Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-03-26
au6AR, ALSO.

silver, gold and other metals anu ","
erals. Our bullion crop challenges tue
envy and admiration Of all nations a"d
in that respect none can half compete
with us. Absorbed, however, in the de-
yelopment of our mining interests, we
have thus far paid little attention TO our
other resources. Within the last year
or TWO, however, more attention mas
been concentrated upon the raising Oh
grain, and tho valleys Of Walker river
Carson, Truckeo and other favorable
localities are found to produce excellent
crops Of both barley and wheat, when
properly, managed, and MS for potatoes
no better can DO raised in the world.
A stranger, u~nacquainted with our agri-
cultural localities and capacities, would
naturally suppose at first sight that this
country was more favorable to the pro-
duc,ion of sage-brush than any other
crop of a vegetable nature T; certainly he
would hardly set Nevada down as a SUI
gar producing State. We don't mean
to say that she is exactly, just yet but
wish deferentially to advance the idea
that she might be.
The sugar beet has of late years be-
come to be considered an important mr.
ticle Of agricultural production in both
France and Germany, and tho mannfac-
ture of beet sugar forms n Of their
most extensive and profitable resources,
giving good and steady employment to
thousands ofpersons. According to tue
latest statistics, tho average production
of refined sugar per acre is twice as
great in Franco from bscts MS it is in
Louisiana from cane, and several hun
dred pounds more than in Cuba. The
beet sugar manufacturers Of France and
Germany not only compete successfully
with the sugar manufacturers Of tho
world, but arc enabled to export large
quantities to England, a country TINT
thus finds more than one-sixth Of her
consumption in that line supplied by
beet sugar from the continent.
In California the capacities of soil
and climate nrs unsurpassed in the
world for the raising of the sugar beet,
and it fourishes there in the most prod
igal lux~uriance and profusion, yet the
experiment Of manufacturing sugar from
them has only been made to II very lin
tied extent-just merely demonstrating
the fact that the business could be eu-
tered into with profit. The raising Of
grain, grapes, fruit and other profitable
pursuits Of a similar nature has, how
ever, absorbed the attention Of our
neiyhbors Of the Golden State, 10 the
exclusion Of the beet sugar business,
ye: 1t may ONE day or other become
one of the leading interests. In order
to show the relative profit in California,
Of sugar beet producing rs compared
with wheaeraising, VIC give the follow
ing from reliable authority: IA full ar-
erage wheat crop is thirty bushels to
the aero, which, at two and'a half cents q
pound, amounts to $45 per acre. Thirty
IONS of beets to the acre, which is twenty
tons less than have been repeatedly
raised hero, gives us $4,000, which, at
tbree-eighths Of n cent per pound,
would give S225 to the acre, or just
FIVE times ss.much rs the wheat CROP"
Hero in Nevada we have any amount
of lands where the sugar beet would
flourish to perfection. In fact, wherever
it.has been sown in the valleys it has
done we'll. Slightly alkaline soils are
favorable to it, and there is no lack Of
that element in Nevada. Heavy rich
soil is not particularly required for this
vegetable. It would flourish cxcellcntly
in any Of our river valleys, and proba-
bly, oven better than either barley and
wheat. Could not some Of our farmers
try the experiment during the present
season? The cost of it would BIO but
little, and a new road to wealth might
DO opened, little realized or even
dreamed Of at the present time. We
charge nothing for our suggestions: