It is supposed that the sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) was originally found in India, probably in the region of the Ganges. There is no sugar cane known anywhere to-day in the wild state although there are several species of mammoth grasses closely akin to this plant.

As various portions of the earth’s surface were explored and finally settled the sugar industry was extended until to-day one finds it flourishing in practically all tropical countries and many subtropical countries as well. Perhaps the last semitropical region to attempt this industry in a commercial way was the State of Arizona, U. S. A., where the desert wastes were turned into flourishing beet and cane fields by the aid of irrigation from the Government storage dam.

During the reign of Napoleon in France trade in the sugars from British and other foreign possessions was destroyed by the war with England but this decline in the cane-sugar trade served only as an impetus to the new beet-sugar industry then being started. In the meantime there was such a dearth of sugar and such a fabulous rise in prices, that attempts were made to secure sugar from various plants and fruits growing in France, such as beets, sorghum, maize, grapes, apples, pears, figs, etc.

At that time the manufacture of a kind of sugar from grapes became quite important so that during the period from 1811 to 1813 considerable quantities of this class of sugar were made. Simultaneously with this new venture the beet root was gaining in importance year by year, especially in France, and to a certain extent as well in other European countries, until after extensive experiments in plant breeding it was learned that the sucrose value of the root could be very much improved. From this work varieties of beets used to-day have evolved which often contain as high as 20 to 25 per cent sucrose. Another obstacle in the way was the bad taste and odor of the low-grade sugars from the beets and the difficulty of making a high-grade sugar. To-day the heavy liming and the carbonation process give a sugar equal in all respects to the best grade of granulated cane sugar, and one finds a great deal of beet sugar either mixed with cane sugar or marketed alone under the name of cane sugar.

At the present time the beet-sugar industry has become so important that more than eight million tons, or about one-half of all the sugar produced, comes from this source.

There is a greater consumption of sugar each year which necessitates greater production either through larger areas, heavier yields, or its manufacture from other sacchariferous plants. The maximum in both area and yield have by no means been reached, while in recent years a large number of sacchariferous plants have attracted the attention of various investigators throughout the sugar world, and this will in all probability lead to a new source of supply. The most promising of these plants is the sugar palm (Arenga saccharifera). Extensive work was conducted on this palm by this Bureau and reported in the May, 1914, number of the Philippine Agricultural Review. During the above-mentioned year an entirely new method of juice clarification was elaborated which is applicable to the juices of various other palms as well as to that of the sugar cane.

In Bengal the wild date palm (Phoenix silvestris) has produced a low grade of molasses sugar for consumption by the natives for a great number of years. The main obstacle encountered in making a good grade of sugar from this palm has been caused by the difficulty of clarification and the susceptibility of the juice to fermentation. It is thought that the above-mentioned process may bring this palm into greater prominence in the sugar world.

There are also the Palmera (Borassus flabelliformis) of Southern India, and the Nipa (Nipa fructicans) of the Philippines. Either of these could undoubtedly be made profitable sugar producers. The latter is used commercially only as a source of alcohol.

There is practically no limit to the number of sacchariferous plants one might name in the Tropics and subtropics, but many of these do not contain a sufficient percentage of sucrose, or else they contain such a high percentage of impurities that the low yield of sugar and the high cost of manufacture make their use unprofitable.