The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1904-12-12

prospect of making $S,000,000 worth Of
sugar this year. This is, of course, but
4 drop in the bucket compared with the
enormous quantity consumed i'm this
country, but it is a significant indica-
ton of what is being done and what
,an be done i'm the arid states in the
way of agriculture. The people of the
United states consume about $4,000
300 worth of sugar every year; they
make 25000,000 worth and import S115,-
poo, 600 worth, all of which might be
produced at home, and undoubtedly
will be i'm time, because we have the
soil and can get the labor and there is
no more profitable crop for farmers.
1t is one of the greatest economical
problems before the American people
and the succulent beet is destined to
play am important part in their future
There are nine beet sugar factories i'm
Colorado. Six of them lie north of Den
Yer and are controlled by the Have
meyer sugar trust, which furnished the
principal part of the capital for their
establishment The largest in Colorado
and ] believe it is the largest i'm the
country. with a capacity of 1900 tons of
beets a day, is located at Fort Collins.
There is another very nearly, if not
quite, as large at Loveland, and at
Greeley Eaton, Windsor and Long
mont are factories of 600 tons daily
capacity. The first and smallest fac
tory in the state, capable of consum-
ing $50 tons of beets a day, was built
at Grand Junction in 1899 but has not
g,,1
another the farmers in that vicinity
raise better fruit than beets. The fac
tory has not been able to buy enough to
pay for running it, 50 that last season
it was shut down entirely.
At Sugar City, a little town just east
of Pueblo on the Missouri Pacific rail-
road, is 5O0-ton factory, which has
been very prosperous. 1t owns 1900
acres of land well irrigated, and raises
its own beets. This year it has had
1000 acres under cultivation and about
1000 acres leased to small farmers, so
that it is always sure of raw material.
At ROCKFORD, the great cantaloupe
headquarters is factory second i'm size
only to those at Fort Collins and Love
land, and it has proved to be one of
the most profitable enterprises in Colo
RADIO, being better than a gold mine.
There are thirty-three beet sugar fac
tories in operation in the United States
this year. The confidence of the sugar
trust in the stability and profit of these
enterprises is indicated by the deter
minatiOn with which it secures stock in
all of them. Mr.. Havemeyer and his
associates are heavily interested in
nearly every factory excepting those in
Washington and Oregon and two or
three in Michigan. Five hundred such
factories like those ar Fort Collins and
ROCKFORD would supply the entire
population of the United States with
sugar.
The ROCKFORD company cultivates its
own beets. leases land to individual
farmers and contracts with ndepen-
dent farmers for a stated supply at a
stated price. This year it has had 49,
600 acres under cultivation within a
radius of thirty miles of the factory;
it has leased 5000 acres i'm small tracts,
furnishing seed and instruction as to
the cultivation of beets. and is selling
forty-acre farms on easy terms to any
people who will contract and give
bond to cultivate not less than ten
acres of beets annually for ten years.
The company furnishes seed free of
cost; it employs eight agricultural
chemists to educate the farmers and
superintend it's own beet fields, and
has an immigration agency seeking
settlers for it's land. Next year it eX-
poets to have 10000 acres in beets, and
the crop is extending wherever land
can be irrigated. one japanese farm
er has had 300 acres in beets this year,
which have averaged fifteen tons TO
the acre, and he has sold them for So
per ton, which brings him a gross rev.
eEue of $22, 500 from a 300, OOO-acre farm.
A great advantage in beet farming is
the fact that the farmer sells his crop
before he plants it, and has a contract
i'm his pocket for a fixed price for every
ton of beets he can raise. At Fort Col
Inns and at other places the price is
regulated by the amount of saccharine
i'm the beet, "a ton being paid for
those yielding y per cent sugar, and
more in proportion. In the Arkansas
valley the beets will average II per
cent sugar, and have assayed as high
as % per cent, but the farmers in that
regard to the assay, and this year are
getting So a ton at the dump. That
will be the average price throughout
Colorado.
Another satisfaction is that nothing
seems to injure beets if they have
plenty of water. They are the tough
est of all crops, and will endure hail,
floods, frost and even cyclones. Even
when the leaves are destroyed the root
will continue to grow as long as it is
not split or broken Up i'm the Poudre
valley there have been floods, hail
storms, tornadoes and cloudbursts, but
the beets have kept on growing all the
same. People tell of one farmer who
found his beet field covered with debris
brought down from the mountains by
the floods-logs, brush wood, straw and
all sorts of things-but he calmly rak-
ed it off and harvested the best crop
in that part of the country.
Last season Q9O3) the ROCKFORD fac
tory paid more than $6OO,OOO for beets
to the farmers I'm the neighbOrhoOd TO-