings.