I shall now take a separate review of the capabilities and progress of the leading sugar producing countries.

Production in the United States.—­Sugar cultivation, in the United States, is a subject of increasing interest.  The demand is rapidly advancing.  Its production in the State of Louisiana, to which it is there principally confined, is a source of much wealth.  In 1840, the number of slaves employed in sugar culture was 148,890, and the product, 119,947 hhds. of 1,000 lbs. each; besides 600,000 gallons of molasses.  Last year, the crop exceeded 240,000 hhds., worth 12,000,000 of dollars.  The capital now employed, is 75,000,000 of dollars.  The protection afforded by the American tariff, has greatly increased the production of sugar in the United States.  From 1816 to 1850, this increase was from 15,000 hhds. to 250,000 hhds.

In 1843, the State of Louisiana had 700 plantations, 525 in operation, producing about 90,000 hhds.  In 1844, the number of hogsheads was 191,324, and of pounds, 204,913,000; but this was exclusive of the molasses, rated at 9,000,000 gallons.  In 1845 there were in Louisiana 2,077 sugar plantations, in 25 parishes; 1,240 sugar houses, 630 steam power, 610 working horse power; and the yield of sugar was 186,650 hhds., or 207,337,000 lbs.

The introduction of the sugar cane into Florida, Texas, California, and Louisiana, probably dates back to their earliest settlement by the Spaniards or French.  It was not cultivated in the latter, however, as a staple product before the year 1751, when it was introduced, with several negroes, by the Jesuits, from St. Domingo.  They commenced a small plantation on the banks of the Mississippi, just above the old city of New Orleans.  The year following, others, cultivated the plant and made some rude attempts at the manufacture of sugar.  In 1758, M. Dubreuil established a sugar estate on a large scale, and erected the first sugar mill in Louisiana, in what is now the lower part of New Orleans.  His success was followed by other plantations, and in the year 1765 there was sugar enough manufactured for home consumption; and in 1770, sugar had become one of the staple products of the colony.  Soon after the revolution a large number of enterprising adventurers emigrated from the United States to Lower Louisiana, where, among other objects of industry, they engaged in the cultivation of cane, and by the year 1803 there were no less than eighty-one sugar estates on the Delta alone.  Since that period, while the production of cane sugar has been annually increasing at the south, the manufacture of maple sugar has been extending in the north and west.

Hitherto, the amount of sugar and molasses consumed in the United States has exceeded the quantities produced—­consequently there has been no direct occasion for their exportation.  In the year 1815 it was estimated that the sugar made on the banks of the Mississippi amounted to 10,000,000 lbs.