ulation at 32,000,000, gives an average consumption of six pounds to each individualbeing about one-fourth part of the consumption of each individual in Great Britain This extraordinary discrepancy is no doubt ascribable to various causes: partly to the greater poverty of the mass of the French people; partly to their smaller consumption of tea, coffee, punch, and other articles that occasion a large consumption of sugar; and partly and principally, perhaps, to the oppressive duties with which foreign sugars are loaded, on their being taken into France for home consumption. The United States consume from 70,000 to 80.000 tons; but of these from 30,000 to 40,000 tons are produced in Louisiana. About 170,000 tons of sugar are retained for home consumption, in Great Britain, and 17,000 tons in Ireland, exclusive of about 12,000 tons of bastard, or inferior sugar, obtained by the boiling of molasses; and exclusive, also, of the refuse sugar and treacle remaining after the process of refining. On the whole, therefore, we believe we may estimate the aggregate consumption of the continent, and of the British islands, at about 500,000 tons a year; to which if we add the aggregate consumption of the United States, Turkey, &c., the aggregate will be nearly equivalent to the supply. The demand is rapidly increasing in most countries; but, as the power to produce sugar is almost illimitable, no permanent rise of prices need be looked for. Taking the price of sugar at the low rate of £1 4s. a cwt., or £24 a ton, the prime cost of the article to the people of Europe will be £12,000,000; to which adding 75 per cent. for duty, its total cost will be £21,000,000. This is sufficient to prove the paramount importance of the trade in this article. Exclusive, however, of sugar, the other products of the cane-as rum, molasses, treacle, &c.—are of very great value. The revenue derived by the British treasury, from rum only, amounts to nearly £1,600,000 a year. Progressive Consumption of Sugar in Great Britain.-We are not aware that there are any authentic accounts with respect to the precise period when sugar first began to be used in England. It was, however, imported, in small quantities, by the Venetians and Genoese, in the fourteenth and centuries, but honey was then, after, the principal ingredient em sweetening liquors and dishes. Even re early part of the seventeenth century, the quantity of sugar imported was very inconsiderable, and it was made use of only in enth ng in * In Martin's Storia del Commercio de Veneziani, (vol. v., page 306,) there is an account of a shipment made at Venice for England, in 1319, of 100,000 lbs. of sugar, and 10,000 lbs. of sugar-candy. The sugar is said to have been brought from the Levant. the houses of the rich and great. It was not till the latter part of the century, when coffee and tea began to be introduced, that sugar came into general demand. In 1700, the quantity consumed was about 10,000 tons, or 22,000,000 lbs. At this moment, the consumption has increased (bastards included,) to above 180,000 tons, or more than 400,000,000 lbs.; so that sugar forms not only one of the principal articles of importation and sources of revenue, but an important necessary of life. Great, however, as the increase in the use of sugar has certainly been, it may, we think, be easily shown, that the demand for it is still very far below its natural limit: and that, were the existing duties on this article reduced, and the trade placed on a proper footing, its consumption, and the revenue derived from it, would be greatly increased. During the first half of the last century, the consumption of sugar increased fivefold, and amounted, as already stated, In 1700, to.. 1710, to 1734, to 1754, to. 1770-1775, to 1786-1791, to 72,500 (average) or 162,500,000 .81,000.. ..or 181,500,000 In the reign of Queen Anne, the duty on sugar amounted to 3s. 5d. per cwt. Small additions were made to it in the reign of George II.; but, in 1780, it was only 6s. 8d. In 1781, a considerable addition was made to the previous duty, and, in 1787, it was as high as 12s. 4d. In 1791, it was raised to 15s. ; and, while its extensive and increasing consumption pointed it out as an article well fitted to augment the public revenue, the pressure on the puble finance, caused by the French war, occasioned its being loaded with duties, which, though they yielded a large return, would, there is good reason to think, have been more productive, had they been lower. In 1797, the duty was raised to 17s. 6d; two years afterward, it was raised to 20s.; and, by successive augmentations, in 1803, 1804 and 1806, it was raised to 30s. ; but, in the last-mentioned year, it was enacted, that, in the event of the market price of sugar in bond, or exclusive of the duty, being, for the four months previous to the 5th of January, the 5th of May, or the 5th of September, below 49s. a cwt., the lords of the treasury might remit 1s. a cwt. of the duty; that, if the price were below 48s., they might remit 2s., and, if below 47s., they might remit 3s., which was the greatest reduction that could be made. In 1826, the duty was declared to be constant at 27s., without regard to price; but it was reduced, in 1830, to 24s., on West India sugar, and to 22s. on East India sugar. SUGAR THE EARLY HISTORY OF.