Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-12-18
MORE Oh A SWEET susJEo1.

Der IZtn, We get the following report o3
a German farmer, one of . COMMITTEES
sent from Harvey county to investigate
the beet sugar business at Medicine
Lodge. Kansas. Read it carefully and
see il there is not something OF vast
Importance to Barton county farmers
in a further investigation of Che het
sugar question::
On Friday, November 2s. 1890, by the
accommodation of the a. T. & s. r. r.
r. and especial arrangements seventy
farmers OF Harvey county had oppor-
tunity to view the sugar factory st
Medicine Lodge, Kansas. This fac
tory is in southwestern Kansas.
This factory is prepared to work
sugar cane and sugar beets, although
for the latter on only small scale.
The three propr;etors built this fac
tory under the supervision of a technical
director from Hanover, Germany. The
same is built with all modern improve
ments, and shows that improvements
in sugar making has not stood still, but
is advanced in the highest degree.
make this report for the German
paper and a committee reports for the
English. There may be some differ
ence on account of the different
sources of Information. The COM
mittee got their report from the secre-
tary, and l, not understanding Eng
lish good, might not get it right
entirely. got my information from
Heinrich Hince, the regular superin-
tendent.
The factory at Medicine Lodge was
built two years ago, costing with all
improvements sl2O, 600 90. Should the
factory be fully prepared to work beets
it would cost $4,000 more.
! The buildings are built Of timber and
covered with iron. The inside of the
factory is complete in every particular,
as far as solidity and machinery are
concerned. The machinery was bought
of the Kirby Manufacturing Co., of
Cleveland, Ohio. / was astonished to
find in a land where they were expert
menting such a fine and perfect
sugar plant.
This factory is prepared to work 200
tons of sugar cane in twenty-four
hours, taking the cane with leaves on.
The factory had only 400 tons to
work, very small quantity to work on.
The factory had no contract with the
farmers as to acres on cane and beets,
but the gentlemen had full confidence
that enough cane and beets would be
raised. By the large capital invested
in this factory the proprietors were
sure the farmers would raise plenty of
material and get well paid for it. The
| factories in Germany work on contract
beets, and I look at that as the only
way to keep it running. The way /
look at it. if the factory had complete
machinery for working beets it could
! work 200 tons in twenty-four hours,
but what it has at this time it would he
impossible to do. The factory in work
ing up sugar cane employs sixty men at
wages from $l.50 to $500 per day.
The superintendent gets 500 per
month.
| The factory makes out Of one ton of
cane 100 pounds of sugar and twelve
gallons of syrup. The sugar sells fol
49 cents a pound, besides the govern
ment gives two cents a pound. The
syrup they sell in Chicago at ten cents
gallon, altogether $40 out of ton of
cane, for which the farmers get $I.50
to $3.50 per ton with leaves on. The
prices depending on the richness of the
cane. If not properly cultivated the
pay for beets from $3.50 to $500 pei
ton.
The beet sugar is better than the
cane sugar. will say how the prices
compare with prices in Germany. Here
the average price is twenty-one cents
for 100 pounds of beets. In Wes,
Prussia, my former home, they pay 81
pfenige; also here 81 cents, which is 81
how much the farmers here have the
advantage over the German farmers
On all products the farmers here ge,
only about one third as much as the
farmers do in Germany. but ON beets
the difference is only pfenige or
cents, but the difference in the weight
of beets here and Germany will make
more than that difference up, 50 the
farmers here really get little more
than the farmer in Germany.
So far as our land is concerned it ii
equal to Germany. At Medicine Lodge
in this bad year they had from to II
tons; in 1889 Is tons per acre. We
might say they had so many beets pei
) acre at Medicine Lodge, but how is it
here? We had a car load of beets
raised in Harvey county, shipped tt
Medicine Lodge. The size of these
beets leads me to believe that thel
would yield 10 tons to the acre, and OF
craJ;tx- tboco hoofe u-oro o0xro1 IN ff,<