The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-15
Special to The Scranton Tribune.

Washington, May Il.
A map of the United States with a
broad red stripe running across it from
the Atlantic to the Pacific will soon or
nament the walls of the office of The
secretary of agriculture. This map
and particularly this stripe will inter-
est especially two great classes of citi-
zens of the United States, the farmers
and the capitalists.
Having distributed sugar beet seeds
to about twenty thousand farmers"
said Secretary Wilson, 81 want to take
up the practical end of this subject
now and show to the captallf.s as well
as the farmers where they can afford
to make such experiments and enter
upon such business investments as are
likely to be a success financially and
otherwise"
You still have faith, then, in the
beet sugar enterprise from a practical
standpoint"
Undoubtedly; and it Is evident that
the people of the United States have
faith in it. We have supplied in the
last four weeks twenty thousand farm
ers of the country with sugar beet
seeds for experiments during the COM
practically every state north of the eX-
treme southern line of states. The
people as far south as the Carolinas,
Tennessee and Texas believe that they
can grow sugar beets successfully And
we are quite willing to give them full
opportunity to make that test every
where. If they succeed in extending
the beet sugar territory down to the
Of ho
ought to be no difficulty in producing
in the United States all of the hundred
million dollars worth of sugar for
which we are now going abroad an
| nually.
THE BUSINESS VIEW.
1.-THE practical business end of this
experiment" continued Secretary Will
son, as he glanced at the map of the
| United States hanging upon the wall
| of his office, "is the next thing to be
taken up. We hape supplied people in
all parts of the country with sugar beet
| seeds and they can now go on with
their experiments in growing them.
| Meantime we shall begin our more
technical equally important investiga-
| tions to determine what part of the
l
| full field for operations both in the ac-
| tual growth of the beets and the pro-
duction of the highest grades in sugar
| content. This is subject which the
capitalists of the country especially
want to know about. 1t takes money
to establish a beet sugar factory. 1t is
not practicable for the farmer who
| raises a few acres of beets to turn
| ;,,tn ut 60
| The factory must have such expensive
machinery and be operated upon such
a large scale as to absorb the produc-
ton of several farms if it is to be a
| financial success. SO the capitalists
who are waiting to put their money
| into beet sugar factories are entitled
| to all the information which we can
| give them as TO the section or sections
of country where beet sugar is most
likely to be successfully produced and
likely to be most successful in produc-
ton. To rhfs end they ought t" have
the best information that can be OBJ
tanned in regard to climate, soil, trans
portation. conveniences and other elc-
ments which enter into a det armnA-
tlor of these questions. The neXt step p
which propt Sc to undertake, then, is
| to put into the hands of some com
petcrt pei son or persons the study 1f
this subject including climate, rainfall,
character Of soil and other matters of
| this kind in the various parts of the
| various states. The records of the cli-
mate and rainfall for a term Of years
can readily be obtained almost any
where. Samples of soil can also be OBJ
tanned and analyzed. Where 1t is prac-
| ticable to make these analyses at the
| State Experiment station this Will be
done; where 1t is not practicable, the
samples of soil will be forwarded here
or to such other convenient point as
may be selected and analyses made.
| In this way, while the farmers are eX-
perimenting with the growth Of the
sugar beets we expect to be making
equally important experiments and r
| searches from this standpoint and !
| combination of these experiments J
able to indicate to the people desirin&
| to invest in the establishment OF sugar
ia ctories, the locations CIR the strip OF
country where they are most likely to
| meet with success and IIhely 10 meet
| with the most success"
PLENTY OF CAPITAL.
you think, then, that there is capi-
tai in the country ready to go into the
beet sugar manufacturing Industry
Undoubtedly. and plenty OF it. A
number of factories are already in pro-
cess of erection and people with capital
are willing and ready to establish
many more of them as soon as they
determine what sections of the Coun-
try are best adapted for practical beet
sugar production. / hope to have a
broad line extending across that mar
from the Atlantic to the Pacific in a
comparatively short time indicating
the practical beet sugar belt of the
country in which capitalists as we'll as