The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-24
SUGAR BEET FACTS.
Mr.. Coburn Says There Are No Dis
Discouraging Reports This Year.

According to information now in
the hands of Secretary F. D. Coburn.
of the state board of agriculture, SO
Kansas parties this year contracted
to grow IN the aggregate 642 acres of
sugar-beets for delivery to the beet
sugar factories at Rocky Ford, Colo
RADIO. and Ames, Nebraska
The area each individual grower has
undertaken to raise ranges from 1 to
35 acres, but the Commercial club at
Arkansas City has contracted for so
acres, supposedly as an experiment to
assist in determining if soils and con-
ditions as far down the Arkansas val
ley as Cowley county are favorable for
sugar-beet production. In fact, Cow
ley is about 200 miles to the east
ward of the sections where beets have
been grown in Kansas in the past
three seasons for sugar-making, and
is in the southern tier in the eastern
third of the state.
Heretofore, the three adjoining west
ern counties of Hamilton, Kearny and
Ffnney, all in the third tier from the
southern line. have grown all the Kan
saS beetS intended for sugar making,
but interest in the industry and its
possibilities seems to be spreading and
not confined within any particular linn
its, as Cheyenne county, in the ex-
IRENE northwest corner of the state,
for the first time also reports 104 acres
of beetS contracted for delivery this
fall to the beet sugar factory at Ames,
Nebraska. ..l
Besides the value of the results pos
sibly indicating the adaptibility of
these untried areas for growing sugar
beetS, and the money returns, it is not
unlikely that the $4,000 state bounty
available this year also served as an
incentive to make the trials. For each
ton of sugar beets testing not under
II per cent of sugar and actually
manufactured into sugar. the state
pays the grower 81, or prorata of that
sum if at 81 per ton the $4,000 would
be exceeded The amount appropriate
ed for bounties for the two years of
10000 was $4,000. $4,000 for each
year, but whatever part of the $4,000
was unused in 1903 is available this
year if needed. In 1903 the produc-
ton was limited owing to the killing
frost of April 80, destroying the young
plants in their first leaves. But the
experiences of the two previous years
were gratifying and encouraging
In 1901, seventy-seven growers har-
vested 3s7 acres, yielding 1,747 tons
of beets which were delivered to the
Rocky Ford factory, the whole averag-
ing 17.S per cent of sugar, some test
ing over 20 per cent; in 1902, seventy
five growers harvested 439 acres, yield
ing 1880 tons, averaging 1854 per
cent of sugar.
So far no discouraging reports have
been received concerning this years
crop from ellner OF the three sections,
and it is believed the season has been
on the whole a favorable one. Some
time since one of the beet growers in
Cheyenne county advised Secretary
Coburn that the prospect then was
very favorable for a good CROP
About now is the time when the
beets are supposed to be largely de-
veloping their sugar content. as one
who has been closely identified with
the industry and observant of results,
states that Gin the fall of the year
after the first frosts. is the period in
Kansas when the sugar beet, luxuriat-
ing in the mellow sunshine and cool
nights, gathers its largest measure of
polarizable sweetness in September
and October it -sweetens as it rfpens.
until as much as one-fourth of its
weight som etimes, is convertible into
the granulated sugar of commerce"
1t is quite generally accepted as a
fact that in the western parts of the
river valley conditions favor
the profitable production of sugar
beets, and whether other parts of the
state are also adapted to their grow
ing remains to be proven. The results
of trials in Cowley and Cheyenne coun-
ties this year should reveal something
as to this.