Six to eight pounds of the saccharine juice of the plant, yield one pound of raw sugar; from 16 to 20 cart-loads of canes, ought to make a hogshead of sugar, if thoroughly ripe.  The weight necessary to manufacture 10,000 hhds of sugar, is usually estimated at 250,000 tons, or 25 tons per hhd. of 15 or 16 cwt.

The quantity of sugar now produced in our colonies is in excess of the demands of the consumers, that is, of their demands cramped as they are by the duties still levied on sugar consumed in Great Britain, imposed for the purposes of revenue; the high duty on all other but indigenous sugar, consumed all over the continent, imposed to promote the manufacture of beet-root sugar, and the legal duty levied on all other than indigenous sugar used in the United States, for the purpose of protecting the sugar production of that country; and so long as that excess exists—–­until a further reduction of duties shall increase consumption and cause sugar to be used for many purposes which the present high rates prohibit its being applied to—­any improvement which may be effected in the quality—­any increase which may take place in the quantity of colonial sugar—­will only result infinitely more to the benefits of the consumers than the producers.  In 1700 the quantity consumed in Great Britain and Ireland was only about 200,000 cwt.  In 1852, including molasses, &c., it was not less than 8,000,000 cwt., a forty-fold increase in the century and a-half.  Taking the whole population last year, it was nearly 28 lbs. per head.  In 1832 the consumption in Great Britain alone was put down by Mr. M’Culloch at 23 lbs.; and as my estimate includes Ireland, where the consumption is notoriously small, we may infer that it has increased in Great Britain since 1832 at least 5 lb. per head.  As the allowance to servants is from 3/4 lb. to 1 lb. per week, it may be assumed that 50 lb. a year, at least, is not too much for grown persons.  In sugar-producing countries the quantity consumed is enormous; the labourers live on it in the manufacturing season; and a Duke of Beaufort, who died about 1720, consumed one pound daily for forty years, and enjoyed excellent health till he was seventy years of age.  The consumption of sugar has increased considerably since it has become cheap; and we may expect, therefore, that the consumption will extend more rapidly than ever.  The whole quantity consumed in Europe last year, including beet-root sugar, was not less than 16,000,000 cwt.  If peace be preserved and prosperity continue, the market for sugar will extend amazingly, and force the cultivation by free men in all tropical countries.