GENERAL STATEMENT.

RECEIPTS OF FOREIGN SUGAR IN THE UNITED STATES FOR THE YEAR ENDED December 31st, 1904, COMPARED WITH THE PREVIOUS FOUR YEARS.

ANNUAL REVIEW OF THE SUGAR TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES.

A moderate decrease in the world's available supply of raw sugar and a further increase in consumption both in Europe and the United States have been the chief features of interest in the sugar trade during the year under review, while the natural result of these conditions has been the creation of a higher level of values for both raw and refined sugar. The falling off in the total available supply has been due almost wholly to the curtailed production of beet in Europe as the result of the operation of the provisions of the Brussels Convention, which demonstrates the wisdom of the adoption of that measure, while the further progress that has been accomplished in enlarging the volume of consumption can be traced primarily to the comparatively cheap prices at which the product has been offered to consumers. The advance thus established in the value of raw sugar has been of special significance, so far as the cane growing industry is concerned, because it has brought relief and encouragement to those who for several years have been struggling against adversity, if not bankruptcy. The cane growers in nearly all tropical countries have viewed with increasing apprehension the growing power and influence of the "bounty fed" beet industry of Europe, which was steadily and remorselessly crushing them out of existence. Even with the superior advantages of climate, richness of soil and cheapness of

labor, the sugar industry of Cuba and the other West Indies, together with South America, has been languishing, but the events of the past year have imparted fresh courage with the promise of renewed vitality and future prosperity. To the planters in cane growing countries it means the liquidation of the mortgage debts with which they have been burdened, with the promise of future prosperity. This is of more than passing significance to the United States, because a large percentage of our necessary supply of raw sugar is cane product.

Whether the conditions that prevailed during 1904 will continue is a question that cannot be determined with any degree of certainty. No doubt the provisions of the Brussels Convention will be faithfully maintained, and therefore without the stimulus of a Government bounty neither the farmer nor the fabricant will have the same inducement that formerly existed to increase production. The result of the last campaign in Europe was very considerably handicapped by unusually unfavorable weather, for we must bear in mind that in determining crop production, weather is quite as important a factor as acreage, and hence the falling off in crop production was due to this fact as well as the smaller acreage sown. For the present at least, therefore, conservative influences are likely to prevail so as not to materially disturb the more satisfactory conditions that have been created.

Of course the beet crop of Europe continues to be the chief controlling influence in the fluctuation of values as well as the distribution of supplies, but while in Europe these fluctuations have been to some extent speculative, in the United States they have been based purely upon the relations of supply and demand. Then again the more liberal offerings of cane sugar from near-by producing countries have, in some degree, increased the independence of buyers and sellers in the United States, and curtailed the supply of European beet that has found a market here, which, with the single exception of last year, has been the smallest importation in a number of years.

Still another feature in the events of the year under review that is worthy of attention is the further progress in the yield of the Cuba sugar crop, which considerably exceeded one million tons, and promises still further expansion for the 1905 crop. This is the largest crop of sugar ever grown in the Island, and indicates that the Reciprocity Treaty that went into operation with this infant Republic over a year ago was not the mistaken policy that some claimed, but was a neighborly concession which is likely to result in mutual benefits. Practically the whole crop will always find a market here; while it now supplies more than one-half our actual requirements of raw sugar, there is abundant room for its further expansion without disturbing our domestic cane and beet products. That refiners are looking forward to the handling of a much larger crop of Cuban sugar may be gathered from the fact that arrangements are already in progress for the erection and equipment of a new and much larger refinery in the City of New-Orleans which will possess peculiar advantages for supplying the trade of the South and Southwestern States.

During the year under review the actual consumption of sugar in the United States aggregated in round numbers two million seven hundred thousand tons, of which there was manufactured from domestic grown cane and domestic grown beet about 456,847 tons. There was received from Hawaii and Porto Rico 446,500 tons upon which there was no duty and 21,900 tons from the Philippine Islands which entered at a reduction of 25 per cent. upon the prevailing rates of duty, making altogether 925,247 tons, which may be taken as our territorial or natural supply. This leaves for actual requirements of consumption about 1,770,890 tons to be gathered from other sources of supply, or, in other words, as far as possible from Cuba, and because of the comparatively small cost of transportation by water to any of our ports of entry, as well as of our reciprocal trade with the infant Republic, the nearer she can come to furnishing this quantity the better for both.

The effort to induce Congress to make a further concession by way of a reduction in the present rate of duty upon sugar produced in the Philippine Islands was not successful. Although advocated by the Philippine Commission and the Secretary of War, and having the approval of the President, it was bitterly opposed by the domestic beet interests, who claimed that it would come in direct competition with their product in the territory west of the Missouri river.

The domestic beet industry shows but little change so far as the crop yield is concerned, chiefly because of unfavorable weather conditions and the inactivity of two factories that were operated during 1903. Quite a number of changes are being made in moving factories from their present sites to localities that promise better facilities in the way of obtaining an adequate supply of beets.