-The following communication was sent us by A. G. Summer, Esq., of South Carolina, received by him from his brother, Thomas J. Summer, member of the Literary and Scientific Society of Giesin, and who is pursuing Agricultural Chemistry under Liebig, Rosa and Mulder. SUGAR AND ITS USES.-The French of Dr. Edw. Dartwright," (1843,) that this people are great eaters of sugar, always ingenious man used to fatten sheep on sucarrying some of it about with them, in gar. To birds, this diet proved so nourishtheir pockets and reticules, and generally ing, that the suppliers of the European putting five or six lumps into each cup of poultry markets find that sugar, along with coffee. M. Chessat reports that sugar, when hemp-seed and boiled wheat, will greatly used as the exclusive, or principal article of fatten ruffs and reeves in the space of a fortdiet, produces quite opposite effects in per- night. sons, according to the difference in their systems; for, while it fattens some, it creates bile, which induces a diarrhea, and a wasting of the solids, in other persons. The celebrated Bolivar had, by fatigue and privations, so injured the tone of his stomach, that he was unable, at times, to take any other food than sugar, which, in his case, was easy of digestion. His personal friends assure us, that, in some of his last campaigns, he lived, for weeks together, upon sugar alone, as a solid, with pure water as a liquid; but, probably, in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, this diet would soon have brought the person adopting it to his grave; for, on those whose digestion is feeble, a large, or exclusive, allowance of sugar adds to their grievance, because the excess of nutriment, not being generally absorbed by their weakened system, becomes converted to bile, and causes great debility and wasting of the body. In seventeen experiments, made on dogs, M. Chessat observed, that, when the sugar diet fattened them, there was a general tendency to constipation meanwhile; and, on the contrary, when it produced an excess of bile in other dogs, their bowels were relaxed. Why English children suffer, in their digestion, after eating largely of sugar-plums, comfits, &c., is chiefly owing, however, to those delicacies being composed of the refuse of starch works, mixed with plaster of Paris, pipeclay and chalk, and having, indeed, as little sugar as will suffice to give them a palatable sweetness; and they are often colored with gamboge; and, sometimes, with red lead, verdigris, and other mineral poisons. Everywhere, the beasts of the field, the reptiles, the fish and insects, are found to have a great liking for sugar and honey. Mr. Martin says he has tamed the most savage and vicious horses with sugar, and has seen the most ferocious animals domesticated by being partly fed upon it. The tamers of lions and tigers owe their power over them chiefly to a judicious use of sugar, and other sorts of sweets, and, also, of lavender water, and various other perfumes, of which feline animals are remarkably fond. In the sugar season, in the West Indies, the horses, mules and cattle, soon acquire a plumpness and strength by partaking of the leaving of the sugar canes, after the manufacturer has done with them. In Cochin-China, the elephants, buffaloes and horses, are all fattened with sugar. We learn, from the Memoirs Dr. Weill says, that as far as he has observed there is no allusion made to sugar in the Old Testament. The conquests of Alexander seem to have opened its discovery to the Western world. Strabo says that Nearchus, his admiral, found sugar-cane in the East Indies, but does not say that even art was used to reduce the juice of this plant to gum. Strabo also quotes Eratosthenes, as speaking of roots of large reeds in India, which were of sweet taste, both raw and when boiled. Theophrastus, we next find, had some knowledge of sugar, for in naming the different kinds of honey, he mentions one found in reeds. Varro, in a fragment quoted by Isidorus, alludes to this substance, when he says it was as a fluid, pressed out from reeds of a large size, which was sweeter than honey. Dioscorides, speaking of the different kinds of honey, says there is one sort, in a concrete state, called Saccharon, which is found in the reeds of India and Arabia Felix. This, he adds, has the appearance of salt; and, like