Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1908-12-23

secured results that far exceeded
our expectation and which offer
such large encouragement for the
extensive planting and cultivation
OF this crop that we ought To have
no trouble whatever in securing |
the fifty acres which we desire to
have planted this coming yeSr. to
verify our preliminary tests, and |
to give us better and more con-
elusive idea of the tonnage that |
can be produced.
Let it be understood that the
tonnage grown in the west runs all |
they way from ten to twenty tons
pcr acre and about fifteen tons is a |
fair average. The sugar content
runs all the way from ten to twenty
and fourteen percent is a good
average.
The Western factories pay about
S5.o .'er tom on Sli,iiag scale foI
a fourteen percent beet and then
$35c n"r, rcr tom for each added
one per cent of sugar. Any one
can readily understand therefore
that fifteen tons At $500 per ton
nI-Nn~ - 2roNS return e about
$4,000 - acre. While the cost OF
raising SINE runs from 500. to
S35- co per acre The average
result obtained from our analyses
of over TWO hundred samples are
somewhat in excess OF IA percent
sugar with about So per cent pur-
ity and this high purity cn-rfficient
really means about 10 per cent
sugar content. We lad analyses
running as low as 10 per cent but
these were obtained from bpets
PLANTED nndpr vrry uufavora' le
condi,i.i.S. ur els. is,ilN neglected
ia tn cul'i,aiiun. o. he oihrr
nand. wc had ltrg, nnmhrr nf
tests which showed l.; excess az 10
per cent sugar cnr'en', many of
them running IN excess al Is l,cr
cent Sugar contcn, viii over 90
per cent purity. and this argues
very favorably toward larger re-
turns when planted on Il CONNER
cial scale.
| am Just in receipt nf letter
from a friend in Ohio. who is iden-
tilted with the beet sugar plants at
Fremont, Ohio and Blissfeld,
Michigan. | want to quote a few
extracts from his letter which gives
some idea of what has been accom-
plishcd in a section not as well
adapted 10 the beet as is our terri
tory in the Shenandoah Valley and
Southwest Virginia.
The companies here i'm Ohio
have two contracts. one the sliding
scale, a we term it and the other
the straight rate contract. On the
sliding scale, the company pays
$3.50 per net ton for beets contain
ing II per cent of sugar and 335c
per ton more for each one per-
cent of increase in the amount of
sugar above II per cent, also 334c
per ton less for each per cent of
decrease in the sugar content below
- per cent. On the straight or
(tlaD contract, companies agree to
pay 4 fixed price for all beets
delivered to them and this price is
uniformly $500 per ton. The
farmers can take their choice, and
as a matter of fact most of them
sell iheir beets on the fiat basis,
though for the past season, most
of them would have received more
then $500 per ton, as the sugar
content averaged over ii per cent.
The industry is still practically
in its infancy in the United States,
Notwithstanding that we have some
where in the neighborhood of forty
or fifty factories in operation, but
it needs greater encouragement in
all territories adopted to the growth
of the beets, because it means
prosperity both To the farmer and
to the citizens of the community
where these plants are established.
The tonnage, of course, varies,
depending on the kind of soil,
preparation and care of seed bed,
timing and cultivation of crop and
also on the proper harvesting of
the beets, conditions of weather,
soil, etc. We grow an average of
twelve to seventeen tons per acre,
which at $500 per ton means a
gross return Of from $4,000 to
$500, where farmer does all the
work himself with the aid of his
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