The Globe-republican., 1897-02-11
800, 100000 A YEAR.
REPUBLICANS WILL ADD TO
THE FARMERS EARNINGS.
Their Plans for Substantial Aid In the
Beet Sugar Industry In tho United
Prosperity,

Prosperity,
A round hundred millions is the sum
which republicans propose to add to
the earnings of the farmers of the
United States in a single item, If they
succeed in carrying out the plans urged
upon the ways and means committee
at Washington last week. The way
this is to be accomplished is by Civ
ing such encouragement to the beet
sugar industry as to make it practi-
cable for them to produce all the sugar
for which this country now sends
abroad $1OO.000,0OO annually. This
question was argued by men who have
not a dollar of personal interest in the
beet sugar industry, but are moved by
their belief that it is practicable to so
manage beet sugar culture by tariff
or bounty, or both, as to bring this re-
suit. It was evident that the repub-
lican members of the committee were
greatly impressed with the facts pre-
sented, and are likely to give generous
encouragement to this industry in
framing the next tariff bill. One of the
speakers, Mr.. Herbert Myrick of New
York, showed in his address that it
now requires every pound of the wheat
and -four exported by the United States
during the past fiscal year to pay for
the sugar imported. The total value
OF all live and dressed beef, beef prod
ucts and lard exported during the
past year barely equalled the amount
paid for imported sugar. Our immense
import trade in cotton represents in
value only twice as much as our i'm
port of sugar. Our vast export of to-
bacco must be magnified thrice to
counterbalance sugar imports. The
barley, oats and rye, fruits and nuts,
hops, vegetable oils, oleomargarine,
butter and cheese, pork and hams that
were exported last year all put togeth-
er represent in value only two-thirds
OF the sugar imported. 1t is an eco
nomic crime to compel American farm
ers to raise staples in competition with
the Experimentation countries,
with which to pay for imported sugar,
besides standing the freight and COM
mission both ways. No wonder agri-
culture is depressed. for not only are
American farmers deprived of the home
market for $1O0,OOO,OOO worth of goods
annually, but imports of other products
that can be grown within our borders
average $12O,OOO,0OO per year more
wool, hides, cotton, tobacco, vegetables,
breadstuffs, dairy produce, fruits and
nuts, hops. hay, oil, rice, flaxseed,
bristles, bark, sumach, chicory, eggs,
hair, etc. Add imports of manufactures
of hides, wool and cotton, most of
which could be made in this country
from domestic produce, and we have
total of nearly $SOO,OOO,OOO a year, of
which American farmers could, should
and must, have a larger share without
necessarily curtailing their exports of
farm products.
Mr.. Myrick stated that practical ex-
perience and scientific tests have shown
that sugar beets can be grown from the
Hudson river to the Pacific and from
the Carolinas to the lakes as rich in
saccharine content as those of Europe,
which now furnishes so large proper
ton of sugar to the world and makes
it entirely from beets. The people, he
said, want factories established to at
ford a market for these sugar beets,
which they are willing to furnish at
from 81 to IS per ton. At these prices
the crop is a new and profitable one.
Every acre devoted to it will by so
much reduce the competition in other
branches of farming.
An acre of corn at the west, yield |
ing forty bushels of grain worth Is |
cents per bushel, will buy something |
more than 100 pounds of granulated |
sugar at the grocery store. That same |
acre of land devoted to sugar beets will
produce from 1000 to 5000 pounds of |
refined sugar, like the finest white SUI
gar you can buy. The corn, under such |
returns about S. per acre |
for all the labor and capital invested |
In that crop. Sugar beets yield $25 |
to $50 per acre; while they require far |
more labor they pay for it and leave a
prOnt OF $1V 10 90 per acre, WHICH Is
handsome compared to the meager re-
turns from corn, wheat, oats, etc. The |
labor item is of vast importance. In |
Californian experience, for every man
who gets a job on grain crop forty
one are employed to raise beets. The |
labor on 225 acres of beets yielding |
!, 1852 tons Gncluding $500 payroll at |
factory during the manufacture of this |
ot) was $4,000; the same land in bar
ey required only $500 for labor.
Beet culture, however, cannot be
learned in a single season. 1t is high
intensive horticulture, like
he market near our great cities, which
Is the result of fifty years experience.
Under the best management it takes
rom two to four seasons for the far
mers in any locality to learn how to
ROW beets to the best advantage. IN
Ill this is done, the sugar factory is
not assured of an abundant supply of
,eets of proper quality. Meanwhile the
=. .3r11 /