St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-22

ough understanding is arrived. The
newspapers have had good deal to say
at different times as to the deSirability
of cultigating sugar beets, and the eS-
Enlistment of sugar beet factory and
refinery. 1t is claimed, and with rea-
son, that sugar beets will grow to per-
lection in this part of Dakota, and that
they possess a large amount of saccha-
rine matter-a larger amount than
is found in the sugar beets grown in
most other regions of North America.
An expert in sugar beet culture and
beet sugar manufacture has been in
town this week, and he has given some
ideas on the subject that are worth quot
ing, He said: sit is all right for you
to grow sugar beets, and you can grow
them without difficulty. They can also
be grown in Minnesota, and they will
possess as much saccharine matter as
beets grown in any part of the country.
They will be better, in fact, than those
grown in California where SpreckleS
has his factories. But in my Judgment
the project of establishing factory and
refinery and making any money is
impracticable. l don't want to diScOur-
age any industry that can be promoted
among you, but have had some eX-
perience, and it has been, in the main,
costly. tried it in Maine, and the
trouble was in
GETTING THE BEETs.
'There is no question as to the market
for the product. Sugar is sugar when
it is refined, whether it is made from
sugar beets or anything else. Sugar is
very much like gold in this-you take a
piece of gold of certain fineness, and
you never stop to ask whether it was
dug in Dakota, Montana or California.
1t does not matter. 1t is worth a Ger
tain amount wherever it was dug. The
same with sugar.
but the trouble is that beets are so
bulky, and cover So large an area of
ground, and want such perfect cultiva-
ton, that only where labor is very
cheap can they be grown profitably for
sugar making. In California man who
makes a business of hiring and con-
tracing with Chinese labor, will take
is planted to keep it cultivated, and the
of money. The work of singing out
the plants, whichis absolutely necessary
if a crop is to be obtained, has
to be done with hand. 1t is hard,
and a mental task. The back of
the beet picker is almost broken by the
process. The burning rays of the sun
are such that nobody but Chinaman
can stand it for any great length of
time. The work is done so cheaply I'M
der this plan that white men can't COM
pete, and there is no labor in Dakota or
Minnesota that could take hold of the
work and compete with the Chinaman.
In Germany and France, where the beet
sugar industry is brought to perfection,
the cheap labor is just as abundant as
in California; and this, and this only,
makes it possible for the farmer and
the manufacturer there to make profit.
The trouble in Maine was that the labor
could not be obtained that would do the
work cheap enough, and we could not
manufacture the sugar at as low price
as 1t would fetch in the market when it
went there. A plant such as you would
want-the smallest that you could get
along with-would cost 100000 for fac
tory and refinery. l know what l am
talking about when say that you may
as well devote your energies to some
thing else other than beet sugar raising,
for it don't pay"