The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-07-21
MAKING BEET SUGAR.
THE IMPROVED QUALITY OF SUGAR
A RESULT OF THIS INDUSTRY.

Producing Beet Sugar In This Country
Can he Made Pronabie-The Industry
FIourishes In France and Germany and
Has Become Greatly Developed Here.
The making of sugar from beet roots
must undoubtedly be reckoned serious
factor in the industrial world. First
undertaken on a large scale amid the
throes of war century ago, 1T soon be-
came firmly established, attained con-
siderable dimensions and effected some
thing like "a revolution in the sugar
trade. For 10 il we owe most of the inn
provements in sugar making processes,
and especially the now well nigh uni
versal refining Of the product to its
purest and most attractive form. But
for Bonapartes quarrel with England
the sugar of general use might still be
musCovado.
In later years the beet sugar industry
has pushed forward to predominant over
that of cane. The one has been greatly
stimulated by bounty systems in France,
Germany and the United States, while
social disturbances and other influences
have much depressed the other. Two
years of war have almost destroyed the
cane sugar industry of Cuba, and an
imperial commission is holding what
seems much like an antemortem inquest
upon that in the British West Indies.
At the same time the beet sugar indus
try in the United States has been great
ly developed, and under the energetic
encouragement of the present admins
tration bids fair 10 continue its growth
at an accelerated rate.
There is little doubt that the industry
can be made widely profitable. The best
beet roots contain about as much sugar
as does cane. The yield Of them to the
acre is enormous. They can be grown
through a far wider climatic range of
country than can cane, and thus can be
produced where industrial conditions
and proximity to market are most ia
vorable for profit OF all this there is
no reasonable doubt. At the same time
much caution is to he observed by all
who would seek to engage in the enter
| prise. There are men now living who
remember the disastrous mulberry tree
| and silkworm mania and other similar
crazes that have swept over this coun-
] try. 1t will not do to rush heedlessly
! into the growing of sugar beets, for the
result might be even more ruinous than
that of any previous craze. There are,
no doubt, places in this country where
silk culture might be conducted as sue
| caccfr llu in Eranoa or Tonan xyac
the indiscriminate attempt to do it in
all places. without regard to fitness,
! that brought ruin. There are probably
millions of acres of land in the United
States OH which sugar beets can be
grown as successfully as in France or
Germany, but there are also millions of
acres on which they cannot. That is the
J first fact for the farmer to take into
consideration and for the agricultural
department to make clear
The sugar beet experiment was tried
in England, where common beets and
turnips have long been leading and
most profitable crop, but it has failed,
and the last of the beet sugar factories
! has closed its doors. The rivalry of the
J continental beet sugar producers, who
enjoy large government bounties, is
named as a reason for this result. Per-
haps it is one reason, but another po-
| tent one is almost certainly to be found
in the unfavorable climate of England.
The summer is too short and the wealth
er too cool and damp to develop the
fullest amount of sugar in the beets.
That is an example that may well be
borne in mind here. Careful investiga-
tion and experiment can alone determine
the fitness of any region for this crop,
and these should be undertaken. There
is a possibility and probability of de-
veloping vast and beneficent industry.
There ought to be no danger Of an in
sensate and disastrous craze.-New
York Tribune.
| Ipcoyne nj Paintera Not Largo.