The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-03-02
GERMAN BEET SUGAR.
The Bounty Soon to Be withdraw.
from the Industry

The Bounty Soon to Be withdrawn
from the Industry.
The people of Utah are as much inter
ested in the culture of sugar beets and
the manufacture of sugar from them
as any other in the world, and the fol-
kloying editorial from the San Francisco
NCsl a Republican organ, will be of
4 Universal interest:
As the time approaches for the aban-
dshlent ofe>the stimulation of beet
~ fEsFslsry in Germany by prem
sSfsA 2 <t1d bountes, much interest is
49, III tie question whether the in
dG@strSEa. XII II ul2intain itself unaided All
boNhueStN -arefo be discontinued on July
81, 1897, aReef having lasted nearly a
quarter of century. On July 81, 1892.
they were reduced, and provision was
made for their further reduction on
July 81, 1895. Up to the present time
these reductions have only slightly
checked the business. In 1884 the
number Of sugar factories in operation
was 337; in 1928 it was 4O1. It re-
mains to be seen whether the total
abolition Of the bounties will be follow
ed by more serious effects. Thus far
the acreage planted in beets tends
rather TO increase than to diminish
The number Of hectares so used in 1892
SO was 352,0l5, about $4,000 acres. as
against 1886, Asa, about S25, 900 acres. in
1912
The effect of the Bismarck system
has been to treble the production of
beets in twenty years. and nearly to
double the home consumption of sugar.
In 1928 Germany raised 3.52S. 600 tons
of beets; in 1928 the crop was 9.SlI.-
OOO. In 1S72-73 the home consumption
of sugar was 29S,3S9 tons; in 1928 it
was 501,S19 tons. simultaneously the
quantity of sugar extracted from a
<.c1
creased. In 1928 100 pounds of beets
yielded S5z pounds of raw sugar; in
1928 the same quantity yielded II .9S
pounds. The increase is partly due to
improvements in the quality of the
heets, increasing the volume of sacchar-
Inc, and partly to improvements in the
manufacture, by which the loss of sac
charine in reduction has been minirn-
:. lied. The cost of refining has been SO
! greatly reduced that Germany is now
able to export 425,000 tons of sugar In
competition with the sugar crop of the
West Indies.
The beet growers of California get
more beets out Of an equal quantity of
land and more sugar out of an equal
quantity of beets than the Germans do.
In favorable localities our CROPS are
larger than theirs, out soil being more
fertile, but they partly make up the
difference by fertilizing with Chile salt
peter. The total German acreage plant
ed in beets last year was in round fig
ureS $4,000 acres, on which, as stated
aoOVe, 600 tons of beetS were rails
ed, or II tons to the acre At the Wat
sonville beet farm the product is said tn
be Is TO 20 tons of beets To the acre
and the beets are said to average Is
per cent polariZa ton, against IA or Is
per cent. polarization in Germany. At
least this is the unofficial report from
the factory.
Graf Won Schulemberg IN his report
on beet culture in Germany. mentions
q model beet farm, in which the land
after being treated b. 2 succession of
processes of cultivation and being heav-
lily MANFRED with nitrates. Welded IA
tens to the acre, containing Is per cent.
of saccharine. This corresponds very
closely to the experience of Mr.. r II
Dyer, who reported to the Agricultural
Bureau yield for his territory of Is
tons TO the acre, earring 14.3S of sucrose.
At Chino exceptional fields in favor
able seasons have yielded 10 tons 20 the
acre, with occasional lots carrying %
per cent, though the average of fjftv
samples chosen at haphazard only show
ed u per cent.
A field which will yield IA tons OF
beets carrying saccharine enough to
make them worth S. a ton at the fac
Tory produces $40 a year gross. The
Fsame field planted in wheat and Weld
ing Is bushels to the acre, which is
above the average, viii produce at pres
ent prices $11-25 gross on the farm.
The cost of raising beets, with the thor
ough cultivation they require, is, of
course, much greater than the cost of
raising wheat. But even allowing for
this. the disparity between the Yields
is large.