s variously known as "Muscovado" sugar, or as "plantation sugar,"
sometimes as "coffee" or "coffee crushed." It was a sugar somewhat
sweeter to the taste than the white sugar, by reason of the presence of
a percentage of molasses. It was a superior sugar for certain kitchen
products, for pies, certain kinds of cake, etc. It has many times been
urged in Congress that the employment of what is known as the Dutch
Standard, now abolished, excluded this sugar from our market. This is not
at all the fact. The disappearance of the commodity is due solely to change
in the mechanical methods of sugar production. It would be quite impossible
to supply the world's sugar demand by the old "open kettle" process by
which that sugar was made. The quality of sugar is easily tested by any one
who has a spoonful of sugar and a glass of water. If the sugar dissolves
entirely, and dissolves without discoloring the water, it may be accepted
as a pure sugar.

In his book on _The World's Cane Sugar Industry--Past and Present_, Mr.
H.C. Prinsen Geerligs, a recognized expert authority on the subject, gives
an elaborate history of the origin and development of the industry. His
chapters on those branches are much too long for inclusion in full, but the
following extracts tell the story in general outline. He states that the
probability that sugar cane originally came from India is very strong, "as
only the ancient literature of that country mentions sugar cane, while we
know for certain that it was conveyed (from there) to other countries by
travellers and sailors." The plant appears in Hindu mythology. A certain
prince expressed a desire to be translated to heaven during his lifetime,
but Indra, the monarch of the celestial regions, refused to admit him. A
famous Hindu hermit, Vishva Mitra, prepared a temporary paradise for the
prince, and for his use created the sugar cane as a heavenly food during
his occupation of the place. The abode was afterward demolished, but the
delectable plant, and a few other luxuries, were "spread all over the land
of mortals as a permanent memorial of Vishva Mitra's miraculous deeds." In
the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) there appear tales of "a
reed growing in India which produced honey without the aid of bees."

The early references are to sugar cane and not to cane sugar. While there
may have been earlier experiences, the history of sugar, as such, seems to
begin in the 7th century (A.D.). There is