SUGAR.
We are too apt to accept results without caring to inquire how they came about. This knowledge is to be made easy for us. Nor could there be a better choice than sugar, if only that the British consumption of the article is proportionately greater than that of any other country. Both the cane and the beet industries are described. It is encouraging to know that the rivalry of beet has done much to stimulate the activities of the growers of cane. As for the products, they are, it seems, undistingnishable. The cane refuse has the advantage of being aromatic, while that of the beet is offensive. At present the gross produce of the cane holds the advantage, being 7,820,000 tons, against 6,500,000. Java stands first among the cane-growing countries ; Germany among the beet. It is an interesting question of no little importance whether beet can be grown to profit in the British Isles. Have we sunshine enough ? More than enough, we may say, in such a year as this, but too little by far in 1910. This is a very readable volume, promising well for the series.
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