I decided to buy some locally grown Pioneer brand beet sugar a couple of nights ago because of this thread. I always sought out cane sugar before because I had always heard it was better, but now that I have learned the truth (it is mostly folklore and propoganda), I will feel free to buy beet sugar from now on. I made some herb jelly with it the other night and it is just fine.
The brand of sugar was C&H. I didn’t realize I had gotten it wrong till I went home and looked at the box of brown sugar I had in that brand. Thanks for your answers and links. I really hadn’t thought much about where sugar came from; I associated sugar with sugar cane till I saw a bit on Sesame Street about sugar beets. Later I read Centennial, which had a section about sugar beet farming, but it never occurred to me to wonder about possible differences till I read the C&H packages.
Some of Michener’s other novels describing sugar cane economies are Hawaii and Caribbean. The tale of the rise of wealthy sugar planters and their subsequent downfall due to the U.S.'s sugar beet production is fascinating. I found the stories of richer-than-God West Indies British colonial planters who kept several seats in parliament particularly interesting. I like British literature, and there are frequent references to “rich West Indian heiresses” of about that time period.