The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-06-14
THE UTAH SUGAR WORKS.

mire the wisdom of the promoter of the en-
terprise in selecting such an industry, for
certainly one to be of the most benefit by
| employing most labor, and consequently a
wider diffusion of means could not be
found, the product containing more wages
than any other known industry and work
ing in larger variety of labor, from the
| child that can thin out a row of beets for a
nickle or dime, up 10 the skilled expert.
| In response to a general request THE
HERALD prints herewith the report of the
committee who went east and west to look
into the sugar question before home capital
/ lists took the matter up and invested in it
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Nov. 20. 1889.
To the Board OF Directors of the Utah Sugar
Company.
/ GENTLEMEN-The undersigned your com
mittee to whom you have relegated the
responsibility of recommending whether OF
not the production and manufacture OF
sugar is feasible and practicable in Utah,
and may be made profitable here, and OF
selecting site for the location of the fac
tory, respectfully report that for the rea-
| sons hereinafter set forth, we consider
the industry entirely feasible and practica-
BILE and have no hesitancy in recommend
ing 1t as a worthy enterprise and reason
| ably profitable investment.
The many partial and in some instances
entire failures of home industries which
have occurred amongst US and the compare
| lively large amount Of money required to
establish this enterprise have occasioned a
very close and searching investigation and
careful weighing of the possibilities for
and against its success, and the possible
contingencies which nave been so freely
brought forward as apparently insurmount-
able difficulties have caused a very healtful
ventilation of the subject which, however,
has only tended to show its strength and
its palpable advantages.
In the first place in regard to the manu-
facture of sugar from beets, we are unan-
imous in the conviction, that we saw moth
ing done In the California factories that we
could not do in Utah. The only question
was in relation to the Utah beets. Can
our soil and climate produce beets of
good quality, and with .constitu-
ents no more inimical than the
beets in California. We took with us
some beets raised in Utah and had them
analysed by an expert in San Francisco,
and although the beets were not in prime
condition, having been out of the ground
nearly two weeks before the analysis, and
they lacked considerable OF being ripe
when dug, the three samples gave 15.6,
1873 and 1879 per cent. saccharine.
These beets were large, very much larger
| than any we saw at either factory in
California, and as the smaller beets contain
greater percentage OF saccharine in pro-
portion to their weight, ii may be reason
ably expected that smaller samples OF the
same kind would have shown better
results, OF tie seventeen lots of beets pre-
scented in competition at the late fair,
seven samples were sent to the
expert in San Francisco for analysis and
the returns were -, II, Lee, Is, 1911, 1877
and 1871 per cent respectively. The SAM
pie 1911 the chemist says was better
than any beet he had tested this year in
California. Out Of the seventeen samples
aforementioned fifteen were analysed by
D. Falmage, and from whose analysis spe-
cial prizes were awarded, gave from 1892
as follows: 1892, 1882, 1851, 1890, 1867,
1886, 1884, 1904, 14.so, 142S, Is 20, 1902
1851, 14.62, and l4.40, respectively while
two samples the one very imma-
ture, gave 9.09, and whether which
was really msngold wurtzel, and should
not have been entered, gave all; this
showing, considering that the farmers
and did not have due regard to quality. is
exceedingly fattering. The question
of the saccharinity of Utah beets
we regard as satisfactorily and favorably
settled. As to the cost of raising beets we
find in California the cost is as follows:
Flowing and sowing per acre. $50. (This
provides thorough pulverization. blowing
q
ten or twelve inches, and the SOW
ing with drills and cost of
seed for wedding and thin
ming and hoeing, digging. topping
and loading, provided the crop is Is tons
per acre, $40 and 25-1OO, and the haul
ing $3.50 per acre, making total cost of
1855, to this in Utah; add a. % for irriga-
ton, cost VOID be $4,000 or 50 66 per ton
for fifteen ton crop and $500 per ton for
a 10 ton crop, so that If beets are pur-
chased at price in proportion TO their
sweetness, 10 ton crop of IA per cent.
sweetness would bring the farmer $50 or q
IL ton crop Of 16 per cent or
a 10 ton crop of is per cent would also
bring him $50. The crop in Cal
ifornia this year IN consequence of the ex-
cessive drouth, it was thought would pro
duce no more than ten tons per acre; but
the beets were many Of them rediculously