The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Part 20

The production of sugar in the last four years, may be stated comparatively as follows:--

+----------------------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+ | CANE SUGAR. | 1849. | 1850. | 1851. | 1852. | +----------------------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+ | | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. | | Cuba | 220,000 | 250,000 | 252,000 | 320,000 | | Porto Rico | 43,600 | 48,200 | 49,500 | 50,000 | | Brazil | 106,000 | 103,000 | 113,000 | 100,000 | | United States | 98,200 | 120,400 | 103,200 | 110,000 | | The West Indies | | | | | | 1. French Colonies | 56,300 | 47,200 | 50,000 | 50,000 | | 2. Danish Do. | 7,900 | 5,000 | 6,000 | 5,000 | | 3. Dutch Do. | 13,800 | 14,200 | 15,000 | 20,000 | | 4. British Do. | 142,200 | 129,200 | 148,000 | 140,000 | | The East Indies | 70,403 | 67,300 | 66,000 | 60,000 | | Mauritius | 50,782 | 57,800 | 55,500 | 65,000 | | Java | 90,000 | 89,900 | 99,347 | 104,542 | | Manila | 20,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 | +----------------------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+ | | 919,182 | 952,200 | 977,547 | 1,044,542 | +----------------------+---------+---------+---------+-----------+

+----------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+ |BEET ROOT SUGAR.| 1849. | 1850. | 1851. | 1852. | +----------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+ | | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. |Estmd. Tons.| | France | 38,000 | 61,000 | 75,000 | 60,000 | | Belgium | 5,000 | 6,000 | 8,000 | 9,000 | | Zollverein | 33,000 | 38,000 | 49,000 | 50,000 | | Russia | 13,000 | 14,000 | 15,000 | 16,000 | | Austria | 6,500 | 10,000 | 15,000 | 18,000 | +----------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+ | | 95,500 | 129,000 | 162,000 | 153,000 | | Cane Sugar | 919,182 | 952,200 | 977,547 | 1,044,542 | +----------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+ | Total | 1,014,682 | 1,081,200 | 1,139,547 | 1,197,542 | +----------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+

The price of sugar has, however, fallen considerably, and like many other things--corn, and cotton, and tea--has been lower for a long period than ever was known before.

Average price per London Gazette.

Year ending July 5, British West India. Mauritius.

1842 37s. 0d. ----- 1843 34s. 7d. 33s. 10d.

1844 34s. 9d. 34s. 7d.

1845 31s. 3d. 30s. 3d.

1846 35s. 3d. 34s. 2d.

1847 32s. 11d. 32s. 1d.

1848 24s. 3d. 23s. 3d.

1849 24s. 4d. 24s. 0d.

1850 25s. 3d. 28s. 8d.

1851 27s. 3d. 26s. 9d.

Half-year ending Jan. 5, 1852 27s. 3d. 26s. 9d.

Thus, it is equally clear that the fall in the price has been very considerable since 1845, and that in 1849 and 1850 the price of sugar was about 10s. per cwt., or nearly one-third less than in 1838. The planters complain of the fall of price; and the only question in dispute is whether the fall has been occasioned by the reduction of the duties. Now the reduction of duties subsequent to 1846 and to 1851, was, on brown Muscovado sugar, from 13s. to 10s., or 3s.; and on foreign, from 21s. 7d. to 16s. 4d., or 5s. 3d. At the same time there was a very large increase of consumption, and the price, as of almost all articles, would not have been reduced to the full extent of the reduction of the duties, and certainly not reduced in a much greater degree, had there not been other causes at work to reduce the price.

Between 1846 and 1851 freight from the Mauritius fell from 4 1s. 8d.

to 2 13s. 9d., or 35 per cent.; and that reduction of price was not made from the planter. In the interval, too, great improvements were made in the manufacture of sugar; and in proportion as the article was produced cheaper, it could be sold cheaper, without any loss to him.

I shall now take a separate review of the capabilities and progress of the leading sugar producing countries.

_Production in the United States_.--Sugar cultivation, in the United States, is a subject of increasing interest. The demand is rapidly advancing. Its production in the State of Louisiana, to which it is there princ.i.p.ally confined, is a source of much wealth. In 1840, the number of slaves employed in sugar culture was 148,890, and the product, 119,947 hhds. of 1,000 lbs. each; besides 600,000 gallons of mola.s.ses. Last year, the crop exceeded 240,000 hhds., worth 12,000,000 of dollars. The capital now employed, is 75,000,000 of dollars. The protection afforded by the American tariff, has greatly increased the production of sugar in the United States. From 1816 to 1850, this increase was from 15,000 hhds. to 250,000 hhds.