that, is bitter when chewed in the mouth. It is beneficial to the bowels and stomach, if taken dissolved in water; and is also useful in diseases of the bladder and kidneys. Being sprinkled on the eye, it removes those filmy substances that obscure the sight. This I regard as the first account extant of the medical properties of sugar. Galen was well acquainted with the use of sugar, and describes it similarly with the above, as a kind of honey, called Sacchar, that came from India and Arabia Felix, and concreted in reeds. He says it is less sweet tha ney, but of similar qualities, as deterg desiccative, and digerent. He observes the difference, however, that sugar is not like some honey, injurious to the stomach, or productive of thirst, but on the contrary always occasions internal irritation. In the third book of Galen, treating of medicines easily procured, sugar is repeatedly prescribed. Lucan speaks of the sweet juice drawn from reeds, which constituted a drink for the people of India. Seneca, speaks also of an | but from a coarser and larger variety, known oily sweet juice in reeds. Pliny mentions it to the ancient world, called by Avicenna, as saccharon, and says it was brought from tabarzet, which is the arundo arbor of CasArabia and India; but the best came from the per Bauhen, the sacchar mamba of later latter country. He describes it as a kind of authors, and the arundo bambos, of Linnæus. honey obtained from reeds, of a white color This yields, even at the present day, a sweet, resembling gum, brittle when pressed by the milky juice, which freely crystallizes in the teeth, and found in pieces of the size of a sun's rays, and resembles sugar both in taste hazlenut. It was used in medicine only. and appearance. It is similar if not identical with gum manna, and I think we must date the commencement of the cultivation of sugar as we know it with the Crusaders. This period opened to the world the riches of the "far orient." Even the "Golden Fleece" had stopped at Colchis, but it was for the Crusaders to transport useful arts, tastes, refinement, and even disease from the Holy Land, to all portions of Central and Western Europe. In the history of those days, romance and chivalry held a sway which almost obscures the details of those useful arts which went home with the mail-clad soldiers of the Holy Sepulchre. But the student, by groping in the massive rubbish of centuries, if he perseveres, can still, now and then, place his finger on a point in the pro Salmasius, in his Pliniana Exercitationes, says, Pliny relates upon the authority of Juba the historian, that some reeds grew in the Fortunate Islands, which increased to the size of trees, and yielded a liquor that was sweet and agreeable to the palate. Though he implies that this plant was the sugarcane, I think the plant intended by Pliny was some one of the milk-producing trees of the African tropics. Before this period we had no account of the artificial boiling, or the application of the evaporating process to sugar, but Statius alludes to the boiling of sugar, and the passage is referred to in the celebrated Thesaurus of Stephens. Arrian, in his Periplus of the Red Sea, speaks of the honey of reeds, called sacchar, as one of the articles of trade between Ariacgress of any art which existed at that time, and Barygaza, two places of the hither India, and of some parts of the Red Sea. Elian, in his Natural History, speaks of a kind of honey, pressed from reeds that grew among the Prassi, a people who lived near the Ganges. Tertullian also speaks of sugar in his book De Judicio Dei, as a kind of honey procured from canes. Alexander Aphrodisæus states, that sugar was regarded in his time as an Indian production. What the Indians called sugar then, was a concretion of honey, in reeds resembling crystals of salt, of a white color, brittle, and possessing a detergent and purgative power like honey; and which being boiled in the same manner as honey, is rendered less purgative, without impairing its nutritive quality. Paulus Egineta, makes the first mention of sugar growing in Europe; and also speaks of its being brought from Arabia Felix; the latter he seemed to think less sweet than the sugar raised in Europe, and neither injurious to the stomach nor causing thirst, as the European sugar was apt to do. I regret that I can't fix the date at which this author wrote. Achmet, an Eastern writer who is said to have lived about the year 830, speaks frequently of sugar as common in his time. Aviccena, the Arab physician, also speaks of sugar as being the produce of reeds, which he calls tabixer or tabarzet. It does not appear that down to this time the world was acquainted with the method of preparing sugar, by boiling down the juice of the canes to a consistence. It is also thought that the sugar they had, was not