Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-11-12
The Sugar Question in Los Ange-
les County.

les County.
The universal favor which the
project to introduce the production
of sugar in this county has met at
the hands of every body is conclus-
i've proof there are no two opinions
as to the facility of producing the
raw material; nearly every farmer
being aware that beets of any
species can be produced here in
larger quantities, with less work
and of better quality than in any
other part Of the United States,
and as the prosperity of any large
industry, first and foremost, de-
pends upon the supply of raw ma.
terial, the beet sugar industry, once
introduced, has nowhere as fair q
chance of quick development as it
has in Southern California.
But if good sugar beets can be
grown in other localities as we'll as
in Southern California, we have
one great advantage over every
other part of the Union, and that
Ia that we can dry these sugar
beets to perfection in the open air,
and thus make them as imperisha-
BILE as grain, bring them into bulk
and weight which enables easy
transportation, and in expelling
the entire water, save large outlay
Of machinery and fuel in the eX.
traction of the sugar from the beet.
When Mr.. Gennert visited South
ern California for the first time, he
stated explicitly, "a beet sugar fac
tory, pure and simple, is out of the
question:" because the capital re.
quired to procure machinery and
buildings to work green or fresh
beets on scale to make it remu-
nerative, cannot be had away from
money centers, and to work fresh
beets on small scale does not pay.
A factor which had never been
taken into account before, forced
itself upon the observation of the
sugar men. This factor is our cli-
mate. Experiments have shown
that we can not only raise beets to
perfection, but that the sun of
Southern California will dry them
as perfect and almost in as short
time as the most expensive ma
chinery can dry them, and do this
without the expenditure of o cent
of money for either drying apparat-
US or fuel. Beets were dried on the
10th and 18th days of October In
Santa Ana and in this late part of
the season reduced in the first day
from 100 pounds to 81, and in the
second day to 364 pounds. These
beets were dried by w. III. Stur-
geon, Esq, of Santa Ana. At an
other trial, at Riverside, 100 pounds
of beets were reduced the first "a
hours to 29S pounds, and the second
to 255 pounds. These beets were
dried by H. ]. Rudisil, Esq, of
that place.
Both these trials prove beyond
doubt that these beets eau be dried
to perfection in the middle of Sum-
mer In "a hours. Beets from both
these places were shipped to Prof.
E.W. Hilgard for examination and
analysis, and the following is the
result;
BERKELEY, CAL, Nov. 8, 1879.
Eth. Gsnnert, Esq, San Francisco:
DEAR SIR: In advance of the
complete determination of all the
data of the composition of the dried
beets sent from Los Angeles some
time ago, make the following
statement of the amount of sugar
found in the samples, respectively:
contained, when received, about 20
per cent. of moisture; but upon
further exposure to the air soon
assumed the average Of about
10 per cent. The sugar percentage
was, in that condition, 60 pounds Of
sugar in 100 pounds of dried beets.
| find to-day in the weighing of the
first reliable batch of fiber residue,
that your polarization Of the fresh
Santa Ana heets is borne out by it.
The beets from Riverside were
more, though roughly dried, con.
tanning 1916 per cent. of moisture;
they contained in 100 pounds 64.7
pounds of sugar. The watery ex-
tract from the dried heets was alto
gether of the taste and character of
the fresh juice; this, as we'll as the
results OF the other determinations,
show that there will be at least no
greater difficulty in working it for
sugar than with the fresh juice.
Very respectfully,
EUe. w. HILaARD,
Prof. Ag. University of Cal.
When it is borne in mind that
most of the MANILA sugars polarize
not over so per cent, aud that the
lilo lilo often contains considerable
less than that quantity of pure
sugar in the 100 pounds, it is obvi-
Gus the dried beets of Southern CAL
ifornia are almost as good a mate
rial to produce refined sugar from,
as these low grade sugars imported
on a large scale in New York
and Boston from foreign country,
and we thought the San Francisco
sugar refiners would avail them
selves with avidity of a chance to
obtain in our own State that for
which the money at present is
shipped out of the State and coun-
ty TO the tune of $10.000,000 annu-
ally and thus enable the farmers in
this State who eat and have to pay
for more than one-half OF all the
sugar consumed in this State. to
pay for the same by raising at least
one crop at paying prices.
Such, however, is not the case,