Cuban Cane Sugar Daliforni jgional ,cility NEX (LIBRARY j I UNIVERSITY^OF CALIFORNIA ^ SAN DIEGO j Cuban Cane Sugar CANE CRUSHING IN CUBA Cuban Cane Sugar — a sketch of the industry, from soil to sack, together with a survey of the circumstances which combine to make Cuba the Sugar Bowl of the World By ROBERT WILES ILLUSTRATED BY SIX PHOTOGRAPHS INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS 1916 Copyright, 1916 The Bobbs-Mcrrill Company Contents Page I. OUR SWEET TOOTH GROWING SWEETER — AND WHY 1 II. SUGAR MAKING — FROM THE SOIL TO THE SACK 17 III. CANE vs. BEET — THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 37 IV. CUBA — THE SUGAR BOWL OF THE WORLD 53 V. CUBAN CANE SUGAR — AMERICA'S OPPORTUNITY.. . 69 I. Our Sweet Tooth Growing Sweeter— And Why OUR grandfathers, in the early '50s, got along well enough with a family sugar consumption of two pounds a week. Our fathers' families in the '80s ate about five pounds a week. Twenty years later, in 1900, we were eating more than six pounds a week. Today every American family con- sumes between eight and nine pounds of sugar from Saturday till Satur- day. Not the sugar in fruits, or the sugars which we digest from the potatoes or beans we eat, or other natural sugars and sweets, but of commercial, store-bought, refined sugar we eat more than eight pounds. Eight pounds, plus, of sugar a [1] Cuban Cane Sugar week to the family — 421 pounds a year — some of us eat less, and some of us eat more. The figures repre- sent our actual national average. In two short generations we have developed a national sweet tooth which calls for more than four times the sugar it formerly got. Why? * * * * If we look for a moment at the sugar consumption of some of our less fortunate neighbors we may be able to see the reason, and to read the curious relation which seems to exist between sugar and prosperity. While we are eating more than eight pounds of sugar a week, for example, the average Serbian family of five (in normal times) consumes but a bare fifteen ounces; and in Bulgaria, Roumania, and Italy, the family consumption amounts only to about a pound per week. [2] Our Sweet Tooth The world over, we will find — with exceptions, here and there, to prove the rule — that the poorer a people the less sugar it eats, while the more spending money it has the more it uses — though, as we shall see later, sugar is one of the cheapest of foods. The use of sugar might well depend upon many other things than pros- perity. It might well depend upon the propinquity of a people to the sugar market (and consequently price); upon the character of other foods consumed — for obviously those whose principal diet is figs require but little store-bought sugar; upon the quantities of beer or other sugar- producing drinks a people uses; or even, on national tradition. But, it is interesting to note, from a table such as follows, how closely sugar and spending-money seem to go hand in hand: Cuban Cane Sugar United States (1914) Germany (1913) Austria (1913) Italy (1913) Serbia (1913) Per Capita Circulation of Money $35.18 19.29 12.08 8.82 6.84 Per Capita Annual Sugar Consumption 84.29lbs. 45.13 29.17 11.68 10.03 England, with a per capita circula- tion of money less than five-sevenths of our own, has an apparent statis- tical consumption of 93.37 pounds of sugar per capita as against our 84.29. These figures for consumption in- clude, however, the sugar used in the manufacture of jams, marma- lades and other preserves, much of which products are exported. If the amount of sugar so used and sent out of the country in manufactured form were deducted, and if our own consumption of England's manu- factured sweets added to our quota, it would, no doubt, appear that England's per capita consumption was not so high as our own. [4] Our Sweet Tooth France, with a per capita money circulation larger than ours, con- sumes less sugar — but the high cost of sugar in France, and the cheapness of wine, may in a measure account for this. Australia, with $47.18 of money per capita as against our $35.18, might reasonably be expected to consume more sugar — and she does — 100 pounds per capita per annum as against our 84.29. The comparison is not only true as between nations. It is true as between sections of the same nation, as could easily be shown; and it is true as between different periods of a nation's prosperity. Taking our own case, the com- parative figures read : Per Capita Per Capita Circulation Annual Sugar of Money Consumption 1850 $19.41 39.46 1880 26.93 58.91 1914 35.18 84.29 [5] Cuban Cane Sugar It would seem, if prosperity sweet- ens our sweet tooth, that adversity should have the opposite effect. But such is not the case. It is as if, in times of adversity, we were saying to ourselves, "We cannot afford more sugar — but we cannot get along with less" and so, as always, in such circumstances, we limit our expenditures, but spend, really, a little more than we can afford. The figures show this. The de- cade, for example, between 1890 and 1900 was a period of protracted and general financial depression in the United States. At the beginning of this decade the per capita sugar consumption was 60.7 pounds, while at the end of the decade the con- sumption was 61.8 pounds. In other words, instead of cutting our sugar down