The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-25

the purest and whitest of sugar, and that
at the rate of 800 to 1000 tons per day the
beets are manufactured into 100 tons or
more of sugar, according to the percentage
of sugar in the beet; and that by the Joint
efforts of the tiller Of the soil, the chemist
i'll his laboratory, the mechanic in his shop,
this not-long-since plebeian root has be-
come the source from which three-fifths Of
the worlds supply of sugar is produced,
and by reason of which the wornout
soils and overpopulated countries of the
Old World are enabled once more to make
their fields economically productive, TAX
ing from the air rather than from the soil
the hydrocarbon substance we call sugar
we are filled with amazement.
The beet, as to its sugar contents, is an
air feeder, absorbing the hydrocarbon
direct from the air. A French agricultural
report some years since spoke of the So
600, 600 francs income from tax on sugar as
so much tax upon the air waited over the
sun-kissed leaves of the broad beet fields of
la belle France.
When they further consider that the
sugar beet grown in the northern parts of
Europe, where these marvellous results
indigen Gus in a much milder climate,
| namely, the regions bordering the north
ern shores of the Mediterranean, we can
fully appreciate the lesson taught by the
history of the sugar-beet industry, which
might be advantageously followed in most
other food products.
The sugar beet is biennial plant stor-
ing through the leaves from the air during
the first year of its growth nutriment in
the shape Of sugar, that in the second year
is to support the seed stock and mature
the seed. 1t would therefore of necessity
have to originate in and be indigenous to
a country whose climate Is sufficiently
mild to allow the roots to remain unfrozen
in the ground, where they have grown,
during the winter season, preparatory to
putting forth the foliage and seed stock
necessary to reproduce itself from the seed
thus matured. In those portions of France,
Germany and Austria where the sugar
beet industry has reached such perfection,
the climate is too cold for this, therefore
the sugar beet is an exotic in these regions
and cannot be expected to flourish at its
maximum perfection.
The natural habit of the sugar beet is to
send its taproot deep into the subsoils in
search of nutriment (as deep as twelve
feet, as shown by absolute proof, which is
evidence that it must have originated in a
dry climate and deep alluvial soils.
We find here in California all those ma
tural conditions by which the sugar beet
was enabled to come into existence in its
original home; such as a mild, dry eli
mate, deep alluvial soils and long periods
of sunshiny weather. We can, therefore,
expect, as in fact it has already been
proven, that in the coast valleys along the
Pacific Ocean the sugar beet will again
find its natural home; and after long
travelling through experimental stages as
a food and sugar producing plant in Eu-
rope and across the broad Atlantic. has at
last found with us in California a combi-
nation of those conditions which will I'M
questionably enable it to become one of
the great economical and industrial prod
ucts of this country.
These conclusions. drawn from the nat
ural history of the sugar beet, and the his
tory of its manufacture, have been fully
borne out by the actual industrial efforts
thus far made on the Pacific Coast.
The original factory first put into opera
ton many years ago, after having gone
through many necessary vicissitudes of
EXPERIMENTATION, has how, for some years,
been running successfully and at a profit
to its owners at Alvarado Alameda County.
The jacksonville factory, in Santa Cruz,
County. established by Claus Spreckels,
backed by large capital and managed by
experienced beet-sugar manufacturers, has
been a success from the start, and they
have just finished most successful and
profitable campaign.
The history of the sugar-bee industry at
Chino, San Bernardino County, among the
orange groves of Southern California, es-