The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1893-12-08

can affect the price while he is pro-
ducing it. Each years experience
puts him in better position TO con-
tract for the coming year. This mutual
dependence of manufacturer and pro-
ducet will always insure a reasonably
fair division of profits. The manu-
facturer, with half million or more
! invested in plant that can be run but
for few weeks or months annually,
! must be sure of his supply, and the
fainief; learning by experience the
price that will pay him. has the whip
handle, aud no extortion can be
, practiccd.
The factory we visited is the Nor
folk Beet Sttgar Factory, located at
Norfolk on the north fork of the Elk
horn river in Nebraska, OH the railroad
leading from Fremont on the Platte to
the Black Hills of Dakota. The same
company owns also faat9Ey ct Grand
Island on the Platte river, Which Eve
did not have time to visit. They also
run two factories in California. The
business, after many discpuragemehts
and liberal expenditure, is now in
Nebraska, but we understand that the
California factories are much more
profitable owing to the longer season
for planting and manufacture. The
great drawbacks to the business in
Newbraska are the lack of labor and
the short season for working up the
crop. Farmers are deferred from
planting large areas because of the i'm
possibility of getting abundant help at
thinning time. Both of these difficult
tics would be obviated in Southern
latitude. 30 far az I could observe.
the culture is almost identical with
that of cotton, except that deeper
breaking is necessary for the beets.
Our Southern farm hands, accustomed
to chopping out and thinning cotton,
would find the chopping out and thin
ming the beets almost identical, and the
abundance of this class Of labor in the
South would admit of beet culture on
larger scale than an Nebraska Then
too we could begin to SOW earlier in
spring, and by succession of crops,
could keep the factory running twice
as long as therc. We drove into the
country around Norfolk, Nebraska, and
talked with quite lumber of the
farmers. They are generally on ignorant
class of German immigrants, but they
all agree that the beet crop is the most
profitable one they raise. The only
other crops are corn and prairie hay,
and though they raise large corn crops
the price, 90 to 25 cents per bushel,
renders it necessary that they turn it
into beef and pork to get any profit
o"' Of it. From n number of these
. ers / ascertained that their average
gross receipts are about $4,000 per
acre for the beets The factory pays
tnc dfv1~ess;nn nf $500 per ton and
acre, though there are instances uf ov
or more tons being raised. One grower
in California is said to have raised 81
tons per acre, the largest yield known.
Too large beet is not wanted, one
the size of small or medium pine
apple being as large as desired. In
California the price runs as high at
$3.50 per ton, the practice there being
to pay according to the saccharine
quality of the beet as asccrtained by
the Polariscope. But owing to the
less intelligent character of the Ne
brnska grower it has been found ncccs.
sary to fix an average price for MI.
The greatest care is used in getting
seed from beets of good pedigree, the
best seed growers in Europe always
testing by the Polariscore every beet
planted for seed, and rejecting all that
falls below standard in quality. The
to Europteg GtgreFs qI st.r annually send an agent
crop, and buy 10 beets but tH6sh
various soils. This liz more essential
where the average price prevails, than
when each grower is responsible for
the quality of hiscrop. An exp ,rienc
ed buyer is already in Europe select
, ing seed for the crop of 1891, and con-
tracts are now being made with the
! farmers for next ycnr. Every one
with whom we converscd has increased
| his planting annually and all propose
; to put in larger area next year
though the factory has neatly reach ed
its full capacity for that climate. This
: is of itself sufficient indication of the
value of the crop to the grower. who
, all seem enthusiastic or the subject.
We were hardly preparei for the ex-
, ttht VI VIC "S
had hesrd of it. The Norfolk Beet
Sugar Company has a plant which We
were informed cost S300, 900, and from
the extent of the massive brick builI.
ings, and the array of complicntcd
machinery we could well believe the
statement. They say that they wonlt
not build another so small Thi:
company expected to turn odt ihi.
season over three million pounds O
granulated white sugar. I file will
this sample of this sugar, which wa
made in twelve hours from the raw
beets. The process usedis diffusion
process. The beets are carried from
the soils, or covered pits between tn
railroad tracks, through cementet
sluices, through which stream o
water rushes, to an opening in thu
wall of the building, where an Ar
chimedean screw elevates them to tn
washer, which is long trough, throuGl
the centre of which shaft revolves o.
which is special line of wooden pins