Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1889-02-05
SUGAR FROM BETS.
one OF the Most Prosperous and rrt.n.,,
OF German Jndustri.s.

IN" most prosperous and ExtepaIve
OF German Industries.
Inc beet-sugar industry in GERMANY
mas grown to large proportions in the
idse twenty years, and has been thor
oughiy systematized. 1t was intro
duced in Hanover in 1864. and spoar Ia
now produced in all the southern por-
ion OF Hanover, the larger part OF
brunswick, the Prussian part of Say
ony' and also in pat OF the kingdom
OF oaxony. Perhaps tyo-thirds of all
the German beet sugar is raised in
tnese localities. 1t requires very fer
tite ground to raise the sugar beet, and
bone dust, phosphates, CHILEAN salt
peter and compoats are freely used.
Inc plant is exceedingly exhausting to
the SOIL and farmers, to preserve their
ground, observe strictly the rule oil
rotation In crops, only planting a field
=" peets once in seven years, as
rule. The planting is done in Nav
Inc ground is thoroughly prepared
beforehand. 1t is plowed twice in the
AL preceding. the first blowing being
70 the depth of 4 inches. the second 16
or 10 inches. Then just before plant
ing 1t Is narrowed and rolled until it is
as smooth and hard as a floor. The
seed Is drilled in rows foot apart.
men the young plants are about 8
inches high they are thinned out, leay-
ing three or four in hill, | foot apart.
and these are subsequently reduced to
one in hill. The cultivation ia done
mostly by pillow, the crop being plowed
about four times in a season, both
iengthwise 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
ID to February Is. 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 commu-
NIFTY 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 sue
cessful ones capitalists are rigidly ex-
cluded, and only farmers may hold
shares. Each farmer must, for each
share he holds, cultivate from three
10 five acres in beets. The average
product is 1900 or $1,000 pounds per
acre, for which the farmer gets about
30 pfennig per 100. He is guaranteed
a sure market for his crop at 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 a first-class food for
cattle, and this the farmer gets also at
a fixed price. The cultivation is sub
ject to inspection by the factory, and
each inspector must be not only first
class farmer, but a chemist. He
must live close to the factory, and gets
a good salary, besides per cent. of the
profits. Most of the sugar goes to re-
| fineries at the large cities. At each
factory is also 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
ali 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.