The Arizona sentinel., 1889-01-05
SUGAR FROM BEETS.
One of the Most Prosperous and Extensive
 of German Industries.

One of the Most Prosperous and Extensive
 of German Industries.
 The beet-sugar industry in Germany has grown to large proportions in the last twenty years, and has been thor oughly systematized. It was intro duced in Hanover in 1864, and sugar is now produced in all the southern DOT tion of Hanover, the larger part of Brunswick, the Prussian part of Sax Ony, and also in a part of the kingdom of Saxony. Perhaps two-thirds of all the German beet sugar is raised in these localities. It requires very fer tile ground to raise the sugar beet, and bone dust, phosphates, Chilian salt peter and composts are freely used. The plant is exceedingly exhausting to the soil and farmers. to preserve their ground, observe strictly the rule of rotation in crops, only planting field in beets once in seven years, as rule. The planting is done in May. The ground is thoroughly prepared beforehand. It is plowed twice in the fall preceding, the first blowing being to the depth of inches. the second 16 or IS inches. Then just before plant ing it is narrowed and rolled until it is as smooth and hard as floor. The seed is drilled in rows 1 foot apart. When the young plants are about 3 inches high they are thinned out, leav- ing three or four in a hill, foot apart, and these are subsequently reduced to one in hill. The cultivation is done mostly by blow, the crop being plowed about four times in a season, both lengthwise and across the rows. The women and children, meantime, are constantly going over the field keep ing out the weeds by hand. The gath ering season extends from September 15 to February 15. Men go ahead with long spades and loosen each hill, the women and children following, who lift the roots out of the ground and pile them together After the tops are removed they are either taken directly to the commit nity factory or covered deeply with earth to preserve them. The factory system is very interesting part of the business. Factories are established in each neighborhood. In all the suc- cessful ones capitalists are rigidly ex- cluded, and only farmers may hold shares. Each farmer must, for each share he holds, cultivate from three to five acres in beets. The average product is 17,000 or 1S,000 pounds per acre, for which the farmer gets about 90 pfennig per 100. He is guaranteed sure market for his crop at a fixed price, and gets dividend out of the profits at the end of the season. The pulp of the beets, after the sugar is taken out, makes first-class food for cattle and this the farmer gets also at fixed price. The cultivation is sub- ject to inspection by the factory, and each inspector must be not only a. first class farmer, but a chemist. He must live close to the factory, and gets a good salary, besides a per cent. of the profits. Most of the sugar goes to re- fineries at the large cities. At each factory is also a government inspector, who examines each lot and fixes the tax. Each wagon-load of beets is sampled by chemist, and if they fall below certain grading as to percent age of sugar, they are rejected. This is to prevent the use of inferior com posts, which would make large beets with little sugar in them. One nice feature about the business is that on all the sugar which is exported the government returns to the farmer an amount which is more than equivalent to the tax. This results in very large portion of the crop being exported. " St. Lonis Globe Democrqt.