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Show I THE SUGAR INTEREST. r There is not much danger of competition in 1 sugar from the Philippines, not much from any source while the United States is buying and using J siich tremendpus amounts from foreign countries, with a steadily increasing demand. But the time rriay come when Mexico may become a real competitor. com-petitor. She has millions of acres of superb I' sugar lands, and these are being bought up by foreigners, mostly Americans. Chinese and Japanese are admitted into that country without f restraint, and sugar can be produced for one cent to per pound. All down the western slope of the Sierra Madras, the sugar will grow; there are I roadsteads every few miles where ships can take H on cargoes in good weather, and there are six or j eight fine harbors. The sugar can be sent to San Francisco for one cent freight per pound', and where there is any considerable quantity, for half that sum. In two years more the railroad from j Kansas City to the Pacific will be completed, and if we remember correctly, it will, by that road, be from the gulf of California to Kansas City only about as far as from San Francisco to Salt Lake City. The Southern Pacific is about to extend its line south from Guymas or Hermosillio. Shrewd American are watching as these 1 opportunities are opening, and will not " fail to take advantage of them.. Besides stkgar, there will be some of the finest fruit ! , farms ever seen, and what of it will be tropical or semi-tropical will be superior to the best in California. Cali-fornia. But we do not think that any alarm need J be felt, for by the time these new products will be ready for market, there will be fifteen million more fruit and sugar consumers in the-United States. Speaking of sugar, and we presume the same is true of fruit, the people of the United States consume two pounds per capita for every pound that the people of any other country use. The personal consumption is very great, and then the canneries absorb a vast amount. It seems ' like a matter of real importance when a new sugar factory is built in Utah or Idaho, but the secretary of agriculture estimates that it would require 500 additional factories, each a 600 ton per day factory, to meet the present demand in the United States. That gives an idea of the vast amount of money paid annually by this country 1 for foreign sugar. In ten years more there will, in our country, be 100,000,000 people to supply. So it looks like a really safe investment to build '. sugar mills in this country, especially where in . i the arid belt water for irrigation can be had. We say in the arid belt because the land when mois-J mois-J tehed yields 50 per cent more beets in tonnage and the beets carry 3 per cent more saccharine matter. Those who are posted estimate that ' there is an advantage here of $2.50 per ton of , beets over any place east of the Rocky mountains. ! The men who brought the business of making sugar in this region to a success are entitled to very much credit, and to all the generous profits they are receiving. |