In 1843, the State of Louisiana had 700 plantations, 525 in operation, producing about 90,000 hhds. In 1844, the number of hogsheads was 191,324, and of pounds, 204,913,000; but this was exclusive of the mola.s.ses, rated at 9,000,000 gallons. In 1845 there were in Louisiana 2,077 sugar plantations, in 25 parishes; 1,240 sugar houses, 630 steam power, 610 working horse power; and the yield of sugar was 186,650 hhds., or 207,337,000 lbs.

The introduction of the sugar cane into Florida, Texas, California, and Louisiana, probably dates back to their earliest settlement by the Spaniards or French. It was not cultivated in the latter, however, as a staple product before the year 1751, when it was introduced, with several negroes, by the Jesuits, from St. Domingo. They commenced a small plantation on the banks of the Mississippi, just above the old city of New Orleans. The year following, others, cultivated the plant and made some rude attempts at the manufacture of sugar. In 1758, M.

Dubreuil established a sugar estate on a large scale, and erected the first sugar mill in Louisiana, in what is now the lower part of New Orleans. His success was followed by other plantations, and in the year 1765 there was sugar enough manufactured for home consumption; and in 1770, sugar had become one of the staple products of the colony. Soon after the revolution a large number of enterprising adventurers emigrated from the United States to Lower Louisiana, where, among other objects of industry, they engaged in the cultivation of cane, and by the year 1803 there were no less than eighty-one sugar estates on the Delta alone. Since that period, while the production of cane sugar has been annually increasing at the south, the manufacture of maple sugar has been extending in the north and west.

Hitherto, the amount of sugar and mola.s.ses consumed in the United States has exceeded the quant.i.ties produced--consequently there has been no direct occasion for their exportation. In the year 1815 it was estimated that the sugar made on the banks of the Mississippi amounted to 10,000,000 lbs.

According to the census of 1840, the amount of cane and maple sugar produced in the United States was 155,100,089 lbs., of which 119,947,720 lbs. were raised in Louisiana. By the census of 1850, the cane sugar made in the United States was 247,581,000 lbs., besides 12,700,606 gallons of mola.s.ses; maple sugar, 34,249,886 lbs., showing an increase, in ten years, of 126,730,077 lbs.

The culture and manufacture of sugar from the cane, with the exception of a small quant.i.ty produced in Texas, centres in the State of Louisiana--where the cane is now cultivated and worked into sugar in twenty-four parishes. The extent of sugar lands available in those parishes is sufficient to supply the whole consumption of the United States. Sugar cultivation was carried on in Louisiana to a small extent before its cession to the United States. In 1818 the crop had reached 25,000 hogsheads. In 1834-35 it was 110,000 hogsheads, and in 1844-45 204,913 hogsheads. Each hogshead averaging 1,000 lbs. net, and yielding from 45 to 50 gallons of mola.s.ses.

The number of sugar estates in operation in 1830, was 600. The manual power employed on these plantations, was 36,091 slaves, 282 steam-engines, and 406 horse power. The capital invested being estimated at 50 million dollars. In 1844 the estates had increased to 762, employing 50,670 slaves, 468 steam-engines, 354 horse power.

The sugar-cane is now cultivated on both branches of the Mississippi from 57 miles below New Orleans to nearly 190 miles above. The whole number of sugar houses in the State is 1,536, of which 865 employ steam, and the rest horse power.

The crop of 1849-50 was 247,923 hhds. of 1,000 lbs., which, at an average of 3 cents., amounted to nearly 9 million dollars. The quant.i.ty of mola.s.ses produced was more than 12 million gallons, worth, at 20 cents the gallon, about 2,400,000 dollars, giving a total value of close upon 12 million dollars, or an average to each of the 1,455 working sugar houses of 8,148 dollars.

The overflow of the Mississippi and Red Rivers in 1850, shortened the crop near 20,000 hhds., and was felt in subsequent years. Since 1846, not less than 355 sugar mills and engines have been erected in this State. The sugar crop of 1851-52 was 236,547 hhds., produced by 1,474 sugar houses, 914 of which were worked by steam, and the rest by horse-power. Texas raises about 8,000 to 10,000 hhds. of sugar, and Florida and Georgia smaller quant.i.ties.

In the year ending December, 1851, there were taken for consumption in the United States about 132,832 tons of cane sugar, of which 120,599 were foreign imported. The quant.i.ty consumed in 1850 was 104,071 tons, of which 65,089 was foreign.

