In this, the birthplace of sugar cane, accurate information regarding the state of the industry is extremely hard to obtain, for various reasons, among which may be mentioned—
First: In certain portions of the empire very indifferent attention is paid to the compilation of reliable statistics concerning production.
Second: The raising of sugar cane is not carried on by large interests, but is divided among a vast number of small farmers, so that it is doubly difficult to secure dependable data concerning the yield and manufacture.
Third: By no means all of the cane that is grown goes to the sugar mills to be ground. Much of it is chewed or eaten in the stalk, and the manufacturing process itself is, in most instances, very primitive. So it is clear that even where the acreage planted to cane is accurately known, it would be a difficult matter to determine the result in sugar.
SUGAR MILL, NAHAN FACTORY, INDIA
CENTRIFUGAL WORKED BY HAND, INDIA
The area devoted to cane varies year by year and runs between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000 acres, chiefly in the United Provinces, Bengal and the Punjab, although the northwest provinces, Madras, Bombay, central provinces, the Rajput states, and Burma contribute. As the cane-sugar crop of India is estimated to be between 2,225,000 and 2,500,000 tons, it would appear that the sugar realized per acre is something near one ton on an average, as against five and one-half tons in Hawaii. However, there is a good deal of uncertainty regarding the figures, and some authorities consider the total crop very much larger than the amount just mentioned.