not, however, until 100 years ago that the sugar cane industry assumed anything like the propertions which indicated its subsequent growth. About 1747 sugar cane was introduced into Louisiana and soon thereafter, about 1790, became one of the most important crops of that state. Until the beginning of the Civil War Louisiana produced a large proportion of the cane sugar consumed in the United States. During the Civil War the industry was almost totally destroyed, but since then it has grown until it has assumed greater proportions than ever before but constantly diminishing proportions in relation to the total supply. Louisiana is somewhat too far north for the most economic production of sugar cane, since it is subject to injury by frosts. Sugar cane is a plant which is very sensitive to cold weather and is usually killed by a hard frost. For this reason its greatest development has occurred in tropical countries, especially in Cuba, the Hawaiian Islands, and in other similar localities. At the present time by far the largest part of the sugar made from sugar cane in the world is produced in Cuba and the Hawaiian Islands,—the Cuban crop amounting, in round numbers, to 1,200,000 tons and the Hawaiian to about 400,000 tons.
Beet Sugar.—The fact that beet sugar is contained in the common garden beet was first discovered by a German chemist, Margraff, in 1747. This important discovery remained dormant for nearly half a century when one of Margraff's pupils, the son of a French refugee from Prussia, named Achard, resumed the researches which had been started by Margraff and obtained results which were then regarded as of an astonishing character. Achard's statements were the subject of doubt and of ridicule and even his French co-laborers, members of the academy doubted the accuracy of his work, while thinking it of sufficient interest to look into further. A commission consisting of some of the most important members of the Academy of Science, among them Chaptal and Vauquelin, investigated the matter and announced that the attempt to make sugar was unsuccessful but thought perhaps the maple tree might be grown in France. Nevertheless the commission modified the methods of Achard and obtained better results. This was the beginning of that long series of investigations which has resulted in the establishment of a beet sugar industry, making in round numbers six million tons of sugar per year, a quantity considerable greater than that produced from the sugar cane. The name of Chaptal has been mentioned as belonging to the commission which was appointed to study Achard's process because it was through the influence of Chaptal, who had then become a Count, that the Emperor Napoleon on January 15, 1811, issued his decree establishing the beet sugar industry as a national industry of France and granting a subvention thereto. This decree ordered that one hundred thousand hectares should be planted in beets in France. Both the taxes and the octroi were withdrawn upon all sugar produced from beets for a period of four years. There were also to
