Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-10-09
4 PRACTICAL OFFER,

1 PRACTICAL OFFER.
FARMERS GROWBEETS.
A SUGAR FACTORY WILL BE
ESTABLISHED.
TO THE FARMERs-A LIBERAL BASIS
FOR MUTUAL OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
EsTING FACTS ABOUT BEET SUGAR MAN
UFACTURE.
&C., &C., sc.
Last Friday morning, the Augusta Coun-
by Alliance, Capt. E. A. Fnlcher, Presi-
lent, and Mr.. J. III. Cornell, Secretary,
net at it's hall IN Staunton. One of the OBJ
ects OF the meeting was to hear an address
by MI. O. K. Lapham on the subject of
oeet-raising and the manufacture of sugar.
The address proved to be one of the most
practical and instructive that has been deliv-
cred before any Augusta organization in the
OF new industry. After being
introduced by President Fulcher, MI. Lap
ham said;
am afraid you may not find that what I
have to say is well said. am not used to adj
dressing assemblages and it is thirty years
since have talked to any body of men,
on my feet. But the subject is
one OF such Importance that even the few
hints | have to give, however awkardly
they may be given, may hope, serve the
purpose OF helping us to a better under
standing of it. Of course speak to you as
one who has experimental but slightly and
even those experiments, not in manufacture
but only in growing the material for the
manufacture. Therefore what 1 shall saw
to you is necessarily the result of book
reading.
1t is now some seventy OF eighty years
since France first began the experiment.
OF making sugar from beets, so you see
that it is, as the world goes, comparative
ly new industry. In her first experiments
the beet yielded from to 6 per cent. of
sucrose and the crop of beets averaged from
10 to Is tons an acre. Since then, both the
yield OF sucrose and the yield of tons to the
acre have advanced with great strides, and
to-day three-ffths of the sugar used by the
world is made from beets as is one-fifth Of
the sugar that we use in this country. 1t
is the only agricultural product that can be
manufactured in Europe and sent here and
sold at profit. Notwithstanding it is
made on land that is worth $3.50 to $500 an
acre, and notwithstanding the fact that
after it is made European governments lay
tax on it, they can still manufacture it
there and sell it in our own country at
profit Looking at this we ought to be able to
compete with Europe on equal ground even
without bounty from our government. But
our government puts us in even better
position for competition by paying boun-
ty OF 2 to cents pound where it has 80
per cent. of sucrose in it.
l found last year that On the farm I cul-
tiyated at Lagrange, neal Staunton,
we could grow beets containing from 10 to
Is per cent. of sucrose, a yield of sucrose
equal to Europe, California and
Nebraska. Notwithstanding it was
bad season, we produced beets that it would
pay to manufacture sugar from. This year
we are trying it again, and on the 18th of last
month l sent some specimens to Washing
ton for analysis. They yielded from III to
12a per cent. Of sucrose. Twelve per cent. is
considered the paying point, and above that
is extra. The general estimate of the world
is twelve per cent. When these beets were
sent to Washington, they were from four to
six weeks short of maturing. Had they
been matured, it is safe by the usual caIcu-
lations to say that their yield of sucrose
would have been from to 2per cent. more
So we can fairly expect that per centage
of yield from what we grow here. All terms
in Europe are based on a u per cent yield
that is $4 per ton for cleaned beats free
from dirt, which yield IL per cent, and for
every per cent. over that, 25 cents more
ton in paid. In Nebraska last year on that
basis, they brought from 81 to $4.75 ton,
as the yield ran from - to Is per cent
AS to the yield Of beets to be expected
per acre, I may say that MI. NJ. E. Miller
who raised beets to be fed to cattle had a
yield of 80 to 40 tons to the acre. That is
one of the largest yields have heard report
ed here. In France and Germany they reach
as high as so to 70 tons to the acre, and
will average 20 to 80 tons. In Nebraska
last year the average was 10 to Is tons.
This year, German who was here in Staun-
ton and who is now at Grand Isle, N ebras-
ka, writes me that the yield will be from
20 to 80 tons an acre. So I think Is tons
lation, with the probabilities run
ming up to 20 OF 80 tons an acre accord
ing to varieties Of soil. 1t isn't only
the 81 OF SIS you get for the beets ton that
is all your profit; your land is better cult
waited and better prepared for any other crop.
Germany calculates that a beet crop benefits
the land from 50 to SIS an acre. They
rotate their crops there from two to three
years, and with the use of S. worth of fer
tilizer they calculate on $14 to $40 profit
from an acre more than on the same land
noa fertilized will give. In Germany the
beet grower is given one-fourth of the pulp
of the beets, which he uses for feeding cat
tie. 1 think we can calculate that this spent
pulp is worth a good deal to every man in
reach of a factory, for feeding purposes.
Last year the beets that L grew l could sell
to no one, so l bought cattle and in from
sixty to ninety days fattened them on them,
they fattened better than with anything
ever tried. Of course beets are better with
the sugar in them, for fattening purposes,
than they are in the spent pulp form.
To start beet sugar industry requires
good deal of money. The estimate Of cost
requires that for every one thousand tons
of beets capacity, 81, 900 must be invested
in the plant. and they say that unless you
have a large plant you cannot succeed. But