The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-08-29
AGRICULTURAL.
L. Th. Gennertl
The Beet Sugar Industry In the United
States.

Aue ulueESnb sth96S Vi progressive OfNZ1-
ton which we observe in nations which are fore
most on earth, are often marked by the intro
ducton of new plants or are advanced by such
introduction. The introduction of potatoes ON
the continent of Europe by Franz Drake, who
brought them from the equator where he found
them growing Wild has not only had great in
fiuence on agriculture but on the whole pro-
gress of civilization. They enabled larger
population to be fed from the products of the
same area on which less people could subsist
before, yet their utility was limited. Later we
find the introduction of beets in their different
varieties. They grow wild on the Medterra-
mean and, though biennial plant are propa-
gated from year to year by their own seed.
These beets were first used for cattle feed al
most exclusively and cultivated for that pur-
pose.
At time when sugar was used as medicine
or as high luxury, sugar was discovered in
beets, proved to be identical with sugar ex-
tracted from sugar cane and commonly called
cane sugar. and it was proved that this sugar
could be extracted from the beets and obtained
in the same crysta!zed form as from the
cane.
The consumption of sugar has steadily in
creased, ever since the first lot was brought to
Europe from Gambia and though the discovery
of sugar in the beet attracted great attention,
yet for nearly hundred years it did not reach
the dignity OF systematic manufacture, its pro-
ductiOn being especially fostered for political
purposes and when no more political causes
where to be served it was abandoned and al
most forgotten. The cultivation of the sugar
beet had undoubtedly greatly benefited the
farms which had been engaged in the produc-
tion of beet sugar and it was therefore not en-
trely given up, but the continued decrease of
production of the land on which root crops
had never been grown, forced the farmer, the
scientific men and even the Governments to in
vestigate the causes of the decrease Of general
fertility and to study the laws which govern the
productiveness of the soil. Although as an in
dustry the manufacture of beet sugar In Eu-
rope up to about 1925 could not be called sue
cess in financial point of view, nobody could
deny that the farms or estates on which these
enterprises had been carried on were in very
high state of productiveness.
The time from 1925 to about 1885 may be
looked upon as the period in which the produc.
ton of beet sugar passed from the state of ex-
pertinent into systematic, organized indus
try and where the product of this industry
made some show upon the sugar market of the
world.
From 1885 to 1S45 we find the beet sugar in
dustry taking its place amongst the national in
dUstries in Europe, not without a severe strug-
gle. for it met with bitter opposition and had
many enemies. To engage in the manufacture
of beet sugar did not generally improve mans
credit. He had to combat with distrust
and often ridicule. But the steady increase of
population had directed the attention of scien-
tifc men to agriculture and about this time it
is that Baron Won Liebig and his many c.
Nobody deny can that the cultivation of sugar
beets and the production of beet sugar has
brought farming to the prosperous condition in
which we find it at the present time in Europe,
but the one is so closely interviewer with the
other that it is impossible to state which is the
cause and which the effect, to state whether the
cultivation of the sugar beets brought with it
rational cultivation OF the soil, or whether
in consequence of rational cultivation, sugar
beets and beet sugar were produced.
No plant is known in the whole civilized
world about which SO many books have been
written in SO many different languages and by
scientific men of such high eminence as the SUI
gar beet, no plant has ever exerted such influ-
ence on general farming beyond the direct pro-
duct it yields as the sugar beet, no plant has
ever met with such fostering care by every
government in Europe than the sugar beet
but no plant has either returned as many fold
the care bestowed upon it by enriching every
direct.
At the time when the French government
exerted all its influence, and spent large
sums OF money in order to establish the manu-
facture of beet sugar in France on a solid ba-
sis, the Ambassador of the United States
in France, Henry Clay, saw the great influence
this industry would soon WELD on general
farming and national prosperity. But more
than this, he saw in it the means of abolishing
slavery in q peaceable way, by producing by
free labor what, SO far, was exclusively the pro-
duct of slave labor The great enthusiasm
with which Henry Clay advocated the aid of
the government to introduce this industry in
the United States brought the sugar question
into the political arena, and, as it was in oppo.
s1tIon to slave labor, it met with no favor. The
government Of the United States has never
done anything to introduce this, to the farmer,
so important, industry in this country, amp
while 1t refused every aid to the beet sugar in
dustry, 1t fitted up men of war for the special
purpose to cruise all over the world, collect su-
gar-cane, preserve the same, and bring it here
to be used.for seed-cane; it appointed scien-
tific commission to investigate the preserva-
ton OF sugar cane against frost, and to devise
some method by which it could be put in fit
state TOT shipment to Europe to be manufac-
surea into sugar there, and It appropriated
large sums OF money Tor these purposes.
Inc sugar peet, a modest little plant, had
therefore, TO start It's career In the United States
WIN wnat Little care lew INDIVIDUALS could
pesSow upon IT;
The sugar beet, although native of the
shores OF the Mediterranean, is in its present
cultivated state plant OF the North, or Tenn
perate Zone, and is cultivated for the purpose
~ sugar sn4aact ~ in aiinosG every Hsate IN
grow In nearly every State OF the Union,
snoqgn f Tue st[lctly ooatnern states are proba-
py ieSS laVorapiy stuatea LOT tne cnitivation
e u tle sugar peet. 70 form correct idea OF
S U1 Deet suga ~. Inaustiy as IL mas struggled
to-
wen az us advantages. TINS INDUSTRY SHOULD be
uslueu Into TWO alstinct parts' tnougn both
.nese paits may prontaDly ana conveniently De
ou9aehlneo, tney are distlnc5 from each other
anu s1e auvantages ana a SAD vantages ought to
De I iaageu OF eacn separately.
=, Inc Deet sugar INDUSTRY Is considered strict
agncoit9ral business; its success is therefore
gLeatly innuenced py the state OF agriculture
wne.e ~ ~ started, WINE 10 return II Will exerta
g,eas u, innnence on the same also. Beet sugar
n 1 means Iationai ROTATION OF crops,
tps, anu samcent Ieltiizers ana nish and
ha ooasivas.on' wl.nooe tnese IL VIII never
fs, ;uCoess' irom Inese II IS lnseparaple Sach
and LIZ ~ Ia sne CIited Htates tne exception
anu ~. ING RUE pug Dy making it the rule and
sponaton the exception, IL WILL Dring It's hrst
blessing to the farmer. Though the beet juice
- not az rlcn as the cane Juice the product OF
sugar per acre Is fully as large from beets as
from cane. Fifteen tons of beets per acre
Is fair crop and can easily be obtained from
good we'll cultivated land. But not every
farmer mas good well cultivated land; and
mere It is where the first and greatest diff
c9lty Is encountered. Every beet sugar factory
winch mas ever started 10 the United States
bses 'i IN win farming WITH procuring
sugat tneieIrom. me second dlthculty en-