to a point where it had for- merly been, we kept it at just about a constant level. [6] Our Sweet Tooth And during the following ten years — 1900 and 1910 — a period rec- ognized as one of unprecedented, general prosperity, we abandoned restraint, and our sugar consumption jumped from 66.6 pounds to 81.6 pounds per capita per annum. * * * * It would be putting the cart before the horse, however, to say that we use more sugar because we are more prosperous. The simple fact is that we have come more and more to realize that sugar is a good food; as our pros- perity has increased we have been better able to buy the foods we wanted or needed; in times of ad- versity we have merely cut down on those foods which cost more and gave us less value. Where formerly we were told that sugar exercised an injurious physical effect, we know now that it is pos- [7] Cuban Cane Sugar sible for us to assimilate only so much as is good for us — no more; and that if we eat too much sugar, the pangs of indigestion warn us of our error before any harm can come — if we pay attention to the warning. Where, formerly, we thought that sugar must be bad for us because we liked the taste of it, we now know that sugar is demanded for the balanced ration, that it has a heat and energy producing value as great as lean meat, and that the nitrogen retention of proteid food, such as meat, fish, eggs and milk, is increased 25% when consumed with sugar. A tabulation of the principal items of diet may be of interest: Available Energy When Consumed As Food Meat and Fish 87% Eggs 89% Fruits 90% Cereals 91% Dairy Products 93% Vegetables 95% Sugar 98% [81 Our Sweet Tooth When we realize that sugar costs only in the neighborhood of five or six cents per pound and that the other items listed run upward in price as high as forty cents per pound, most of them ranging be- tween twenty and thirty cents, it will be seen why economy impels us to eat as much sugar as we can in connection with the other foods necessary to make a perfectly bal- anced ration. That sugar is no longer considered a luxury can be convincingly read, also, from the statistics of candy consumption. Our national candy bill runs well in excess of $500,000,000 a year. It amounts to more in a single twelve-month than the entire recent Anglo-French loan. It represents a per capita expenditure of more than five dollars a year. For many years we have been not only unapproached Cuban Cane Sugar by any other country in the con- sumption of candy, but have con- sumed more than all other countries reporting candy manufacture. New York City is our largest candy consuming centre — the largest con- suming centre in the world — both as to total consumption and per capita consumption. At first thought we might say that New York is a city of wealth and prosperity and that its enormous candy consumption represents the gratification of a desire for a luxury. But New York's candy is not sold to New York's rich — it is sold to sat- isfy the hunger of New York's poor. Where New York consumes one pound of high priced candies it consumes at least ten pounds of the cheaper grades such as are sold on the push-carts of Delancey Street. From this we can only judge that there must be an economic reason [10] Our Sweet Tooth why our poor are the great candy consumers; their standard of living is so low, and the food available to them so inferior, that they feel, constantly, a natural hunger which they are most easily able to satisfy through buying the cheaper and more tempting sweets. From the figures, the story of sugar is plain: As we learn more and more the value of sugar as a food we buy more and more as our pocket-books per- mit us. Then, in times of depression like those we have just gone through, we eat slightly more sugar than usual, unconsciously, perhaps, be- cause we reduce our consumption of the higher priced, less nourishing food-stuffs. And, finally, with meats and grains mounting higher and higher, while sugar, because of improvement in methods of production, has steadily [11] Cuban Cane Sugar gone lower, we turn more and more toward the consumption of sweets. * * * * There is still another factor which may loom large, in the future, in influencing the consumption of sugar, and which cannot be overlooked in a general survey such as this. This factor is the prohibition movement. A large percentage of all intoxi- cating liquors are made from the syrup which comes as a by-product in the manufacture of sugar; and all intoxicating liquors, whiskies, brandies, wines, beers, and ales rep- resent only a chemical re-arrange- ment of sugar. When the drinker stops taking alcoholic beverages, or even cuts down on them, he must and does use more sugar in his tea or coffee and his general dietary. Although prohibition has been [12] Our Sweet Tooth definitely and steadily growing for more than thirty years, the fact has not as yet been reflected in the statistics of liquor consumption; during the decade 1904-1914 the consumption of liquors of all kinds increased nearly forty per cent., while the population increased only slightly over twenty per cent. Nevertheless, state-wide prohibi- tion has already been enacted in eighteen of the forty-eight States while local option prevails in sixteen, with several states soon to vote on the question. Moreover, when