The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-26
BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY.

Probably the most distinctive feature
in the Utah business world for the past
year has been the widely awakened
interest in the possibilities of the beet
sugar industry. This has been evinced
very emphatically in two ways-the
steady increase in the demand for
and the rise IN the market value of
the stock of the Utah Sugar company,
and the Inauguration of a new factory,
practically a duplicate of the one at
Iehi, TO be constructed Immediately at
Ogden. There is also a great deal of
talk about two other factories, one in
Juab or Sanpete county and another,
which viii practically be a Utah con-
Germ, to be erected in Oregon. The
beet sugar industry has passed beyond
the experimental stage, and it is now
practically certain that this is one of
the great future industries of the entire
United States. Indeed, it is not too
much to say that at the present rate
of the growth OF the beet sugar indus
try. the United States within ten or
10 years viii be exporting sugar instead
of sending abroad annually over $780,
Gee, 000 to buy what its people consume.
THE LEHI FACTORY.
The Utah sugar factory was con-
structed in 1889, and has just finished
its seventh seasons run. Its greatest
year WAS 1885, when its output amount
ed TO over nine and one-quarter mil
lion pounds. The past year has not
been so favorable, owing TO the blight
that settled on the beet crop, and the
years output was only a little more
than three and one-haIf million pounds
Of sugar. Still, the increased price for
sugar, due to the Dingley tariff act,
has aided the company and enabled it
year p cents more per ton than the
price paid in 1896. or S4.25 as against
81. The cost of the sugar company's
plant at Iiehi has been considera bly,
over $50G.00o, and everybody knows it
ran several years without making any
returns to its stockholders. Latterly
il has paid 10 per cent per annum, and
its stock On the market from having
no quotable value whatever four or five
years ago, has advanced till it is held
Stiffly at IS per share, with few or no
sellers at that price. The owners feel
very hopeful of the future, notwith-
standing the competition which they
viii undoubtedly have to meet, and it
is worthy of note that the Lehi and
the Ogden institutions will be run in
entire harmony, as many people who
own stock in one are also interested
in the other.
How great boon the sugar factory
has been for the people of Lehi is well
evidenced by the fact that there has
not been a delinquent taxpayer in that
locality for some years past. The fac
tory paid out to farmers in 1886 over
$l50.000, and in 1897 about half that
sum. Its pay rolls each month that it
is in operation run up sito the thou
sands, and it also keeps thousands of
dollars at home each year for sugar,
that was previously sent out of the
state, and when it has a large run it
brings into the state large sums of
money for its product sold in Montana
Idaho and Wyoming. Under the care
fui and conservative management of
superintendent Thomas r. Cutler, the
factory is run on the most economical
basis, and though when constructed it
was said to have a capacity for work
ing $50 tons of beets per day, its aver
age has been nearly 400 tons.
Utah consumes annually about 49,
00O, 600 pounds of sugar From the pres
ent outlook it viii not be long before
her own factories Will manufacture all
she consumes, and have a considerable
surplus to send outside