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Show ! IAS TO BEET-SUGAR MANUFACTURE. "When Lord Nelson had blockaded all the ports of Prance, Napoleon, in a little way, established the beet sugar industry. I It has continued amd grown ever since. It ex-Itended ex-Itended to Germany and Germany exceeds France in the production of beet sugar. j In our country a little factory was erected in " 1830, but not much came of it. The first successful factory was erected in 1870. It has only been withiu tthe last ten years that the manufacture of the beet sugar in our country has passed the experimental Btage. Up to 1898 the greatest number of factories lin operation was nine, but in the next ten years the 'factories had increased to thirty. The capital invested in beet sugar in 1880 was i$35,000; by 1900 the amount had increased to $20,-l41,719; $20,-l41,719; and in 1905, it had swelled to $55,928,489. lin 1880 the value of the product was $282,572, but in 1905, it had reached $24,393,794. In 1830 the ,wage earners in this industry received $52.271 ; this in 1905 had increased to $2,486,702. In addition the ifarmers who raised the beets received over $11,000,-,'O00. $11,000,-,'O00. and nearly $2,000,000 was paid for limestone, sulphur, coke and coal, and yet the increase has not nearly kept up with the demand. Last year the country coun-try paid $125,000,000 for imported sugar. Another fact that has been demonstrated is that this region between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada Ne-vada mountains, where water can be obtained, is the very best place known for the raising of sugar beets. Its advantages are: The soil is well adapted for the purpose; there are fewer weeds; the beet-raisers ran exactly adjust the moisture to the soil; when the rrop has ceased growing the water is turned off and. in ordinary years, there is no additional moisture until the beets are fully ripened and harvested. Then the amount of saccharine matter is several rer cent higher in desert-grown beets than in any other. One factory in Idaho is supplied by beets which rarry 18 per cent saccharine matter as aeainst about 13 per cent in the Eastern States. One would think that the men in this interior region could raise beets profitably without a bounty, and that the everlasting mountains would supply them a sufficient protective tariff, which would make them indifferent of how much sugar is raised in the tropical countries, to come in competition with them. Another feature is that the American people use vastly more sugar per capita than any other people earth. This is due to two causes. One is there is so much fruit canning and preserving. Another is that American boys give American girls more candy than any other set of boys on earth, and it seems reasonably reason-ably clear that American girls have more capacity for candy than any other girls that ever lived. 'Which may or may not account for the fact that they are the sweetest girls on earth. P. S. The last paragraph was written by the Sporting Editor, who expects to be married in June. |