derived from the sugar-cane now cultivated, and in searching for these points is often rewarded by discoveries which show the inception of wonderful events which have since transpired. I turned my inquiries from the tomes of the times preceding the Crusaders to the historians of those infatuated expeditions, and in the Historia Hierosolymitana found that the Crusaders discovered in Syria certain reeds called canno-meles, of which a kind of wild honey was made. Albertus Agnensis, writing about the same period, says that "the Crusaders found sweet honeyed reeds in great quantities in the meadows about Tripoli, in Syria, which reeds were called zucra. These reeds were sucked by them, and they were much pleased with their sweet taste, with which they could be scarcely satisfied. This plant is cultivated with great labor of the husbandman every year. At the time of harvest, they bruise it when ripe in mortars, and set the strained juice in vessels till it is concreted in the form of snow, or white salt. This, when scraped, they mix with bread, or rub it with water, and take it as pottage; and it is to them more wholesome and pleasing than the honey of bees. The people who were engaged in the sieges of Albaria Marra and Archas, suffered dreadful hunger, and were much refreshed thereby " He also mentions, in his account of the reign of Baldwin, that eleven camels, laden with sugar, were captured by the Crusaders, and from this we infer it was then made in considerable quantities. In the works of Jacobus de Vitriacco, is to be found the first account of the employment of heat or fire in the making of sugar, for he says, "that in Syria reeds grow that are full of honey, or a sweet juice, which by the pressure of a screw engine, and concreted by fire, becomes sugar. Wilhelmus Tyrensis, about the same period, speaks of sugar as made in the neighborhood of Tyre, and sent to the farthest ports of the world." 66 Marinus Sanatus says, that in the countries subject to the Sultan, sugar was produced in large quantities, and that it was likewise made in Cyprus, Rhodes, Amorea, Malta, Sicily, and other places belonging to Christians. Last of all, Hugo Falcandus, who wrote in the days of Frederic Barbarossa, speaks of sugar being produced in great quantities in Sicily, where it was used in two states; one, when the juice was boiled down to the consistence of honey, the other when it was boiled still farther down so as to form a solid body of sugar. Here, when revolution and the turbulent spirit of Frederic shook the whole of Europe, was consummated that skill which has since furnished to our sugar regions a basis for the wonderful chemical discoveries which have engaged their attention up to the present time. How much the art of manufacturing sugar is yet to be improved can only be imagined, when we review the events which have accelerated its production since the twelfth century. I feel much satisfaction in addressing these historical transcripts to one of my fellow-citizens who is largely interested in the culture of sugar. Depend upon it, my dear sir, the only thing the sugar planters should call to their support is the aid of science. With this, and the healthy energy of American enterprise, they will outstrip the world in the production of every staple which engages their attention and occupies their labor. From the Hon. Joel R. Poinsett. JUNE 25, 1847. Sugar is a fruitful subject. Of course, you are aware of the vast advantage possessed over us in the West Indies, where, from the cane maturing, the juice is many times stronger than in our colder region. Within the tropics it takes eighteen months to mature, and I think the comparative strength of the juice with that raised in colder climates, it is as eight to one. Sugar is cultivated successfully in Peru, and constitutes the chief article of export. It is sent to Chili, in exchange for flour. The sugar of Peru is clayed, and not well refined. In Mexico it is raised in the Tierra Templada, and Tierra Caliente; chiefly in the valleys of Cuatla and Cuemavaca, about twenty leagues from the capital; although it might be cultivated to almost any extent, as the soil and climate of many parts of Mexico are peculiarly favorable to its production. Indeed, it was cultivated formerly much more extensively in the neighborhood of the coast, where the lands were more productive than those even of the island of Cuba, and the juice of the cane much richer in saccharine matter; but the works were destroyed on most of the estates during the civil wars of the revolution, and they are too costly to be renewed. The consumption of sugar in the country is enormous, and the quantity made barely suffices for home use. If Mexico is to be Americanized. and sugar raised there to be brought into competition with that of Louisiana, the latter will have to abandon that source of profitable culture. An experiment, recorded by Humboldt, gave double the quantity of sugar raised on the coast of Mexico to that raised on the same area in Cuba. "A hectane of the best land in Vera Cruz produces 5.600 pounds of raw sugar, or exactly double the quantity obtained fron the same space of ground in Cuba." The sugar used in Mexico, like that of Peru, is badly refined and has a coarse appearance. The cane is planted closer together than is customary in the English West India islands; but they rest their lands, planting only one-fourth each year-a system that maintains their fertility unimpaired. I am, dear sir, very truly yours. SUGAR CULTURE IN TEXAS.