the Hobson resolution, to submit to the States the prohibition amendment to the Constitution, was laid before the House, 197 members voted for it, 169 against it. So we see that the prohibition wave is a thing of fact, not of fancy. Whether or not it will effectively stop the consumption of liquor, it [181 Cuban Cane Sugar must, if only by reducing it, increase the consumption of sugar. * * * * We see, thus, that the advance of sugar goes hand in hand with the advance of intelligence and pros- perity; that adversity only slightly checks the advance; that the high cost of living and the prohibition movement, both of which promise to be with us for many years to come, tend to increase consumption. As a result of the operation of these factors, our national sweet tooth has been growing sweeter and sweeter — not only ours, but that of our neighbors. And the sum of this increase in the use of sugar is indelibly written in the statistics of world sugar pro- duction, as follows: In 1870 the total production of cane and beet sugar in the whole world was 2,750,000 tons. [141 Our Sweet Tooth In 1914 this total had risen to 18,773,486 tons — a jump, in a single generation, of more than 600 per cent. As matters stand today we are digging out of the ground, the world over, only about one-third enough gold to pay our annual billion-and-a- quarter dollar raw sugar bill. All of the petroleum produced in the world in a year equals hardly more than one-quarter the value of the year's raw sugar crop. All of the ever increasing quan- tities of tobacco used amount in value to barely a third of what we pay for our raw sugar. And coffee, too, growing apace with tobacco, would have to multi- ply its annual crop by more than four in order to be abreast of sugar, while rubber, with more than two million motor cars consuming it at an astounding rate, must be multi- US ] Cuban Cane Sugar plied by almost six before it equals in value the crystals which our canes and beets are producing an- nually to satisfy our sweet tooth. The world's sugar crop is bigger than her cotton crop — much bigger. It is exceeded, in fact, only by the grain crops and the production of live stock. * * # * If the demand for sugar increases during the next fifty years as it has during the past fifteen, we must increase our facilities for producing it to at least seven times their pre- sent capacity. But if the demand should not increase at all, if sugar should come to a sudden standstill, the import- ance of this crop among the world's basic productions has, during the past hundred years, been established beyond question or doubt. [161 II. Sugar Making— From the Soil to the Sack Those of us who have known the boyhood joy of a maple sugar camp in full swing, may think that the granulated sugar of commerce is made by the same process — boiling, boiling, boiling, and draining. It is not. It is not even made from molasses as our geographies used to state. The molasses is, in fact, a by-product of sugar manu- facture— not, as many suppose, its starting point. There is an important difference, in fact, between syrup and molasses. The former is the juice or sap of a sugar producing plant, boiled and clarified, and containing its entire original sugar content; the latter is the residue after the sugar crystals have been extracted from the syrup. [17] Cuban Cane Sugar Before going into the details of the interesting process of sugar mak- ing itself, it may be said that all of our commercial sugar is cane sugar. No matter whether it comes from the juice of the beet, or the sap of the bamboo or maple, or from cane itself, chemically and technically it is known as cane sugar. * * * * There are two classes of sugar in nature — which, avoiding long Latin names, may be called single sugars and double sugars. Cane sugar, milk sugar, malt sugar, are some of the double sugars. Grape sugar and fruit sugar are common single sugars. If we take a double sugar and submit it either to heat, acid or ferment, we turn it into single or invert sugar. The double sugars are of no use as food while they remain double — they cannot be assimilated in the [18] From Soil to Sack body for the formation of organic tissue or the production of heat and energy. Only the single sugars are available. But, practically, this is of no con- sequence since the acidity of our digestive juices, the heat of our bodies and our digestive ferments combine to form ideal conditions for inversion, and accomplish this chem- ical change shortly after we have eaten the double sugar. Cane sugar has two and one-half times the sweetening power of fruit sugar and more than two and one- half times the sweetening power of grape sugar — which is one of the reasons why all of our commercial sugar is cane sugar instead of the more easily assimilable single sugars. * * * * There are countless plants in nature which may be made to yield us cane sugar. All fruits contain two or [191 Cuban Cane Sugar more sugars, of which cane sugar, fruit sugar and grape sugar, are the most important. For centuries sugar has been man- ufactured from different species of palms by the natives of India. The bamboo is a sugar-producing plant which was utilized by the ancient peoples of Asia and is supposed to be the first plant from which sugar was extracted. Sugar is