The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-11-26

trust in cutting the price OF
II sugar out West. where the
beets are grown. are likely 10 convince
the American people that the beet in
dustry is not controlled by the trust
said Secretary Of Agriculture Wilson
today THE growth of the sugar beet
industry has alarmed the trust, which
consists of interests that refine import
ed raw sugar The sugar beet factories
do their own refining. finishing the
product and putting it on the market.
This department has been well satisfied
for some time that it is only a ques-
ton of time when all the sugar used
in America can be made within the
states of the Union.
ITO what extent the sugar trust is
disposed to spend money in fighting the
development of the sugar beet indus
try 1 do not know. I am not at all
surprised at the movement of the sugar
trust 1t would no doubt be very profit
able TO it's members If they could de-
stroy this new industry, that promises
to supply home demands within a rea-
sonable number of years. but / think
their efforts will be in vain. Our peo-
| pie are gradually learning the value OF
the by-products of the sugar beet fac
tories, and as soon as they fully com
prehend these. opposition from any
quarter will be entirely in vain.
81 believe also that the time will
come when none of the Islands of the
sea will be able TO produce sugar as
cheaply as it can be produced in con-
nection with diversified agriculture in
the prairie states of the Northwest.
IT had an interview within the last
few days with a superintendent OF one
of the largest sugar estates in the Ha-
waiian Islands" continued Secretary
Wilson. (which confirms the impression
L had regarding the future of the sugar
Industry in tropical countries. 1t costs
more for labor in the Hawaiian Islands
than in the states OF the Mississippi
Valley, and this superintendent is my
authority for the statement that 1t
costs $26 an acre to fertilize the lands
OF the Hawaiian Islands. They put on
half a ton Of fertilizer every year. and
get two crops in three years. averaging
two tons to the acre.
THE use of this fertilizer Is exceed
lingly expensive. They have to send to
South America for the nitrogen. to Ger
many for the potash, and to the Florida
coast for the phosphorus. They have
been increasing the area of sugar pro-
duction in Hawaii by pumping water
on lands where it will not flow by grav-
ity. They have to send for coal to
| Australia or British Columbia. All this
makes sugar growing more and more
| difficult, but the labor question out
there is what gives them the most an
noyance. The Porto Ricans who were
imported are so much reduced by starv-
alton that they cannot perform much
manual labor. Hawaii will have diff
Guilty in competing with the sugar beet
resources of the northern states of the
Union as soon as our farmers have had
| time to apply machinery to the field
and the factory.
It will not be necessary in the United
States, where sugar beets are grown, to
fertilize the lands. Under a system
of rotation, which can be practiced
lprofltably, the lands of the Mississippi
Valley can produce a crop of beets once
in four or five years without detriment
to the soil 1t is only a question of
time when the dairymen of the United
States will discover that the by-product
| of the sugar mill is valuable for all
domestic animals. In foreign countries
1t is even fed to horses. 1t will take
the place with the western dairymen of
bran from the wheat mills and by
products from the oil mills, glucose
factories, etc. The water will be
pressed out of the pulp very soon. and
in fact, il is being done now in Cali
fornia, and the farmer will haul home
the cake when he takes beets to the