farmers from their fields. The battle lines of the Central Powers
enclosed the land which used to grow a third of the world's supply of
sugar. In 1913 the beet and the cane each supplied about nine million
tons of sugar. In 1917 the output of cane sugar was 11,200,000 and of
beet sugar 5,300,000 tons. Consequently the Old World had to draw upon
the New. Cuba, on which the United States used to depend for half its
sugar supply, sent over 700,000 tons of raw sugar to England in 1916.
The United States sent as much more refined sugar. The lack of shipping
interfered with our getting sugar from our tropical dependencies,
Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippines. The homegrown beets give us only
a fifth and the cane of Louisiana and Texas only a fifteenth of the
sugar we need. As a result we were obliged to file a claim in advance to
get a pound of sugar from the corner grocery and then we were apt to be
put off with rock candy, muscovado or honey. Lemon drops proved useful
for Russian tea and the "long sweetening" of our forefathers came again
into vogue in the form of various syrups. The United States was
accustomed to consume almost a fifth of all the sugar produced in the
world--and then we could not get it.

[Illustration: MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF EUROPEAN BEET SUGAR
FACTORIES--ALSO BATTLE LINES AT CLOSE OF 1918 ESTIMATED THAT ONE-THIRD
OF WORLDS PRODUCTION BEFORE THE WAR WAS PRODUCED WITHIN BATTLE LINES
Courtesy American Sugar Refining Co.]

The shortage made us realize how dependent we have become upon sugar.
Yet it was, as we have seen, practically unknown to the ancients and
only within the present generation has it become an essential factor in
our diet. As soon as the chemist made it possible to produce sugar at a
reasonable price all nations began to buy it in proportion to their
means. Americans, as the wealthiest people in the world, ate the most,
ninety pounds a year on the average for every man, woman and child. In
other words we ate our weight of sugar every year. The English consumed
nearly as much as the Americans; the French and Germans about half as
much; the Balkan peoples less than ten pounds per annum; and the African
savages none.

[Illustration: How the sugar beet has gained enormously in sugar content
under chemical control]

Pure white sugar is the first and greatest contribution of chemistry to
the world's dietary. It is unique in being a single definite chemical
compound, sucrose, C_{12}H_{22}O