The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-11-26
WHAT SUGAR!
President Frost OF Commercial
Club Has His Eyes Opened.
Convinced That Beet Industry
Means Much to Kansas.
TO INTEREST THE CLUB
Will Submit the Matter at Next
Meeting.
Talks About Success Of Beet
Culture i'm This State.
TO INTEREST THE CLUB

Experiments in the growth of the SUI
gar beet in Kansas this year have been
SO dattering that extensive plans are
being made for the culture of that prod
uct in the western counties in the flu
ture. The raising of sugar beets will
undoubtedly become one of the princi-
pal industries in the western counties
| of Kansas through which the Arkansas
river passes.
John E. Frost. president of the To-
peka Commercial club has just returned
from Colorado where he visited the Su-
gar beet factory at Rocky Ford while
the 500 farmer excursiOnists who have
begun the cultivation of the sugar beet
in the western counties, were there
looking over the plant to gain ideas in
the new industry.
Mr.. Frost will introduce the subject
at the next meeting of the Commercial
club here in December and will ask
the club to cooperate with other Kan
sans in urging the Kansas delegation
at congress to oppose the movement on
foot that has it's origin with the sugar
trust, to repeal the duty on sugar. For
congress to take the duty off sugar.
said Mr.. Frost to a State Journal re-
porter, will mean the crushing of the
beet sugar industry in every portion of
the United States. We are especially
interested in the subject for the reason
that it will kill a project that in the
light of this years developments, is sure
to prove one of the most profitable in
dustries western Kansas has ever
known
Three hundred acres of sugar beets
were raised in the counties of Hamilton,
Kearney and Finney this year. They
We're shipped to the factory at Rocky
Ford to be converted into sugar. The
capacity of the mill at Rocky Ford was
tested to the utmost this year, and
the industry is sure to grow in Kansas
and the output is sure to be immensely
larger next year.
To meet the increased demands the
American Beet Sugar company is al
ready making plans for the construc-
ton of beet sugar plant at Garden
City.
Last year 5000 acres of sugar beet
were raised in territory tributary to the
Rocky Ford plant and this year about
1000 acres were raised in the same
territory. That tested the capacity of
the mill Other mills are being built in
various localities in Colorado and since
the discovery that the sugar beet may
be grown profitably along the Arkansas
river valley in Kansas, there is not
much reason to doubt that number of
plants for the extraction of the sugar
from the sugar beet will be built in
Kansas soil within the next few years.
1.-The records at the plant at Rocky
Ford said Mr.. Frost, "ShoW that the
beets raised in Kansas are as rich in
saccharine qualities those grown In
other localities The per cent of parity
ranges from 15 to p per cent.
The soil in western Kansas" Mr..
Frost continued. lis admirably adapted
to the culture of the beet. The Arkansas
valley for a long distance may be made
a large sugar beet patch. Even the
farmers living outside the Arkansas
river belt with the adnlira BILE facilities for
storing water in reservoirs by means
of the windmill. may grow the beets
and irrigate.
1.-THE sugar beet brings a return of
from $50 to $3.50 per acre. said Mr..
Frost. From 10 to 80 tons are raised
to the acre, according to the amount of
care and attention the crop receives,
and they bring about SIS per ton.
THE sugar beet requires considerable
attention. They require special pillow
and cultivator, and while they are yet
very small they must be gone over by
hand and thinned out with the weeds
also. But under ordinary care the cul-
ture of the beet is more profitable than
other crops.
The American Beet Sugar company
is offering a prize for the best acre
grown this year. One acre reported in
the contest yielded 40 tons. The per-
centage of sugar in the beets is higher
than ever known before.
"A curious thing in this connection"
said Mr.. Frost, lis the fact that in
Napoleon's time, when the sugar beet
was introduced and its culture COM
menced early in the nineteenth century,
the beets raised by the French farmers
contained only about per cent. of the
saccharine qualities. 1t is estimated
that during the time of Napoleon's reign
it cost Is cents per pound to manufac-
ture sugar.
THE present per cent. of saccharine
matter in the beets raised by our farm
erS at this time is due to the gradual
breeding up and improvement of the
sugar beet until now with the best beets
and the best soil, under improved meth
DDS, the farmers of western Kansas and
eastern Colorado are BILE to secure four
or five times as much sugar in their
beets as the French farmers We're able
to get at the time of the inception of
the industry in France.
There is no question but that the
beet sugar manufacture is to become
the greatest industry of the west, unless
congress listens to the smooth argu-
ments being presented by the Have
meyer sugar trust in its frantic efforts
to secure the removal of the duty on
sugar.
IF Havemeyer and his associates are