Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-29
BEET SUGAR.
TEE FACTORY AT JsLEToN TO RE-
sUME OPERATIONS.
The Works to be Enlarged Preparation
for Best-raisiug - Contracts Made
with Farmers Some Facts on
the General Subject.

The extensive business which was being
carried on for the manufacture of beet sugar
at Isleton, in this county, in 1878, by the
California Sugar Manufacturing Company,
and which, was suspended by reason of the
destruction of its entire crop of beets by the
great food of that year, is about to be re-
sumed and prosecuted under greater prepara-
tons and on more extended scale than be-
fore. II. N. Ames, of Oakland, who is a
large stakeholder in the Alyarado Beet
Sugar Company, and acts from the basis Of
successful experience, has leased the factory
and grounds at Isleton from the California
Sugar Company for one year, and intends
not only to carry on the business to the full
capacity of the present works, but to largely
increase it. Nothing has been done in sugar
beet-raising in that vicinity since
THE LOSS OF CROP BY FLOOD
Referred to, and there are no beets now in
stock, but active preparations are already il
progress for early and extensive planting
upon the company's grounds, and contracts
! have also been made with farmers in the vi
ciBity, who will Turn largely to beet-raising
| the coming season. The anticipated resump-
ton of business by the factory is received
| by the farmers in that region with favor and
satisfaction, as the raising of beets, even at
less price per ton than by former contracts
! is regarded as more desirable and profitable
than any other crop to which the land can be
| applied. MIR. Ames has had no difficulty in
! obtaining contracts for all the beets he may
desire, in addition to the amount that will he
raised upon the factory premises, at IS per
ton, which price is entirely satisfactory to
himself and acceptable to the farmers. When |
it is considered that upon the rich bottom
IL 4f.aA E 1
per acre Is but an average crop, and that even
as high as forty has been raised, and as it is
claimed that two crops can be raised upon the
same land each year, it will be seen that |
farmers$even at that price per ton, or even
less, can regard it as profitable crop to raise
While there will continue to be danger of re-
curing inundatiOn and loss Of crops, as in
1878, until
THE DEBRIS QUESTION
Should have been effectively settled and the
continuous filling of the river channel thereby
stopped, yet the danger to the beet crop is
no greater than to that of any other and if
greater loss is sustained in its destruction it is
because this crop is more valuable for the
farmer to raise. The present capacity OF the
Iseton factory is from thirty to thiIty-fve
tons per day, but Mr. Ames will immediately
make such Improvements and additions to
the works as to increase the capacity to from
! tiSty to sixty tons, and intends to run the
factory that basis continuously from the
time the first crop of beets natures, which it
is expected will not be later than the LIST of
August, and probably somewhat earlier |
These Improvements are done at the expense
of the lessee and will cost about $50 600. In |
addition to this the rent paid is equal to q
good per cent upon the company's invest
ment, which indicates the confidence I'M
der which the enterprise is taken up by the
new management, and this confidence is the
result of established success in the business
Of sugar-producing by the factory at Alva-
iado, with which. as before mentioned, Mr.
Ames is connected.
THE RESULTS or OPERATIONS
Of the Sacramento Valley Beet Sugar Fac
tory near this city doubtless had the effect of
lessening the faith of many in the general
subject of the manufacture of sugar from
! beets. The failure of the Sacramento COM
| pany, however, cannot be taken as a criterion
upon which to base an opinion, as the same
machinery, in part, is that now in use in the
Alvarado factory, where the business has at
tanned a highly successful and rsmunerative
standard. While it may be true that some of
these failures are caused by inadaptation of
soil to produce beets sufficiently rich in sac
chariue matter to make manufacture from |
them profitable, the principal causes have |
been either from manipulation Of the man |
ayers to business success and want of honest |
and economical administration of affairs, or,
as in the greater number Of cases. and which /
may be summed up in a single line, failed |
for want of information" Its characteristic |
of Americans, rs well a. some others, TO rush /
into whatever is new and has the appearance
or gives promise of a good profit, and also to
as quickly abandon an enterprise whenever !
serious obstacles are presented, without wait
ing for results Of more mature experience. |
Had the same coarse been pursued in Ger |
many and France during the many years of |
experimental period upon this subject
THE SUCCESSFUL MANUFACTURE
OF sugar from beets as one of the leading in |
dustries of Europe, would have been to-day |
unknown. Although from the time of the dis |
covery Of sugar in beets, ascertained by A. |
5. Marggraf, of Berlin, in 1747, the expert
meIits up to about the close of the seven |
teenth century were largely confined to those
made by the discoverer, and did not reach |
that success which made the business profta- |
bic, it demonstrated the fact that sufficient
saccharine substance was contained in the |
beet to make the manufacture of sugar from
it of commercial Importance, when process
should be found by which to successfully con-
vert it into merchantable form and quality.
This fact having been established through
the persistent efforts of Marggraf, the Prus-
sian Government took the subjeakin hand in
! 1896 and instituted an experimental factory
in Lower Silesis, at which the rate of per
cent of yellow raw sugar and 3 per cent. of
moasses was obtained. This result enforced
| by the Governments sanction and confidence
| in the enterprise, led within the next few
years to the establishment of other factories
in Prussia and other countries of Europe.
Napoleon, who had been
CAREFULLY WATCHING THE SUBJECT
|
| of its eventual success and growing impor-
lance in a national point of view, cstat-
lished in France in 1872, under his personal
care and direction, and with ample appropria-
ton from the royal exchequer, extensive |
operations in this new field of industry, both |
| looking to the welfare of his subjects by in
creasing the demand for labor and to furnish |
by internal production a leading commodity
and necessity of life. These operations, which |
were prosecuted with the characteristic vigor
of Napoleon, proved so successful and re-
munerative that numerous other factories
throughout the empire soon sprang up and
the business became so extended and methods |
| for the manufacture of the tnestquality ofmar-
ket sugar from beets were brought to such per-
| lection that as early as 1929, half d century
ago, France alone produced about 9,OO0,DOO
punnds au amount more than equal to the pres
ent annual consumption OF the State of Cali
fornia. From that time, and even previous,
the establishment OF this industry over the
greater portion of Europe became rapid and
| has continued to increase until, as the pres
ent statistics show, the sugar annually pro-
ducsd on the continent of Europe from the
| beet amounts to over one-third of the total
production Of sugars OF all kinds
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
These established and well-known facts
should overweight the appearances and i'm
pressions arising from individual or tenn
porary failures in this State, when all opers-
tions thus far may be said to have been only
inceptional and unattended with the expert
ence and knowledge of the subject which was
requisite to success in the old world, and
should stimulate comparison to ascertain
whether the natural advantages existing in
this State, under similar methods of produc-
ton, cannot be made equally remunerative
and important to the people and the State.
Il has already been shown from repeated
analysis by the most eminent authorities
that the beets raised in this State, especially
in the region extending slsng the river below
Sacramento, are far richer in saccharine mat
ter than the average of those raised in Eu-
rope and the proportion OF pure sugar quail
ity. compared with the non-saccharine prop
critics contained in the juice, and which is
technically called the purity coefficicent, is
also remarkably great.
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