The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-15
Mrs. Henry Block, OF Syracuse,
Discusses 1t.
Large Acreage Will Be Planted
In Kansas.
MEETINGS ARE LARGE.
Board of Agriculture Sessions
Especially Successful.
Will Close With an Excellent
Programme Tonight.


ceptionally large this year, and it
seems to be the general impression that
the programme has been an extraor-
dinarily good one, not even counting
the strong features which will be pre-
scented at the closing session tonight.
One of the most interesting features
Of the entire meeting was a paper this
morning on the sugar beet industry in
Kansas. It was prepared by Mrs.
Henry Block of Syracuse, wife of the
editor of a paper at Syracuse. Mrs.
Block is the representative of the state
department of agriculture in securing
the data on which sugar beet bounties
are paid, and she therefore has thor
ough knowledge of the subject She has
been sick for a few weeks and was not
able to attend the meeting in person,
but sent her paper to Secretary Coburn.
Mrs. Block makes it clear that while
the beet crop of 1908 was a practical
failure, those who have tried the in
dustry in the Arkansas valley are not
discouraged but will probably put In a
larger acreage next spring than ever.
I. L. Diesem of Garden City, member
of the board of agriculture, says the
same.
Another point which Mrs. Block
makes plain is that Cuban reciprocity
has in no way injured the beet indus
try, for the factories are now offering
higher prices to the farmers for beets
than ever before. Another point on
which Mrs. Block lays great stress is
the value of sugar beets for feed for
stock. She says in part:
This subject may have been assign
ed to a woman because it involves an
infant industry under the fostering
care of the STATEN the nursery and
on the cradle roll, so to speak-and
properly belongs in the sphere where
woman is acknowledged supreme.
I'VE hear of so-called infant indus
s11- CIR a
opulent and are often charged with
demanding and forcing special priv
ileges from the national and state gov
ernments and it is really refreshing to
positively know of an instance where
paternalism did not miScarry and
where the peoples money is being ex-
pended to nurture an industry that
supported no lobby and all the bene-
fits of which. are being reaped by Kan
sas farmers.
previous to the enactment of chap
ter 81 session laws of 1901, entitled An
act to encourage the cultivation and
production of sugar beets. and making
an appropriation therefor there was
no sugar beet industry in Kansas. Only
experimental patches of such beets had
been grown I'D to that time, but the
succeeding spring 121 persons in Ham
ilton, Kearny and Finney counties, en-
couraged by the establishment of a
beet sugar factory at Rocky Ford, and
by the state bounty of 81 per ton Of
fered for beets testing not less than Il
per cent. sugar, provided such beets
were manufactured into sugar, entered
into contract with the American Beet
Sugar company, of Rocky Ford, to
grow beets for the factory. OF this
number 40 fell by the wayside, and the
remaining II growers from 337 acres
delivered 1.747. Sc tons of beets to the
factory. The second year, 1902, rs grow
ers delivered ,25061 tons from 439 acres,
at an average yield per acre of 968
tons. While this was the most satisfac-
three during
sugar beets have been grown in this
part of the state, it was not by any
means a perfect season for the crop, as
the spring was backward and cold.
However, it will serve very well for an
average season in this part of the state,
and the results obtained are, believe,
attainable at least four years in five.
1.-THE third year, the season of 1908,
was disastrous one for the beet
growers. Failure was written from one
end of the beet section of the Arkansas
valley to the other. But while beets
were badly affected, the melon crop,
upon which such great store is placed
in the Rocky Ford country, was hurt
much worse. A frost early in SeDtem-
Der killed the melon business right in
the height of the shipping season. but
did not hurt the beets at all. The beet
crop received it's stunning blow on
April 80, when the temperature dropped
to degrees below freezing, killing for
the most part, the young plants in their
first leaves. About 800 acres had been
plGulcQ 10 DeStS DefOre the freeze.
Many growers replanted their ground
the second time. but the crop seemed
doomed to failure. and many beets that
survived the untoward climatic condi-
tons fell a prey to insects-grassho
perS being the WOrSt-and to a blight
called curly top
1t seems that the blight was simply
a result of the abnormal climatic CON
ditions that prevailed the past season
ana Will not appear under usual condi-
lions. At any rate we know that a
killing freeze on the first day of Nav
is an extraordinary occurrence in Kan
sas and is disastrous not alone to beets
but to nearly all crops
while the season of 1903 was a great
disappointment to beginners in the
business of growing sugar beets vet So
well are the causes that contributed to
that result understood by the growers
and so convinced are they that sugar
beet culture is sure to prove profitable
to the man who follows it up that near
1y all whom I talked with on the sub
ject will plant again next year. They
are disappointed but not DISCOURAGED
and are possessed of plenty of the true
Kansas courage.
1.-The sugar beet business does moi
seem to have suffered seriously at the
hands of congress when it passed the
Cuban tariff treaty, for the beet sugar
factory which buys the Kansas beets
offers a substantial increase for mex
seasons crop over what has been paic
the last four years.
But experience has taught the grow.
ers that sugar beets are profitable un
der average climatic conditions, no
alone when grown for the manufacture,
of sugar but that they also possess :
high value as a stock feed. In harvest
ing the crop for the factory all of tina
part of the beet which grows above tn
ground is cut off and left in the fiel,
as a by-product and has value a
stock feed of at least 50 per ton. Whel
these beet tops and crowns are places
in piles they will keep green and fresl
till spring. Furthermore, it has beei
demonstrated that beets containing
high percentage of sugar will with
stand a very low temperature Withou