Show c BEET SUGAR CULTURE A3 IXTJSRESTIXG ARTICLE FROM A WELL RECOGZVJZED AUTHORITY c Mie History of the Sweet Article Traced Through European Coun irics stud Into Our Own Lima UK Future One of the newsiest brightest and cleanest trade papers that reaches our desk is the St Paul Trade ournal Every Ev-ery week it contains an immense amount of interesting and useful information In-formation dished up in a most excellent excel-lent manner In a recent issue of this paper we find an instructive and entertaining enter-taining article on the culture of beet susai Ve take the liberty of here reproducing re-producing it The cultivation of the beet for sugar which has been brought to such a degree de-gree of perfection in France Belgium Germany Denmark and Sweden orig inated says our contemporary In 1705 when Olivier de Serres a French savant sa-vant demonstrated the presence of suf ficient sugar in beet root to warrant its utilization for the distillation of alco h < l Marsrraff a Prussian chemist in 1747 succeeded extracting 5 per cent of cane sugar from a quantity of beets In 17SC the Abbe Commerci published a book recommending the beet for cattle feeding and later on about 179094 M Archard another Frenchman the pro tege of Frederick the Great made experiments ex-periments which in 1790 resulted in the establishment of the first beet sugar factory at SteinanontheOder At that time the production of cane sugar was largely monopolized by the British West Indies and Archards declaration de-claration that beet sugar could be pro duced in Germany at a cost of 13c per kilogram 22 lbs or 6c per pound so alarmed British interests that he received re-ceived an offer of about 30000 and latero f 120000to make the worldbe lievethathehad failed to realize the It results re-sults claimed The French goyernment took up them atter and great improvements improve-ments were made notwithstanding the efforts of Sir Humphrey Davy who tried demonstrate like some Americans Amer-icans at the present day that beet sugar was an inferior product and unfit un-fit for Consumption About 1800 the wars between England andFrance had caused a sugar famine in France and Napoleon determined if possible to secure se-cure a home product which should I make France independent of her great enemy Experiments were made with grapes and large quantities of grape R I sugar were produced but it was soon shown that grape sugar could not replace re-place cane sugar for cooking and chemical chem-ical uses In 1812 the factory at Passy France under the management of Chemist Dt lessert succeeded producIng produc-ing beet sugar profitably and this with three others turned out over 4200000 pounds of beet sugar in 1812 and 1813r In 181415 the fall of Napoleon and the occupation of Fraace by the allied armies ar-mies put an end to the production which at that time had not averaged over 2 per cent of sugar Experiments were however continued and it being shown that 5 per cent of sugar could be secured over one hundred factories came into being by the close of 1825 and at least 5000 tons of sugar were made yearly In 1831 the researches of Pelouse demonstrated the variation of the amount of sugar in the beet and the necessity of selection of varieties and care in cultivation The number of factories was augmented and the amount of sugar produced so affected the irarket for sugar from the French ontes that a tax was imposed on the product equal to the duty ibposed on cane sugars Later on the importation of refined sugars was prohibited and some protection thus afforded Since then while at times injured and depressed de-pressed with the varying fortunes of France the beet sugar interest has grown to great and astonishing proportions pro-portions rising with more or less fluc uatmn from 5040000 pounds in 1S2627 to nearly 1000000000 pounds in 187576 the greatest yield yet realized In 187778 there were in France Germany Ger-many Austria Hungary Russia Poland Po-land Belgium Holland Sweden and Denmark 2574 factories which produced 2176000000 pounds or 1398000 tons of beet sugar Germany producing 825000 000 pounds France 715000000 pounds Russia and Poland 550000000 pounds I Belgium 110000000 pounds and Holland I Sweden and Denmark about 55000000 pounds The commercial success of II this industry is however best shown by the fact that during last December j when American granulated sugar was selling in New York at 4 cents per pound many thousand pounds of European I Euro-pean granulated beet sugar were sold at 4 cents per pound after paying ocean freights insurance commission l and a dutj of cent per pound The amount of sugar thus imported and sold was estimated at 14400 tons for the year ending Dec 30 1893 The production of beet sugar in the tnited States is still in its infancy although al-though as early as 1830 experiments wre made at Philadelphia by a company com-pany presided over oy John Vaughn and James Ronaldson In 1839 David Lee Child and others of the North ampton Beet Sugar Company produced produc-ed 1300 pounds of sugar and gave up the enterprise In 186364 companies were formed at Livingston and Cha worth Ill in 1866 at Fond du Lac Wis and in 1870 at Alvarado Sacramento Soquel San Jose and Isletown Cal In 1878 a company was organized at Portland Port-land Maine and met with some success suc-cess In California the following results re-sults were reported for 187073 inclusive inclus-ive 1S70 500000 pounds 1873 1150000 