manu- factured from raisins in practically all the countries of southern Europe and western Asia. Indian corn has been used experimentally in the manufacture of sugar, while Sorghum or Chinese cane, with a high sugar content, yields a large syrup crop, but for chemical and manufacturing reasons little or no actual sugar. The saps of many trees besides the maple contain sweets. Sugar and syrup have even been manufactured in the United States from water- [20] From Soil to Sack melons — an industry which was nipped in the bud by the intro- duction of refrigerator cars and cold storage, which made a wider and more profitable market for the melons themselves. But for practical purposes the commercial sugar of the world can be considered as coming from the juice of the cane or the beet. The con- sumption of all other sugars amounts to but a small fraction of a per cent. • * * * * Whether our sugar is to be pro- duced from beets or cane, the first step is the production of the syrup — the separation of the sweet watery content of the plant from the pulp or woody portions. In the case of cane, the operation is simplicity itself. All that is needed is crushing. The pioneer methods of milling and crushing in the cane growing [21] Cuban Cane Sugar countries of the world were crude almost beyond belief. The first crushers consisted of wooden rollers — two adze-hewn logs — usually ver- tical, operated by hand-power. Twenty -five per cent, of the total juice represented all that could be extracted by this means. The first improvement — and this came not so many years ago — was the substitution of vertical cast-iron rollers, which, in construction and manipulation, differed little from the old wooden rollers, but added an extra fifteen per cent, to the total of the juice extraction. The next advance was marked by the intro- duction of steam-power, which per- mitted an increase in the size of rollers; and finally this improve- ment was followed by the introduc- tion of horizontal instead of vertical rollers. These raised the efficiency of extraction to sixty -five per cent. [22] From Soil to Sack Steel rollers are now used almost exclusively in the larger mills and the number of rollers has increased from one pair to three and from three to nine. Many of the mills have shredders or corrugated crushers, through which the cane is passed before conveying to the smooth rollers. Cane prepared in this way yields from eighty to ninety per cent, of its total juice, while still higher percentages are secured by saturating the bagasse, as the crushed cane is called, with water and passing it through the mill several times. The process, despite this lengthy description, is simplicity itself. All that is required is to extract the juice from the cane by crushing — and with the present advance of engineering and invention in this line, the day is in sight when prac- tically all of the available juice can be separated and saved. [23] Cuban Cane Sugar In the case of beet sugar, the process is more difficult and expen- sive. First the beets must be thor- oughly washed to cleanse them of the quantities of field earth which adhere to them. In the early days of the beet sugar industry it was the custom after washing to pulp the beets and effect the extraction of the juice by pressing, much as cane is pressed. But this method is so wasteful and so inefficient, because of the structure of the beet, that it has been abandoned and a diffusion process substituted. The first operation in the diffusion process is to slice the beets into the thinnest possible individual pieces. This is done by a machine which cuts the beets with a multitude of curved knife blades, revolving rap- idly. When the beets are cut into thin, irregular slices on this machine, they are placed, in water, in the first [24] From Soil to Sack of a set of cylindrical vessels called a diffusion battery. These vessels communicate with each other by pipes so arranged that the juice issuing from the bottom of one dif- fuser flows into the top of the next. By this means the sugar content is dissolved and the sweet, viscous liquid or syrup which is the starting point of both beet and cane sugar is secured. * * * * This viscous liquid as it comes from the mill, whether from cane or from beets, is subject to almost immediate fermentation, since it forms an ideal culture for the prop- agation of germs. If allowed to stand, it will quickly sour and invert into single sugar. It is a curious point about the sugars, well worth noting here, that in weak solutions they are easily fermented, while in concentrated [25] Cuban Cane Sugar solutions they are able to preserve themselves from the attacking germs. The grape, for example, soon decays after it is taken from the vine. But if its sugar is concentrated, as in the raisin, it will keep indefinitely. The same is true of our other table fruits. Fresh fruits soon spoil; those which we protect by concentrating their sweets we call preserves, and these we can easily carry over one or more winters. The susceptibility of freshly milled syrup to fermentation calls for im- mediate attention; if left a few hours it may sour. So the first operation is to boil it. At this stage it is a turbid, dark-colored liquid, full of woody and gummy constit- uents, wholly unfit to be worked up into sugar