_Production in Cuba_.--The average yearly production of sugar in Cuba has been, in the five years from 1846 to 1850, 18,690,560 arrobas, equal to 467,261,500 lbs., or 292,031 hhds. of 1,600 lbs. weight. The crop of 1851 was estimated at twenty-one and a-half million arrobas, equal to about 335,937 West India hhds. Thus, the increase from 1836 to 1841, has been as 29 per cent.; from 1841 to 1846, as 25 per cent.; and from 1846 to 1851, as 45 per cent. A portion of sugar is also smuggled out, to evade the export duty, and by some this is set down as high as a fourth of the foregoing amounts.

In the three years ending 1841, the exports of the whole island were 2,227,624 boxes; in the three years ending 1844, 2,716,319 boxes; in the three years ending with 1847, 2,805,530 boxes.

Between 1839 and 1847, the exports had risen from 500,000 to 1,000,000 boxes. The following table exhibits the quant.i.ty shipped from the leading port of Havana, to different countries:--

Countries. Sugar boxes of about 400 lbs. each.

1850. 1851.

Spain 81,267 101,762 United States 146,672 199,204 England 25,697 46,615 Cowes and a market 221,385 270,010 The Baltic 45,085 81,866 Hamburgh and Bremen 29,271 33,165 Holland 23,242 26,828 Belgium 62,849 29,814 France 44,947 46,517 Trieste and Venice 38,627 14,832 Italy 2,856 5,243 Other places 13,888 16,601 ------- ------- Boxes 743,249 872,457

Our West India possessions have, owing to the want of a good supply of labor and available capital to introduce various scientific improvements, somewhat retrograded in the production of sugar; which, from the low price ruling the past year or two, has not been found a remunerative staple.

The two large islands of Jamaica and Cuba, may be fairly compared as to their production of sugar. From 1804 to 1808, Jamaica exported, on the average, annually 135,331 hhds., and from 1844 to 1848, it had decreased to 41,872 hhds. The exports from the single port of Havana, which in the first named period were 165,690 boxes, rose during the latter period to 635,185 boxes; so that the shipments of sugar from Jamaica, which were in 1804 to 1808 double those of Havana--in the period from 1844 to 1848, were five times less!

Cuba will be able to withstand the crisis of the low price of sugars, better than the emanc.i.p.ated British Colonies, for the following reasons:--

1. It will find, in its present prosperity, a power of resistance that no longer exists in the British sugar-growing colonies.

2. Because it enjoys in the Spanish markets a protection for at least 16,955 tons of its sugar, or about eight-tenths of its total exportation.

3. Because it has secured a very strong position in the markets of the United States; and both from its proximity to, and its commercial relations with that country, as also from the better quality of its sugar, will command the sale of at least 33,500 tons, or about 16 per cent. of its total production.

4. Because in 1854, after the duties shall have been equalized, it will be enabled to undersell the British article in its own market.

5. Because, not being an exclusively sugar-growing colony, as are almost all British West India Islands, it may suffer from the present depressed condition of the sugar market, but cannot be entirely ruined, owing to its having commanding resources, and many other valuable staples,--coffee, copper, cotton, &c.

6. Because, by improving its agriculture and introducing useful machinery, railroads, &c., for which it has large available capital, it can produce sugar at a diminished cost.

7. And lastly, because the proprietors have _continuous_ labour at command, until slavery be abolished--of which there seems no present prospect. The slave population numbers about 350,000, and the free coloured population, about 90,000.

The consumption of sugar, during 1847, very singularly tallied with the production of the British Colonies that year--being exactly 289,000 tons; but as 50,000 tons of foreign sugar were consumed, an acc.u.mulation of British plantation sugar necessarily remained on hand.

The production of the French colonies was 100,000 tons, of which France received nine-tenths.

In 1836, Jamaica made 1,136,554 cwt. of sugar. In 1840, its produce had fallen off to 545,600 cwt.; but in the same years, Porto Rico had increased its sugar crop, from 498,000 cwt., to 1,000,000 cwt. In 1837, Cuba made 9,060,058 arrobas of sugar, equal to 132,765 hhds.; in 1841, it had increased to 139,000 hhds. The largest crop grown in the West Indies, since 1838, was that of 1847, which amounted to 159,600 tons.

The annexed returns of the sugar crops of Barbados and Jamaica, for a series of years may, be interesting:--

SUGAR CROPS OF THE ISLAND OF BARBADOS, FROM 1827 TO 1846 AND 1851.

1827 18,109 hhds.

1828 28,533 "

1829 23,486 "

1830 26,360 "

1831 28,174 "

1832 19,761 "

1833 28,099 "

1834 28,710 "

1835 25,371 "

1836 26,358 "