pounds z A ate statement by Henry T Ox iard president of the American Beet Sugar asociation before the ways and means committee of the Fiftythird congress con-gress estimated the American production produc-tion of beet sugar as follows 1880 357 tons 1890 2800 tons 1891 5400 tons 189212355 tons 1893 estimated 25000 tons This production has been largely at the Oxnard factories at Grand Island Is-land Beatric and Norfolk Neb and Chino Cal and the Nebraska output promises to be largely Inc ased In 1891 be the establishment of a new plant near Omaha by Count Lobienski who proptisese to build a large factor and settle a large number of his countrymen in that section E R Robinson of I Chlno Cal who contracted with the factor of that place for ten acres of beets at 405 per ton In 1894 reports results as follows he having been paid 90112 for his crop The cost of production pro-duction and net profits are thus summarized sum-marized Plowing and harrowing 20 00 t Seed fourteen pounds per acre 15 Oj Culling of plants 44 Of Hoeing 1800 I Cultivating 7800 t Transport of the factory 107 00 t Total cost S2S3 00 Net profit 613 12 Total 93112 I Net profit per Acre 6131 These results are larger than the average av-erage although there is no doubt that such proflt may be reached where the 1 soilthe seed the cultivation and all other conditions are suited to procure t the best results It will be ssen hat the average cost per acre was estimated t above at 2880 per acre and the yield at 9011 Similar reports from Payen France Give a cost of 3360 per acre valued at 36 leaving a profit of 740 per acre at Cambrai and only 240 at j 1 Payen In these estimates however the cost of rent and taxes ranges from I 25 to 30 per cent of the whole cost In Minnesota extensive experiments were made in 189092 by the fi Paul I Duluth Railroad company under the direction di-rection of Hopowall Clark their land commissioner A large quantity of seed I of the best varities was distributed with carefully prepared directions as to soil methods of cultivation etc and fJ requesting the growers to send samples of the product for analysis to the University S Uni-versity of Minnesota Experiment start sta-rt tton at St Anthony Park These directions v > direc-tions were very carefully prepared by 1 1 Professor D N Harper then connected with the experiment station A very large number of samples were anal I J IJa l n j sIt ffi s-It l jzetl and the analysis showed that beets could be grown to advantage in Minnesota when the best methods of cultivation were once established The 1892 analysis showed a percentage of sugar varying from 9 to 193 per cent the average of those raised at the experiment ex-periment station being 1614 for Sept 26 1611 Sept 28 1718 Oct 1 1482 Oct 7 and 9 152 Oct 13 and 177 Dec 1 Other experiments showed that the cost of raising beets on good clean land averaged 209 per ton while on weedy land it cost 3 25 per ton the weedy land producing only 104 tons and the clean 145 tons to the acre The rows were planted so far apart however that the real yield should have shown from forty to sixty tons per acre The great trouble with the farmers who made the experiments was that they could not seem to appreciate the fact that sugar deets should be grown so as to secure a heavy yield of small sized beets rich in sugar and noot of large beets poor in sugar While beets such as were raised were not worth more than 4 to 6 per ton some beets have been raised giving 205 percent per-cent sugar and worth from 6 to 8 per ton at the experiment station and instances in-stances have been known where beets have yielded 264 per cent The yield as it was showed a good average of sugar and there is no doubt that the Minnesota farmer whose fami yl can aid in weeding and harvesting can add from five to fifteen acres of beets to his yearly crop to advantage as soon as a sugar factory is established estab-lished in his neighborhood The average aver-age of sugar from Anoka county was 135 per cent 9 from Brown county 127 per cent 20 from Chisago county 1326 per cent and 23 in Goodhue county 139 per cent One sample in Goodhue county coun-ty analyzed 178 per cent and several exceeded 16 per cent One from Kan diyphi county gave 177 and another 161 giving the highest percentage of any sample and the highest average of any county or 169 per cent These results are on the whole satisfactory and demonstrate dem-onstrate the practicability of raising at once good sugar beet crops in Minnesota Minne-sota and thereby addinglargely to the resources of our producing population Besides the receipts from the beets themselves the pulp and leaves of the roots will furnish valuable feed for stock and fertilizers for other crops 1 while the factory processes will require I a good many hands at good wages We have only touched a few salient points of this subject and these but briefly The industry is not all profit and requires skill experience large capital cap-ital for the factory and an immense amount of labor on the farm and in the various processes It is not likely that large profits will always accrue to the farmer or the capitalist and failure and loss will be met as in all other enterprises en-terprises But the fact that the United States has 50000000 to 100000000 yearly year-ly to expend for sugar should encourage encour-age the culture of the sugar beet and the production of a staple which we must have and can make for ourselves I |