without clarification. Protection against micro-organ- isms, as stated, is accomplished simply enough by boiling. The [26] From Soil to Sack boiling kills the germs which are present, the evaporation concen- trates the sugar solution and pre- vents further invasion, and the heat coagulates the albuminous constitu- ents of the syrup, forming a froth, which, when removed, has accom- plished much in the process of clar- ification. Besides heat, which coagulates the albumen, another agent which has been used for clarification from the earliest times is lime. This pre- cipitates the gummy matters which form into a muddy sediment at the bottom and into a top layer of froth between which the bulk of the juice is clear and limpid. Thus we see* that the first step after the juice leaves the mill is to boil it and to add a measured quan- tity of milk of lime, or in plainer English, whitewash. This white- wash, much as we should dislike to [27] Cuban Cane Sugar drink it, has no effect whatever on the sugar. It attacks only the impurities, both dissolved and sus- pended, but does not combine with or alter the sucrose itself. When the syrup has been clarified by boiling and liming, it may be said to consist of two elements — sugar and molasses. The sugar is repre- sented by that portion which can be crystallized out, the molasses be- ing the residuum. The sugar crystals are now sepa- rated from the molasses by whirling it rapidly in a machine called a centrifugal. This machine consists essentially of a perforated basket, revolving inside an iron casing. The basket is lined with finely perforated sheet bronze or with woven wire cloth and may measure from four- teen to twenty-four inches in depth and from thirty to forty inches in diameter. Revolving at a speed of [28] From Soil to Sack from 1,000 to 1,400 revolutions per minute, the molasses is forced out through the fine openings, caught in the iron casing and carried off in a conduit, while the sugar crystals themselves are retained in the basket. The basket is spun until the sugar is practically free of molasses; such sugar is then known as raw, or centrifugal, sugar. It is definitely crystalline in character, but still moist and lumpy. Its color, due to the impurities it still contains, varies from a light tan to a dark brown. * * * * The molasses which has been carried off in a conduit is now boiled again, replaced in the centrifugal for the extraction of still more crystals, which are kept separate and called "molasses sugar." When this pro- cess has been carried to its profitable limit, the final molasses is sold for [291 Cuban Cane Sugar the manufacture of rum, whiskey, or other spirituous liquors, or for the manufacture of alcohol. There are many other markets for molasses, including the manufacture of stock foods, its use as a fertilizer, etc., but its conversion into alcohol and spirits represents its chief use. * * * * The raw sugar from the centrif- ugals is still unfit for use, and must now be refined; in refining, it is first dissolved in hot water, the liquor thus formed being filtered through cotton bags to remove all insoluble impurities. It is next run into iron cylinders packed with charred bones, bone charcoal having a peculiar affinity for the soluble impurities and leaving the sugar, after filtration, in a purified and decolored condition. This purified, colorless, liquid sugar is now boiled in vacuum pans, refilled as evapora- [30] From Soil to Sack tion sets in, until the crystals have begun to re-form, when the mass is again spun in centrifugals which separate the crystals from the liquor as before. These crystals, after drying in horizontal cylinders, are turned out as the granulated sugar of commerce. If soft white sugar is desired, the process is stopped after passing through the centrifugals . The granu- lated grades are obtained by control- ling the crystallization in a granu- lator and by sieve grading. Loaf sugar is made by running the mass from the vacuum pans into molds, where it drains; and then placing the molds in ovens to be solidified. Pressed cubes are made from moistened granulated sugar. The liquor taken from the centrif- ugal machines is reboiled and yields the soft or brown sugars, and the final residue is sold as molasses. [31] Cuban Cane Sugar In technical and trade descrip- tions of sugars we often find the expression "96° centrifugal." The "centrifugal," we now understand, refers to the process by which the sugar was made — that is, as against boiling, evaporating and draining, as is done in the case of maple sugar and as was formerly the practice before the days of improved ma- chinery in cane sugar. The "96°" refers to the quality of the sugar and brings up the curious method in vogue for deter- mining sugar quality. Sugar is not, as might be sup- posed, tested by taste for its sweet- ness or by any of the chemical means which might be suggested, but is judged by the way in which it re- fracts light. We know that when we poke a stick into a pond the part of the stick below water seems bent and fore- [32] From Soil to Sack shortened; and that when we pass light through glass at an angle its direction is changed. Similarly, sugar in solution has the property of bending the rays of light which it refracts; different sugars have different refractive