ent bounties paid on the beet product.

Both the political and the economic effects of beet sugar-making have
been far-reaching. In Germany the agricultural interests of the country
have been completely reorganized. The uncertain profits of cereal
food-stuffs have given place to the sure profits of beet-sugar
cultivation, with the result that the income of the Germans has been
enormously increased. In the other lowland countries of western Europe
the venture has been equally successful. Even the Netherlands has
profited by it.

In the case of Spain, the result of beet-sugar cultivation was
disastrous. The price of cane-sugar in Cuba and the Philippine Islands
fell to such a low point that the islands could not pay the taxes
imposed by the mother country. Instead of lowering the taxes and
adjusting affairs to the changed conditions, the Spaniards drove the
islands into rebellion, and the latter finally resulted in war with the
United States, and the loss of the colonies. Great Britain wisely
adjusted her colonial affairs to the changed conditions, but the British
colonies suffered greatly from beet-sugar competition.

=Production and Consumption.=--The production and consumption of sugar
increased about sevenfold during the latter half of the nineteenth
century, the increase being due very largely to the decreased price.
Thus, in 1850, white (loaf) sugar was a luxury, retailing at about
twenty cents per pound; in 1870 the wholesale price of pure granulated
sugar was fourteen cents; in 1902 it was not quite five cents.

Although the tropical countries are greatly handicapped by the political
legislation of the European states, they cannot supply the amount of
sugar required, unless the area of production be greatly extended. It is
also certain that without governmental protection, sugar growing in the
temperate zone cannot compete with that of the tropical countries.

Of the eight million tons of sugar yearly consumed, two-thirds are
beet-sugar. The annual consumption per capita is about ninety pounds in
Great Britain, seventy pounds in the United States, and not far from
thirty-five pounds in Germany and France. In Russia and the eastern
European countries it is less than fifteen pounds.

=Molasses.=--The molasses of commerce is the uncrystallizable sugar that
is left in the vacuum pans at the close of the process of evaporation.
The molasses formerly known as "sugar house" is a filthy product that
nowadays is scar