It would seem that in view of the small production of sugar per acre and the enormous losses in manufacture, a modern plant, with machinery of the latest and best type and large financial resources, should be remarkably successful, but such is not the case. It appears to be impossible to get a steady supply of cane. In India, plantations like those found in other countries do not exist. Instead, there are a great number of extremely small pieces of land all under different ownership. The cane has to be brought to the mill from considerable distances in small quantities, and owing to lack of intelligence or initiative on the part of the farmer it is of indifferent quality. Transportation facilities are far from good and the manufacturers have to make up the shortage in the supply of cane by using rab and gur. If the latter should contain an excessive amount of glucose or be caramelized, it does not lose its value as an article for direct consumption; on the other hand, either of these conditions unfit it for the purposes of refining, and as there is but a slight difference in price between gur and the white sugar into which it is made, the disadvantage to the refiner is readily apparent. Another drawback is that the Hindus do not take kindly to sugar manufactured by the European process, consequently chini, or sugar made from rab by the native method, commands a better price than, sugar made in a modern refinery. Religious and caste prejudices exert a strong influence also. In modern sugar refining, animal charcoal is the principal purifying and decolorizing agent, and this, together with the fact that ox-blood has been used for clarification, causes the Hindus to reject sugar prepared by such means. Finally, there is the apprehension on the part of the high-caste natives that the sugar may have been produced by low-caste labor and that to eat it would bring defilement. The refiners of India have begun to recognize the advantage to them in using raw European beet-root sugars and raw cane from Java and Mauritius instead of the more costly preparations of rab and gur. As a result, there is a considerable quantity of foreign sugar imported into India which is consumed ultimately by the high-caste native without his being aware of its origin. The imports during the period from 1908 to 1916 were as follows: 1908-09 535,664 tons of 2240 lbs. 1909-10 556,840 ” ” ” 1910-11 608,785 ” ” ” 1911-12 508,591 ” ” ” 1912-13 675,017 ” ” ” 1913-14 802,978 ” ” ” 1914-15 428,595 ” ” ” 1915-16 515,909 ” ” ” Of this tonnage, Austria supplied the greater amount of the beet, Germany the remainder, while the cane came from Java and Mauritius. In 1913 and 1914 the raw beet from Austria and Germany was almost entirely displaced by washed Java raws, the trade name for which is “Java white.” Some sugar is exported, but the quantity is insignificant.