prop- erties; and in actual practice sugar, instead of being tasted or analyzed, is examined by an instrument called the polariscope, designed to measure the character of this refraction. Fruit sugar bends the ray of light to the left. Its technical name is Levulose, and is, in fact, called a left- hand sugar; cane sugar (sucrose), and grape sugar (dextrose), bend the ray of light to the right, and are known as right-hand sugars. The polariscope readings of some different commercial sugars are: Black Strap 71°, Cuban Molasses Sugar 77°, Cuban 1st Sugar 96°, and Java White Sugar 99.6°. [33] Cuban Cane Sugar We have before us, now, a general survey of the methods by which our sugar crop is commercialized. There are many by-processes not necessary to describe here — many ingenious short cuts — and many efficient means of utilizing the sugars in waste products of manufacture, but the process as a whole follows the lines described here. Thus we see that the essentials of sugar making are: 1. A plant such as cane or the sugar beet, which yields sugar economically in crystallizable form. 2. A means for separating the juice from the woody and other constituents of the plant. 3. A means for clarifying, purify- ing, and making germ-proof this juice or syrup. 4. An apparatus for separating the molasses from the sugar [34] From Soil to Sack crystals — a centrifugal ma- chine. 5. A means for washing and filter- ing the raw sugar thus pro- duced and of reducing it to the clean, pure, white crystals of commerce. In the manufacture of beet sugar, these operations are frequently car- ried on under one roof; the beet sugar factory may well be a com- plete institution, buying its beets from the neighboring farmers (often furnishing them the seed and super- vising their crops), and turning out a complete commercial sugar. This arrangement is possible, in the case of beet sugar, because sugar beets can be grown in climates and localities suitable for manufacturing. In the case of cane sugar, however, the process is split in two. Cane is a product of the tropics and semi- tropics where sugar refining could be [35] Cuban Cane Sugar carried on, for several reasons, to poor advantage. The cane planter, therefore, converts his crop of cane immediately into raw sugar on his own premises, or in the neighbor- hood, and this raw sugar is sent to refiners in the country of consump- tion, where the after-processes are carried out. * * * * The making of sugar, from the soil to the sack, is a simple process, and an interesting one; considering that it has only lately been rescued from the primitive, considering the ad- vancements already wrought, and considering its ever increasing im- portance among the world's produc- tions, one can but wonder what new efficiencies and what further econo- mies inventive genius holds in store for it. 36 III. Cane vs. Beet — The Struggle for Supremacy We owe the discovery of cane sugar to the Bengalese in India; as long ago as the third or fourth century A. D., travelers from India brought back news of "Indian salt." From the fifth century, we can trace its spread into Arabia, Egypt, Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, Brazil, Cuba, and so on around the world. But the making of sugar out of beets we owe distinctly to Napoleon Bonaparte. It is just 110 years since Napoleon gave the beet its impetus, and the circumstances were these: In 1804-5 the business affairs of Europe were in much the same tangle as they are in the war times of today. Napoleon was successful in bat- [37] Cuban Cane Sugar tering down the continental fron- tiers and in increasing his possessions amazingly — but he met failure in his principal task — that of humilia- ting his chief enemy, Great Britain; and, in 1805, he was forced to give up his intention of attacking that country when Nelson destroyed the French fleet off Trafalgar, conse- quently preventing the landing of the French in England. When, in the end, Great Britain established herself as mistress of the seas, and succeeded in opening trade relations with the continent, in spite of Napoleon's strenuous efforts to forbid them, the French Emperor devised what was known as the "Continental System" which dealt a disastrous blow to the cane sugar industry. Seeing that the struggle was not to be brought to an end by fighting, Napoleon tried to isolate his enemy [38] Cane vs. Beet by forbidding commercial communi- cation between England and the entire continent of Europe. When this decree was issued and all British and Colonial goods were confiscated, England sought reprisal by prohibiting ships of any nation- ality from approaching French har- bors on the penalty of confiscation; whereupon Napoleon, in turn, de- creed that any ship which had either submitted to English examination or had paid dues in English harbors be confiscated. With both sides engineering bitter blockades, shipping came to a stand- still and sugar prices on the conti- nent went up, and up, and up to prohibitive figures. Meanwhile, the lack of sugar be- came an important war-time problem which demanded immediate and vig- orous action. Napoleon set about, at once, to find substitutes for cane Cuban Cane Sugar sugar which might be grown in France. In his search he learned that sugar could be produced from grapes and from beetroots, but