The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-10-16
BEET HARVEST ON.
The Great Sugar Factory at
Garden City in Action.
Immensity of the Plant Can
Hardly BE Imagined.
A SHORTAGE OF HELP.
Many Mexicans Being Used to
Top the Vegetables.
Gathering of the Crop to Last
Through November.
A SHORTAGE OF HELP.

Garden City. Kan, Oct f6.-The
Reflector says:
Yesterday for the very first time the
wheels went round" in the great
sugar factory here. which has cost the
United States Sugar & Land company
all of one million dollars. After care
ful tour of the plant, superintendent
BrisselboEt and Chief Constructor A.
B. Kennedy gave the signal. and the
warming up process Of the engines and
gearing began
All went smoothly and well. The
two engines supplying power to the
Two dynamos were turned over, as
were the two big COrIiss poser engines
in the main factory. Tt is necessary to
keep the mechanism in motion some
days previous to the actual commence
ment OF the sugar making process, as
ali tn machinery is new and the edge
must be turned on everything before it
can be dependable. The chief eIectrf-
clan was at his post and connections
were made One hundred kfowatts
viii be generated. and 200 lights will
shine throughout the immense plant.
two ampheres being required for each
light. Power viii also be supplied to
the electrically actuated elevators in
the main factory. the ash elevator in
the boiler room and for the coal
crusher which is also run BY electric
power Although there is a modern
and elegant engine in the machine
shop. still the mechanism there will be
run by electricity
In the boiler house six of the ten
boilers have been fired up, beginning
some few days ago. One hundred and
twenty-five pounds pressure is MAIN
tanned at present. as but little machin-
cry is continuously in motion Two Of
the boilers are automatically fed. the
remaining eight to be fed by hand
Coal has already arrived and from now
on between eight and ten carloads Will
be unloaded daily. Bids are now omen
Tor this contract.
When asked yesterday if sufficient
help had been contracted for to swing
the campaign, Assistant SUPERINTENDENT
Niereg~ said that he wanted two hun
dreo more hands and wanted them
badly. Employees have been looked for
all Ger the state, but the need as vet
is far from being met and st win be to
the advantage of anyone looking for
work to get in touch with the sugar
people.
The beet shed of this million dollar
sugar factory is 200 feet long. 15O feet
wide and 20 feet high. Tt is so large
that 100 freight cars and fifty wagons
can be in 1t at once. There is more
steel in this shed alone than in city
office building of fifteen stories. In its
construction 1900 cubic yards of con
crete. 5000 rivets and a million feet Of
lumber were used.
ine beets VIII be hauled into the shed
in freight cars and wagons and dumped
IN fumes or troughs two feet deep
through which a fast current of water
viii be flowing There are thirteen of
these fumes. The beets viii float upon
the water and be carried into the FAC
tory. One million gallons of water
pumped from twenty-seven wells. each
800 feet deep. viii run through these
fumes each day.
simultaneously with the opening of
the throttles in the factory. came the
first load of beets. and was dumped in
to the bin on the west side of the 700
foot beet shed. This load Of beets came
in by wagon, and was the very frst Of
the campaign. Beet harvesting com
nenoed Wednesday. some of the fields
having shown the proper content. At
Deerfeld for some days the farmers
have been testing the elevated beet
dump built over the siding there. and