There has been no new feature or important change in the refining industry. The comparative volume of raw material handled by the several interests shows that about 58 per cent. passed through the sugar houses of the American Sugar Refining Company, 35 per cent. through the Independent Refineries, 6 per cent, was domestic beet sugar and about one quarter of one per cent., or about 7,000 tons, was foreign refined that secured a market here. The margin between the value of raw and refined was narrower than the year previous.

Importations of Foreign.-The total yearly consumption for the year 1904 shows that in order to supply the necessary raw material, about one million eight hundred thousand tons has to be imported from foreign producing countries. As already remarked less than one million tons is obtained from our domestic cane and beet crops, together with that received from what are officially known as the now contiguous territories of the United States, and which comprise Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippines. Outside of this territory the Island of Cuba is our most important source of supply, not only by reason of its nearness, but also because of

the lower rate of duty that now prevails. During the year under review there was obtained from that source 1,151,345 tons, leaving about 619,545 tons to be supplied from other markets. The increasing requirements of consumption during 1904, and hence the larger purchases abroad of foreign raw sugar, the aggregate receipts for the year being, according to the table on page 6, 2,257,831 tons, to which, adding 10,014 tons foreign refined which found a market here, gives a total of 2,267,845 tons, an increase for the year of 346,749 tons, compared with the total receipts of the previous year. The increase of imports is distributed among all the sugar receiving ports, except San Francisco, where there was a falling off. Beyond the sources of supply already mentioned, the largest importations were from the Island of Java, which amounted to 412,670 tons. There was a considerable increase also in the importations of beet sugar from Europe, about 100,500 tons having been received, compared with about 10,000 tons in 1903, but even this increased amount is below the normal average of our importations from Europe for the past fifteen years, and indicates that buyers were enabled to secure cane sugar at relatively lower prices.

The total receipts from the Island of Cuba were 1,151,345 tons, which is an increase of 280,595 tons, compared with the previous year. This indicates how completely the neighboring Republic. has recovered from the destructive influences of the late war, as well as the progressive influences that are developing her agricultural resources. The next largest importations were those received from the Hawaiian Islands, aggregating 323,261 tons, which shows a slight falling off compared with 1903, and from Porto Rico we received 123,250 tons, which is the largest supply received from that island since it became American territory. The receipts from Brazil were trifling compared with previous years, and show that while the crop was above the average yield, shipments were no doubt placed to better advantage in European markets. The receipts from the near-by West Indies exhibit but slight variations from previous years, a large percentage of the yield finding an outlet here.

The three Atlantic ports of New-York, Boston and Philadelphia, continue to be the only ports of entry for raw sugar, because the refining industry is located in these cities. The importance of New Orleans as a sugar port is attracting more attention because of the increasing yield of Cuba, and although for several years its single refinery has handled from 150,000 to 200,000 tons of raw sugar, the indications are that in the near future the erection of a new refinery will more than double its present capacity, and make it an important distributing centre of refined product. On the Pacific Coast, San Francisco is the only sugar port, and the refinery located there handles about one-third of the Hawaiian crop, supplemented by small shipments of Central American and East India product. About one-half of the total consumption of refined sugar is the product of and distributed from the New-York refineries, which in addition to the necessity of tide water location possess superior advantages for railroad distribution.

A comparatively trifling amount of foreign refined continues to be marketed here, but the quantity is altogether insignificant and scarcely worthy of special notice, although it is slightly in excess of the previous year and aggregates 10,014 tons. About onequarter came from the Continent of Europe, a little less than onehalf from Hong Kong and the remainder from Canada. According to the Bureau of Statistics, the importations for the past ten years have been as follows:

The territory west of the Rockies on the Pacific Coast is supplied chiefly from the refinery located at San Francisco, which last year worked up less than 118,000 tons of raw material, which was about 7,500 tons less than the year previous.

The following tables give the comparative consumption of sugar refined upon the Pacific Coast for the past ten years:

The total importations of foreign raw and refined sugar into the United States, including Hawaii and Porto Rico, according to the Bureau of Statistics for each calendar year for the past sixteen years, have been as follows:

Louisiana Crop.-The cane growing industry of the United States is centered chiefly in the State of Louisiana, and hence the crop name by which it is designated, but several of the contiguous Gulf States contribute a moderate quantity to the total supply. This territory is wholly beyond the tropics, and hence is subject to the extremes of climate, which are in some degree hazardous to sugar cane, being liable to retard its full development, impoverish the saccharine value of the juice or blight its yield by frost after the grinding season has commenced. For these reasons the yield of the crop is liable to wide variations, so much is it dependent upon favorable weather throughout the growing and grinding season. The crop of 1903-1904, which is the one taken into consideration in this review, was not only very much smaller than its predecessor but was the scantiest yield since 1899-1900, as was foreshadowed in these pages a year ago. With favorable weather during the planting and growing season the cane begins to mature

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