The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-03-23
WANT THEIR MONEY QUICK QUESTION STILL OPEN AGREEMENT REACHED TROOPS FOR MGNNRA OF CANE SUGAR
GREAT PROSPERITY IN THE BEET
INDUSTRY.
Colonel Macfarlane on the Beet Busi-
ness in California-Europe is Hawairs
Competitor

Competitor
Colonel George w Macfarlane re- |
turned this morning on the Mariposa
from London in company with II. H. /
Fowler head of the firm of John Fow- |
Ter and company, makers and inventors
of the Fowler steam ploW- which are
largely used in the islands, and George
Turner a director in the same firm.
During the past month the three gentle
ment have been making some investi-
cation into the sugar beet industry in
California, and Colonel Macfarlaue says
he is convinced that it Is going to be a
very large industry. MIR Turner has
resided in Germanys beet sugar dis
tricts for thirty years and is an ack-
roWiedged sugar beet expert
Mr. Fowler visited Hawaii twenty
years ago. when he introduced the first
steam plow and demonstrated its great
worth fur cane cultivation, on the
SpreCkelsville plantation on Maui lie
now returns, says Colonel Macfarlane
TO see the wonderful development and
perfection to which cane growing has
been brought in the Islands Fowler
remembers when the Ewa and Homo
lulu plantation lands were barren
wastes and is much Interested in seeing
them now. Turner and Fowler viii re-
main two weeks In Honolulu after
/ Il francisco
10 complete "a visit with Mr.. Rithet to
the Hawaiian refinery and beet factory
of Crockett and other beet farms in
/ California Colorado and Nebraska. In
June Mr. and Mrs Fowler and their
( daughter viii return to England. where
I he viii report to his partners results of
/ his observations i'm Hawaii and Califor-
MIA
"A year and a half ago, said Colonel
MaCfarlane, in answer TO an inquiry
my attention was directed to the beet
sugar industry in California, by the
/ fact that Claus Spreckels gave an order
/ for two of the largest steam plows for
I his Salinas beet sugar estate. l began
investigating California as a possible
/ field for investments for some English
friends and also as a possible market
! for the plows, the agency for which
! have held in the islands for twenty
J years, during which period 60 odd sets.
of the aggregate value of about a mil
lion and half dollars. have been i'm
ported.
The steam plows had been a great
( success in the cane sugar business and
could not see why they should not be
applied equally with good results to the
cultivation of the sugar beets. especial
: ly as In Germany and Austria use of
the Fowler .plows made beet sugar a
competitor of cane sugar, increasing
the sachrine yield of the beet from or
s per cent to IA and 15 per cent and the
tonnage of beet roots per acre from or
Z to ID and Is. Beet crops only take
! from four to five months to mature as
against 10 to 20 months for cane. so
that it will be readily understood that
beet sugar has advantages not hitherto
appreciated by island people. Two
crops of beets can be grown and har-
vested while one cane crop is maturing,
and with less than a third of the cost
n not inn in, Lob
hoeing, stripping, irrigation, etc. as
well as in cost of water for irrigation.
Il became something of an enthusiast
about beets after a visit to some of the
California factories in company with
Joseph Marsden, formerly of Honokaa
an old friend who was probably one of
the most practical men connected with
the cane industry in the islands, We
saw returns from some of the best
factories that astonished us, and we at
once made joint investment in one OF
the best factories. During the past tive
years of almost unprecedented drought
the worst California has passed
, through in fifty years,-returns from
the factory we invested in were ten pei
cent, and now that the State has re.
turned to condition of normal rainfall
look for from 25 to 30 per cent. divi-
dends from this beet sugar stock TIL,
factory returned 35 per cent three years
, ago. | found other factories that die
as well-the saccharine yield in the
beets of California exceeded that in
the German beets by / and per cent
After visiting the Paris exposition
with my family l went to London anC
: laid the matter of California beet su-
gar investment before some English
' friends and induced Messrs Fowler ant
Turner to change their intended vaca.
tion trip on the continent to a trip t
California and to incidentally look into
the beet business with me. We have
paid visits to the OXnard, Spreckels
Clark, Burr, Santa Haria and Alameda
factories, situated in Ventura, Salinas
Las Alamedos, Betteravia, Chino and
Alvarado respectively, and my friend:
are very much impressed and decided
TO make investments. The factories are
modern ones, in every respect quite as
| good as the best in Germany, while
the tracts of land they possess and con,
troll are very extensive and fertile
There have been bountiful rains this
year and crops will be large. DurinG
| the next few years shall devote q
: large part of my time to working VI
opportunities for investments in Cal.
ifornia.
e 81 feel that at present there is moi
much announcement for my London o
. New York friends to start development
of any large cane sugar estates in ou
lSianus-nol thdl tle limit OF pIOuucIlOl
. in the Islands has been reached, but al
e the available tracts of land have beer
2 taken up. Outside of investments II
shares of the present Hawaiian estates
= / fear there is no scope today for tn,
large operator to get into sugar on tn
islands, unless on an inflated basis
, while California offers a field in whicl
capitalists may get In on sugar invest
ments and beet lands at something lik
!, bedrock prices. The small buyer car
\ find good investments in sugar stock
that can be purchased in Hawaii toda,
: but for the large operator there is n
y field in Hawaii at present.
y 81 do not consider that California
e likely to be a competitor of Hawaii 10
e many years to come and then only 4
: quantity produced and not in price. TIL
y combined cane and beet sugar produC
ton of both California and Hawaii
about 100000 tons a year. while tn
| cnnalInl nl ion of anRar in the IInite