The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1897-03-25
beet Sugar.

In the early part of the session OF
the Legislature committee of the SEN
ate was appointed to investigate as to
the probable proftableness of beet SUI
sgar raising in this State. The follow
ing Senators comprise the committee:
Keller, Smith, Greer, Lloyd, French
and Cronkhite. Mr.. Keller has been
especially active in the matter. He
secured the services of Prof. P. E.
Kaiser, of this city, as clerk of the COM
mittee. The report of the investiga-
tion was presented few days ago.
The Minneapolis Journal of the 10Th
, contains an article as to what has been
done by the committee, which is too
lengthy for our limited space. We
make a few extracts:
SAT the present time there are nego-
tiations under way between Philadel-
phia capitalists and the Great North
ern, Northern Pacific and st. Paul &
Duluth railways which, if successfully
completed, will result in the establish
mant of four large beet-sugar factories
in this state, and there are numerous
private parties who have signified
desire to enter upon the field which
looks so promising.
''Some interesting calculations have
been made by Professor Kaiser. He
says that during the years from 1891
to 1895 inclusive the United States i'm
ported sugar and molasses to the val
lie of 500, 900, 900 exclusive of tariff
charges. During the same period, in
round numbers, our exports of wheat
and -four amounted to 1886, 600, 900.
Add the duty charges to the former
and it is almost as great as the latter.
Professor Kaiser also estimates
that the 1,500, 900 people in Minnesota
use annually 100000 900 pounds of SUI
gar, costing about $4,000, 900, every
cent of which goes out of the state. 1t
needs no further argument to show the
vastness of the market which awaits
the coming industry.
I'm order to give fair idea of the
value of the beet sugar industry it is
necessary to quote few figures. The
total product of the beet sugar in the
United States in 1895 was 80, 900 tons;
of cane sugar, $4,000 tons, Total
domestic production, including maple
and sorghum sugar, 81, 900 tons. The
total imports were l, $50, 600 tons, val
ued at $11O, 600, 900. The total con-
sumption was 1850, 900 tons of 2,240
pounds. 1t can be seen by this that
the United States consumes about,
1000, 900 tons of sugar annually, and
produces but 81 900 tons of sugar an
nually.
1.-THE first beet sugar factory in
America was built at Chatsworth, ILL.,,
in 1862 There are now eight factories
located in five different states, and
one other to be built in Wisconsin.
These factories in 1895 turned out co.
900, 900 pounds of sugar.
1.-THE universal testimony of chem
lists says the report, is that any good
wheat land is suitable for beets, and
it is, therefore, easy to see that they
can be cultivated with great success in
almost any portion of the state. Re-
peated analysis has shown that beets
raised in the United States contain as
great a percentage of sugar as similar
vegetables grown in Europe.
I'D. A. Harper of the Minnesota ex-
detrimental station after four years ex-
periments in beet sugar cultivation in
the state, says the results were reason
ably satisfactory. The experiments
of 1890 were SO encouraging that seeds
were imported from Germany, and dis
tributed among $500 farmers in all
parts of the state. The resulte are
best stated in the following table:
Result of experiments with sugar
boot for tho wear 1890