he did not confine himself to these, experimenting meanwhile with ap- ples, pears, plums, quinces, mul- berries, chestnuts, figs, sorghum, field corn, and the saps of several trees. Nearly sixty years previously, Marggraf , in Berlin, had shown that various kinds of beetroot contained sugar which could successfully be crystallized out. Forty years later Achard, a Frenchman, experimented with different varieties of beetroot; and, when his results became known, Frederick Wilhelm III, King of Prussia, started experimentation on a large scale and contributed to- ward the erection of several sugar factories, at the same time offering bounties to farmers who produced [40] Cane vs. Beet more than twenty tons of beetroot a year. After a number of costly experi- ments had been directed toward the production of grape sugar, with poor results, Napoleon, in 1811, ordered 32,000 hectares— about 75,000 acres — to be planted with beetroot — dis- tributed over the several provinces — and established four schools in which sugar manufacture was to be taught. In the meantime, he stifled whatever little competition cane sugar might still be offering, by forbidding all further importation from the East and West Indies. In 1812 the num- ber of sugar schools was increased and 100,000 hectares — 247,100 acres — were planted and by that time 334 factories were in operation. The news of the new sugar indus- try soon spread and Austria and Germany vied with France in their efforts to produce the crystals from [41] Cuban Cane Sugar beets. In 1814 when Napoleon had to abdicate, his "Continental Sys- tem" was abolished, and imported sugar was again admitted on the continent. This proved but a tem- porary set-back to the new industry, however, so rapid had been its rise and so great the enthusiasm which attended the discovery. By 1830 the beet sugar industry was in full swing once more. * * * * Cane, having always been con- sidered the natural source from which to expect sugar, received little atten- tion or promotion. While the best minds of Europe were studying the beet, improving the varieties, in- venting new and more efficient means of extraction, and generally giving the subject serious consideration, cane sugar continued to be produced in the most primitive way. It was not, in fact, until the early [42] Cane vs. Be e t '80s that the cane planter woke up from his long sleep. The typical owner of a sugar plan- tation lived in tropical style, well up to his income and invested the least possible money in improvements. He was prone to spend all he made without thinking of creating a re- serve fund, and consequently, when the beet — all things considered, a much inferior plant to the cane for the purpose — began, by sheer dint of scientific handling, to encroach upon the cane, he was absolutely unpre- pared for the struggle for existence which lay before him. This condi- tion, however, did not continue long, and in the early '80s, capital, in moderate amounts, began to be available to sugar planters, and cane sugar manufacture began to shake off its primitive shackles. In 1870 the production of cane sugar was almost double that of beet [431 Cuban Cane Sugar sugar. By 1880 beet sugar had climbed up to a point of approxi- mate equality, and then, as stated, the struggle began. The story of the race is indelibly written in the figures of World's sugar production, (Mulhall and Wil- lett & Gray), which are quoted here: Years Cane Beet Total 1870 1,850,000 900,000 2,750,000 1880 1,860,000 1,810,000 3,670,000 1890 2,580,000 2,780,000 5,360,000 1898 2,850,000 4,650,000 7,500,000 1900 3,056,294 5,590,992 8,647,286 1902 4,079,742 6,913,504 10,993,346 1903 4,163,941 5,756,720 9,920,661 1904 4,234,203 6,089,468 10,323,631 1905 4,594,782 4,918,480 9,513,262 1906 6,731,165 7,216,060 13,947,225 1907 7,329,317 7,143,818 14,473,135 1908 6,917,663 7,002,474 13,920,137 1909 7,625,639 6,927,875 14,553,514 1910 8,327,069 6,597,506 14,914,575 1911 8,422,447 8,560,346 16,982,793 1912 9,006,030 6,820,266 15,886,296 1913 9,232,543 8,976,271 18,208,814 1914 9,865,016 8,908,470 18,773,486 44 Cane vs. Beet It will be seen that the race, as thrilling a one as was ever run in the sport of Kings — started neck and neck; beet with its impetus was go- ing strong in the '90s, a length and a half ahead; by the middle of the nineteen-hundreds cane had regained her wind and closed her decade in the lead; since then beet has not been alongside; and if the final fig- ures for 1915-16 were known, her percentage showing, partially be- cause of the curtailment of beet- growing in Germany, Austria, France, and Russia, would quite likely be the poorest in forty years. The esti- mates of Willett & Gray and F. O. Licht are: World's 1915-16 Sugar Crop: Cane Beet 10,333,000 tons 6,306,102 tons Let us look into the facts, then, observing the fundamentals under- lying the struggle and see if we can forecast the outcome. [45] Cuban Cane Sugar Let it be stated at the outset that there is no difference between beet sugar and cane sugar when refined. In their chemical composition, in their quality and taste, and in their commercial value, they are identical. The only question is which can pro- duce a pound of crystallized sugar, delivered to the consumer, at the least cost. The climatic conditions required for the