-There are at present twenty-nine sugar plantations in Brazoria county, each having substantial buildings and machinery for the preparation of the cane-juice for market. Col. Morgan L. Smith's establishment ranks highest in the scale of cost, as it does in estimable pretensions, to produce a refined article of the highest character, having in combination the latest improvements that genius and intellect have as yet devised for the fabrication of sugar. Col. Smith's perseverance, enterprise and energy will, I have no doubt, surmount every of his great and laudable design, if at all pracdifficulty that is likely to obstruct the progress ticable. His personal exertions and general character merit the enjoyment of a most brilliant success. As the costs of the establishments are not uniformly the same, they are classed in the following schedule, according to their estimated value-as, one at $50,000; eight at $20,000; six at $15,000; two at $12.000; one at $10,000; one at $8,000; ten at $5,000 the number of sugar-houses, and the cost multiplied into each other. In the next column, the estimated value of the hands employed on the plantation; the next, the supposed number of acres cultivated, with the very low average price of twenty dollars per acre-giving an aggregate of $1,134,000, the amount of capital invested in the cultivation of sugar-cane, &c., in Brazoria county at this time. These figures are by no means exag- rather below than above the actual amount gerated, for it is confidently believed they are of a close calculation: The manufacture of sugar in Texas is yet | in the incipient stage of success. The culture of cane, until within a few years past, was quite limited; a few small patches were cultivated in the vicinity of Bexar de San Antonio, in olden times, for family use, in the form of a peloncus. Mr. Stafford, of Fort Bend county, was the first to erect permanent works for its manufacture in Austin's colony, in 1834, but the buildings were burned to the ground, and the machinery destroyed by the Mexican army, during the sanguinary eruption of 1836. But it is to an adventitious experiment made by Mr. Eli Mercer, of the Egyptian settlement, Wharton county, on the Rio Colorado, seventy miles in the interior, that the first "partial essay is indebted for the origin of our sugar doings." The extreme scarcity of foreign productions in the colonies, previous to the revolution, induced this gentleman to make an attempt at sugar making-at least enough for his own family consumption-in 1833, '34. With the assistance of his two sons-yet in boyhood-and one negro, he cultivated, in addition to his usual potato and corn patch, not only enough for his own family use, but he supplied the whole population of Egypt with sweetening. His apparatus was wholly domestic-the live oak rolling-mill was constructed by himself, from the stump, and the largest flesh-pots of Egypt were arrayed "all round in a row," as an evaporating battery, under the attentive ministration of the family circle. Although producing an article not unlike Mississippi alluvion steeped in molasses, it brought a goodly price into the hard, close hand of the honest Eli Mercer. Urged on by successful sales, the incorrigible Eli extended the limits of his cane patch; by experience, gained some celebrity in his new craft, while the saccharine qualities of the soil and cli mate were successfully developed to his advantage, and that of his successors, for ages. He is now enabled to enjoy the fruit of his persevering industry, with peace and plenty around him, under his own vine and fig-tree. But more likely, if yet alive, you may find him rusticating under the shade of some neighboring gnarled post-oak, poring over the Proverbs of Solomon, or the Psalms of David in metre. SUGAR OF LOUISIANA.-We have made up some statistics from the tables of Mr. Champomier, which were published for several years. This gentleman collected his facts by correspondence and personal attendance; and though he may have been led into many errors, they are altogether too unimportant to affect the general results. Nothing so reliable can be had from any other source. |