Arizona republican., 1908-12-13
Relation of Sugar Beet Indus
 trytO MaPiCopaCOunty SOME TIMELY ADVICE GIVEN
Data Collected for the Bene- fit of the Public, Authorita- lively Verified and Printe d for Those Who Are Inter- ested.


 boarl of trade has been engaged for some time in preparing an article on the subject of the sugar beet industry and its especial relation to the pros perity of this valley. He has now completed that work and has secured the approval of it by the manage ment of the local sugar company. It is offered to the readers of The Re publican for their information:
 Tributary to our sugar beet factory at Glendale are 30,0O0 acres of the most fertile soil in the world.
 To insure the success of an enter prise of this magnitude, many things are of vital importance to all parties concerned.
 That we have the soil adapted to the profitable raising of sugar beets is a fact too well known for com ment. Our acreage Is not confined to Glendale, for We find on the south side of the river a large acreage of wonderfully fertile soil.
 The percentage of sugar depends more on climate than on soil. Sugar comes from the air, not from the soil. The laboratory, through which it is collected, is the leaf, and the active  agent the suns rays; so that, other things being equal. the sugar in a plant is in proportion to unobstructed sunshine falling upon it.
 The Salt River Valley is the most arid of any locality where sugar beets are grown now, and has the longest season for planting. growing and harvesting All natural cOndi- tions-climate. soil and water, are ex- ceptiOnally favorable. The planting season is fall and winter. Our six inches of anual rainfall comes in the winter-the growing season.
 II has been said by a well known authority that, 1t was possible to operate a beet sugar factory in this valley ten months in the year"
 Much may be said in favor of growing sugar beets for the factory. TiIlage must be of the best and the soil fertile. The pulp of the beets, after extraction of the sugar, is rel ished by live stock. The crop is grown under factory contract conditions, and the farmer knows upon what he may depend for profit.
 In 1907 the acreage of sugar beets in this country was 37O,9S4 acres, which produced 3,767,s71 tons of beets, or an average for the whole country of 1016 tons per acre.
 The acreage in 1901 was 175,0S3 and the average yield per acre was 9.63 tons. By these figures it may be quickly seen that the industry is increasing very rapidly. In 1901 there were 36 factories in operation, while in 1907 we had 63.
 
 increased acreage of 2O5,901 acres, and 27 new factories in operation. Colorado and Michigan each have in operation sixteen factories, California being next with eight factories. Utah has but five.
 The longest period in 1907 of any campaign was in Colorado, which lasted 127 days. Compare this with the possible ten months (300 days) campaign in the Salt River Valley.
 Since 1S40 the increase in produc- tion and consumption of sugar has amounted to 150 per cent per decade, and now amounts to 14,2$0,374 tons. The people of the world annually eX- pend for this 14,230,374 tons of sugar over $14OO,OOO,OOO.
 The two largest beet sugar factories are located in California. The first sugar beets in the world, to be grown by irrigation, were produced in Utah by our friends the MormOns the pioneer irrigationists of modern Amer ica.
 The sugar bills of the American people amount to S35O 100000 a year, or more than S1,OOO,OOO a day for each working day.
 Our enormous exports of bread stuffs have naturally been pointed to with pride for many years past, but notwithstanding our large home sugar industry on the main land and in our island possessions, in 1905 it required more money to settle our foreign raw sugar bills than all we received for all our export bread-stuffs and prep arations of bread-stuffs, including corn and corn meal. oats and pat meal, rye and rye flour, and wheat and wheat flour combined.
 IL took the value of all wheat we raised on S,500.O00 acres or one-fifth of the entire wheat acreage of the United States to pay for the sugar we imported from foreign lands and which we could have produced on 100000 acres of American sugar beet land.
 To produce this sugar at home would mean the investment of three to four hundred million dollars in the erection of several hundred additional beet sugar factories and the conse-