The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1901-11-15

The beet sugar factory is now almost
a certainty. There is no longer ques-
ton of the raising of the money for the
building and equipping of the big plant.
Absolutely the only difficulty yet re-
naming to be overcome is the securing
of sufficient acreage for the coming
season to warrant the expenditure Of
the large amount of money necessary to
start the business. If the farmers Of
the county and others who can secure
any land to work are now alive to the
opportunity before them beet sugar
factory will be in operation next fall.
Will the farmers and raisers Of the
county come to the front at this time
and pledge the necessary acreage for
the securing of this magnificent in
dustry for the county? TIE HINES,
which has for years urged the BATTER
upon the farmers of the county, and has
watched the success of the industry in
other counties as we'll as the success of
the raisers in our own county, believes
that they will. 1t does not believe that
there is any longer question of the
success of the project, but 1t believes it
because it has faith in the farmers Of
the county. In the most serious sense
of that very expressive phrase, it is now
cup to themp
q Since the last issue of The TIMES
events have moved rapidly in the mat
ter of the securing of the factory and
not the least important of these have
been the events which have contributed
to short but very thorough and con-
vincing little campaign of education.
There have been since that time the ex.
cursion to Alma, the public meeting in
this city-with the important address
and announcement by Hon. Wellington
r. Burt at that meeting-and other
meetings of the business men of the
city to devise means for still further
pursuing the campaign and getting the
necessary contracts. 1t is not neces.
sary at this time to go into details con.
corning all of these events, except in SO
far as the recital will assist in the cam
paign which is now the unnecessary
one, the securing of contracts.
AS to the visit to Alma single para.
graph is perhaps sufficient at this time,
The result was all that could have been
expected. One hundred fifty or more
interested men including many of the
most representative farmers of the
county and number of the business
men went, and as the officials of the
Alma Sugar Company, and the citizens
of that enterprising little city, can
testify, they might we'll say with Caesar
that they "came, saw, and conquered
They saw the factory, saw the beets,
the coal, the limestone, and the water,
which were being fed into the great
building in ceaseless streams, and saw
the pure white graduated sugar com
ing out. They saw the strings of farm
ers' wagons coming in from their dis
tant beet fields, and saw the cars Of
barreled or sacked sugar being shipped
away. They, or some of them at least
saw about all that there was to see
Best of all they talked with the farmers
and raisers who were coming and going
and found from their own lips what
they thought of the industry. Every.
where there was satisfaction with the
returns which they were receiving.
They heard as they had heard before
from others, of large yields and average
yields. of mortgages paid off and money
invested, but everywhere they heard OF
satisfied farmers They had seen and
heard for themselves and that was all
that the excursion to Alma was expect.
ed to accomplishing proving to the
farmers and business men Of what they
had already read or been told. The
only thing to be regretted is that more
OF the farmers still could not have had
the talks with the Alma beet raisers.
The meeting of the next day in the
opera house in this city carried the
campaign of education along still fur
tber. principally among the farmers
There was a good attendance of the