The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1897-10-22
Secretary Wilson on the Beet
Sugar Industry.

Secretary Wilson, of the Department
of Agriculture, is confident that the
result of this years experiments with
sugar beets will add 800 per cent to the
beet sugar factories of the country.
81 know of people who stand ready"
said he, in speaking on this subject, "to
establish twenty beet-sugar factories
in this country next year."
"That will be a pretty big increase,
will it not, Mr.. Secretary"
1T will. We have, perhaps, half
dozen beet sugar factories in the
United States now, all told, so that it
will be an increase of about 300 per
cent, which | think will be very good
for the first year of the experiment"
"Your experiments of this year have
apparently been successful then ?"
Eyes. Beyond question. OF course
our analyses have not progressed suf-
ficiently yet to show very definitely
what each section has done or is doing,
but there is no doubt in my mind of
the entire feasibility and practicability
of the production of all our sugar in
this country. The interest which the
farmers of the country have devel-
oped in beetraising, the results of such
analyses as have already been made
of the beets produced this year and
what we know as to the results in
former years and as TO this years crop
in the sections where beet growing
has already been developed, show be-
yOnd question that it is entirely prac-
ticable for the people of this country
to produce their own sugar"
THAT means the retention in the
United States of great deal of money
which now goes abroad?'
"HeS. a hundred millions is a good
deal of money, and especially when it
goes out of the country. If we can
distribute among our farmers the hun
dred million dollars which we now
send abroad for our sugar it will be
very important thing to them and TO
the country in general. 1t will be es-
pecially so to labor. People talk about
labor and about doing things for labor
and for the cause of the working man.
| What can be done more to the advant-
age of the workingman than to put
into his pockets hundred million
dollars which we send out of the
country every year for a single article
Then add to that the amount which we
send to other parts of the world foI
other classes of farm products which
might be kept at home and the total is
something enormous. The value OF
the products of agriculture which are
brought into the United States and
which we might produce at home If we
were to make the proper effort is, in
round numbers, S3S0,000,000 per year
Why not give that TO our farmers 2"
"What is being done, Mr.. Secretary
in the way of learning the result OF
this years experiments with the sugar
beet seed which you sent out last
spring."
'We are gathering the beets pro
duced from the seeds by sections anC
States into our experiment stations
and testing and analyZlng them. These
analyses are going on constantly, anC
will continue for some weeks or per
hapS months. 1t is comparatively
slow process, but one which will give
us q thorough practical and scientific
knowledge of the capabilities of the
various sections of the country fol
this kind of work, and while the
analyses have not yet. progressed very
far, enough has been done to satisfy
me that the results of this years eX
perimentS with sugar beets are goins
to be very satisfactory and encOurag
ing. l am confident that before tn,
end of another year we shall have
twenty-five great beet sugar establish
ments in operation in the United
States, scattered all the way from New
York State to the Pacific Coast, anC
producing large quantities of beet SUI
gar and opening the way to the pro
duction by our farmers of at least
large proportion of the sugar fol
which we now send our money
abroad"