profitable production of sugar beets are entirely different from those required for the production of sugar cane. Sugar cane started in the tropics and has never been coaxed very far from its native zone. It needs a nine months' growing season of hot days and nights, and it will not stand severe winters. It requires both moisture and sunshine, and unless irrigation is resorted to, needs an annual rainfall of from fifty to [46] Cane vs. Beet sixty -five inches. Given favorable growing conditions, such as the cleared jungle of Cuba or Java, it re- quires a minimum of labor. Sugar beets, on the other hand, constitute a typical temperate zone crop. They require rich soil, and especially good drainage conditions. If there is not abundant rainfall, the beets must be irrigated. Unless the soil is very rich in natural fertilizing ingredients, it becomes necessary to apply commercial fertilizer gener- ously. The beet is a crop which re- quires constant cultivation during the early part of the growing season and is subject to a number of ene- mies and diseases. It has been noted that as the beet crop has increased, its enemies have become more wide- spread and destructive each year. We see, thus, that the beet requires land which is worth from forty to two-hundred dollars per acre for [47] Cuban Cane Sugar other purposes, whereas, cane flour- ishes best in the tropics with land, which, assuming that the Mahogany and Cedar pays the cost of clearing, costs from six to fifteen dollars per acre and is good for little else. The beet requires expensive irri- gation, cultivation and care, involv- ing high priced temperate zone labor; whereas the cane, in equally suitable surroundings requires no irrigation and little or no cultivation — only harvesting by cheap tropical help at a few cents a week. * * * * To put the comparison in money, it may be stated that the average pro- ducer of beets in the United States realizes an annual profit of from fif- teen to forty dollars per acre, with land costing from forty to two hun- dred dollars as his investment; while the average producer of Cuba real- izes an annual profit of from thirty [48] Cane vs. Beet to eighty dollars per acre from land costing six to fifteen dollars per acre. Looking at the situation in this light, it would seem strange that beet should have made the advance it has. But there is another reason for this; the stronghold of the beet is in Germany, Austria, France, Hol- land, and other nations of Central Europe. These nations have a four- fold reason for growing the beet; first, they are far removed from the jungles where cane sugar best grows; second, they have the added incen- tive of a hundred years of develop- ment, improvement and investment in the beet; third, their labor costs are low; fourth, there are no "big- money " crops competing with sugar- cane for the land. As to labor, it will be readily un- derstood, that this is a most im- portant item of expense in beet sugar production. [491 Cuban Cane Sugar Where we, in the United States, pay one dollar to a dollar-and-a-half a day for field labor, the average cost in Germany and France is from fifty to seventy cents per day; while in Austria farm and unskilled factory laborers receive only fifteen to thirty cents per day. If we add to these facts the further fact that, because of duties, taxes, bounties, and transportation, the re- tail price of cane sugar in Central Europe is much higher than in America, we will see the real under- lying cause of the rise of beet. As to "big-money" crops which wrest the land away from the beet, this is a condition met generally in the United States. Whether or not the production of beet sugar in any given section can be made a permanent success has been shown to depend largely upon whether or not that section is adapt- [50] Cane vs. Be e t ed to crops yielding a greater return. For example, land which could for- merly be bought in Idaho for $75.00 to $100.00 per acre as beet land has now risen in price from $150.00 to $300.00 per acre because of its adapt- ability to fruit growing. In Idaho, Colorado, and other states the beet crop, thus, is rapidly being supplanted by fruits and vege- tables with which the beet cannot be expected to compete in earning power. * * * * There are many other causes which underlie the recession of the beet and from which its further decline may be forecast. Among these is the fact that the milling season is an extremely short one, and because of this beet sugar factories in many states import raw cane sugar to carry their production period over into what would other- wise be idle seasons. In almost every [511 Cuban Cane Sugar case where this has been tried the raw cane sugar has proven a better profit earner for the mill than the beets which lay close at hand. * * * * Summing up, we see that beet stole a lead on cane because beet had the best minds of Europe improving it while cane suffered from tropical sloth. Beet is at the maximum of its efficiency, while cane has just begun to take its first steps. The same inventive genius is now being applied to the improvement of cane and when this improvement reaches its maximum, as it will dur- ing the next few decades, it may con- fidently be expected that beet will take but a minor part in the produc- tion of the world's sugar. 52] <