There is still obtainable, in this country, but in limited quantity, a sugar very pleasantly remembered by many who have reached or passed middle age.  It was variously known as “Muscovado” sugar, or as “plantation sugar,” sometimes as “coffee” or “coffee crushed.”  It was a sugar somewhat sweeter to the taste than the white sugar, by reason of the presence of a percentage of molasses.  It was a superior sugar for certain kitchen products, for pies, certain kinds of cake, etc.  It has many times been urged in Congress that the employment of what is known as the Dutch Standard, now abolished, excluded this sugar from our market.  This is not at all the fact.  The disappearance of the commodity is due solely to change in the mechanical methods of sugar production.  It would be quite impossible to supply the world’s sugar demand by the old “open kettle” process by which that sugar was made.  The quality of sugar is easily tested by any one who has a spoonful of sugar and a glass of water.  If the sugar dissolves entirely, and dissolves without discoloring the water, it may be accepted as a pure sugar.

In his book on The World’s Cane Sugar Industry—­Past and Present, Mr. H.C.  Prinsen Geerligs, a recognized expert authority on the subject, gives an elaborate history of the origin and development of the industry.  His chapters on those branches are much too long for inclusion in full, but the following extracts tell the story in general outline.  He states that the probability that sugar cane originally came from India is very strong, “as only the ancient literature of that country mentions sugar cane, while we know for certain that it was conveyed (from there) to other countries by travellers and sailors.”  The plant appears in Hindu mythology.  A certain prince expressed a desire to be translated to heaven during his lifetime, but Indra, the monarch of the celestial regions, refused to admit him.  A famous Hindu hermit, Vishva Mitra, prepared a temporary paradise for the prince, and for his use created the sugar cane as a heavenly food during his occupation of the place.  The abode was afterward demolished, but the delectable plant, and a few other luxuries, were “spread all over the land of mortals as a permanent memorial of Vishva Mitra’s miraculous deeds.”  In the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) there appear tales of “a reed growing in India which produced honey without the aid of bees.”

The early references are to sugar cane and not to cane sugar.  While there may have been earlier experiences, the history of sugar, as such, seems to begin in the 7th century (A.D.).  There is a story that the Chinese Emperor, Tai Tsung (627-650 A.D.) sent people to Behar, in India, to learn the art of sugar manufacture.  The Arabs and the Egyptians soon learned how to purify sugar by re-crystallization, and to manufacture sweetmeats from the purified sugar.  Marco Polo, who visited China during the last quarter