The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-03-14
WESTERN NATURE STUDIES
THE STORY OF THE SUGAR BEET.
BY J. H. PAUL.

PROFESSOR Hogenson spoke before the
writer's classes at the university on
Monday. The substance of his inter-
esting demonstrations, with some ad-
oiuonal matter this time, is given be-
low.
A Bit of History.
About the time of the decline of the
hoInan empire. the literature of the pc
Rod mentions the beet az food for cat
tle; not until 1705 were beets grown for
table vegetables. At that time Oliver
DE Ceres found that alcohol could be
made from beet roots The high price
end steady demand for alcohol at once
save the beet some Importance. Near
the middle of the same century, in
tracted about per cent of the sugar
from beets; but the process was TOO
expensive TO make Of II a paying bust
lf45. Margrof, a German chemist, ex-
hess Fifty years later, Archard,
former pupil Of MaTgoR, succeeded in
extracting from 8 70 10 per cent of the
sugar stored I'm beets. and the manu-
facture of beet sugar then became
profitable. The people of France led
in the development of the industry
Sugar from beets was made in that
country at the beginning of the nine
teenth century, but the first time that
beet sugar in quantity was placed on
the market was in 1872, when thirteen
tons were offered for sale. At the
present time there are 1,3O0 sugar fac
tories at work in the various countries,
and the total yearly product is 20 600,
900 tons
In 1880 farmers near Philadelphia
tried. without success, TO produce beet
sugar In marketable quantities. In
1853 the first successful attempt I'm this
country was made at Alvorado. Cal,
and the factory there is in operation
today. There are now sixty-four fac
tories in the United States. distributed
among sixteen states. Michigan has
seventeen; Colorado, fifteen; California,
eight; Titan, FIVE. and certain other
states from four down to one.
Soil, Planting, Cultivation.
Sugar beets require a deep. moderate
ly loose soil, for the fibTous roots of
these plants extend to depth of four
feet. 1t is useless to plant on shallow
soil. Old soil is better than new. II
should be deeply plowed in the fall.
and narrowed in spring. From fifteen
TO twenty pounds of seed should be
soWn per acre. 1t has been demon
strated that the earlier the planting
the higher viii he the content of sugar
After the planting. there is nothing to
do till the plants come up and four
leaves have been developed on each
Then come the operations of blocking
and thinning described below. The
rows are about twenty inches apart,
and the seed is put i'm with a drill from
one TO one and one-half inches deep.
Cultivation and wedding begin as soon
IS the beets can be distinguished Gull
tivation between the rows should be
level, shallow and frequent, to form the
surface mulch that conserves the soil
moisture, and to keep down weeds.
Origin and Varieties.
The beet is a vegetable from the
weedy order of plants known as the
Chenopodiaceae. Beets have perfect /
flowers, which are minute and green /
ish; and leaves broad and furrowed. |
The root is longer and narrower than /
.thst Of the garden beet, and is white |
- color. The sugar beet is a strain of /
the common form. which. in turn. was /
developed from a weedy |
plant. TO which the beet bears now a /
distant resemblance. The wild form |
had a small. woody root with little |
-''iD. The present form is a result of /
plant -~Ading and cultivation. The 1
two VorietIts grown here are NilmOrin /
Improved and the Observation-Disclosures !
The root of the former is somewhat |
oval in outline; that Of the latter. tri- !
angular. The V. has light green