Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-03-15
A BIG SUGAR PLANT
ottumwa May Secure a Million
Dollar Factory.
NO DONATION IS ASKED OF PEOPLE
will be Required TO Cultivate Between
200 and 800 Acres of seets TO
Demonstrate Quality That
May be Grown

from wednesday S Dally.
A beet sugar factory to cost any
where from 100000 to 81 ,5OO,OOO is
one OF the possibilities for Ottumwa
within a year, provided it is demon
strated to the promoters of the enter
prise that Wapello county can grow
good beets for the purpose. All that
is required to get the factory is that
the people of this city take enough
interest in the matter to secure the
necessary amount of good farmers to
raise the required acreage Of beets this
season for which the farmer will find
q ready sale at the prevailing market
price. On the face of it, the PROPOSE
ton is one of the best that Ottumwa
has yet struck and the deeper one gets
into it the better it seems.
+. III. Gibson, representing the Iowa
Beet Sugar Developing Association, is
in the city today and said: sOur as
ISOLATION is capitalized for the sum of
100000 and j. S. Emery, of Des
Moines, is president of the o%rganiza-
1ion. Our plan is this: In order to
demonstrate to a certainty that this
county can grow beets to. supply a fac
tory which may be erected here be-
cause of the good railway facilities, we
desire THAI enough farmers be secured
to plant 200 to 800 acres of land in
beets and attend to the business of
~cultivating them"
The beets grown by the farmers in
this vicinity will be bougha by the pro-
motors OF the enterprise at $3.50 per
ton and by them re-sold &c a factory at
Pekin, ILL.,, where they have a contract
for the product of 1000 acres. The
promoters of the beet sugar idea will
furnish the beet seed at 20 cents per
pound, will furnish the tools with
which to cultivate the land at a small
rental, thus making it possible for the
farmer TO experiment in this line with
very little cost. They also agree
to send out an expert beet grower
whose services will be furnished free.
While the farmer is demonstrating the
feasibility of growing the beet in this
SOIL, he stands a fair show to make
money by the experiment as we'll. 1t
is said that fifteen tons per acre is
considered a very small yield which at
$3.50 per ton would amount to no
small thing.
This seems to be a bona fde chance
for Ottumwa to obtain a very large
manufacturing institution at literally
no cost and the promoters of the idea
should be encouraged in every posi-
BILE way. The president of the concern
is a Des Moines MAJ whose financial
ability cannot be questioned, and
whose business ideas must be good be-
cause he is at the head of the largest
retail establishments in the state OF
Iowa.
Here is another thing that Cttumwa
people are not used to-: The COM
pany does not ask for any kind of a
donation, but believing that the state
of Iowa can raise as good or better
beets than anywhere else on the globe
they think they will get their reward
in the shape Of dividends when the
plant is put into operation and the
sugar from Wapello county grown
beets is being manufactured and ship
ped all owe the United States.
From Thursdays Daily.
The million dollar beet sugar facto-
ry that Ottumwa may secure is not a
myth or a scheme but on the contrary
seems to nave the most solid financial
backing and business ability behind it
possible. 1t should be remembered
that no donation is asked and that all
the requirements attached to the prop
osition is for the business men of this
city to help get their farmer friends
demonstrate beyond a scintilla of
doubt that a good quality Of sugar
beets can be grown in Wapello county,
thus insuring the promoters of the en-
terprise that they have a solid base
upon which to work before they invest
their money.
E. H. Gibson, the representative of
the Iowa Beet Sugar Developing COM
pany, who is in the city working up
an interest among the business men
in regard to the matter, in an inter-
view this morning said:
"The Iowa Beet Sugar Developing
company has had beets grown in ev-
cry county in the state of Iowa every
year for the past five years and has
thoroly demonstrated beyond all
doubt that there is no country in the
world that will produce a beet so rich
in saccharine matter and at the same
time produce SO large a tonnage to the
acre as will the black a~lluyial soil of
Iowa. Fifteen to twenty tons per acre
we consider a small yield, and we are
not surprised when forty or more tons
to the acre r produced.
"In 1898 Michigan had one sugar
beet factory in operation. In 1899
eight new mes We're built. Seven
0 will be erected during the COM
ing year. In the spring of 1899 in that
state $4,000 acres were planted in beets
from which 100000 Doc pounds of sugar
were manufactured and the average
yield per acre in dollars and cents
amounted to $53.40, the value of the
crop in nearly every instance being
greater than the value of the land up
on which it was grown.
"We pay foreign countries every
year over 500, DOC, 900 for sugar, every
pound of which could and should be
grown at home. 1t would not only
give employment to thousands of peo-
pie but would in a measure stop the
flow of gold from the United States
to those countries from whom we
stand so little chance to get it back
In the light of this interview it will
be seen that the future of the sugar
I,,nt -. I, Juvz1tp~ n,,o x,;o,y,. ~ f,o,,,