The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-05-21


484, 900, an increase of more than thir
teen fold in eight years.
In 1896 1900 acres of beets were
harvested; in 1906 $4,000 acres, OF
more than nine times as great an area
The price of beets, like prices OF
other farm crops, has risen steadily. Ii
1896 the factories paid $40 per ton;
now they have to pay $5.35.
In 1898 the farmers had 1000 tons
of beets to sell to the factories, fol
which they received $l,564,000. In
1906, just eight years later, they had
4,236,000 tons of beets to sell, and re
ceived for them $2l GOA ,000-a twelve
fold increase in beets and a fourteen
fold increase in money returns.
The total amount paid out by fac
tories for beets during the past twelve
years amounts to 1921, 100000.
The total capital invested in beet
sugar plants in this country is about
$70,0O0,000, and this does not include
investments made by factory owners IL
farm lands, irrigation works, etc.
Among other things the Senate called
on the Secretary of Agriculture to state
how much beet sugar can be produced
in the United States. The secretary
replies that we have demonstrated con
ditions of soil and climate favorable
to beet culture in an area of at least
274 million acres, and that it viii
only take one acre out of every 2Ot
of this to produce all the sugar we now
import from foreign sources.
He estimates "that if the sugar
beet were grown throughout those por'
tions of the United States adapted by
nature and with the aid of irrigation
to its culture, with system of rota'
ton including the cultivation of the
beet every fourth year, fifteen million
tons of beet sugar could be produced
in the United States annually, or more
than the world IS total production OF
sugar at the present time.
1t appears from this report that the
people of European countries have to
pay good deal more for their sugar
than we do. For the years 1904-1907
the average retail price of lump sugar
in Naples and Milan was 1872 cents
per pound, in Amsterdam 9.4 cents, In
Madrid nearly cents, in Stockholm
~ cents, in Vienna and Budapest Z "A
cents in Paris 81 cents, in Dresden
and Bremen nearly 6 cents, and IN
Brussels So cents.
The prices given are fer lump sugar be,
cause that is the grade most uniformly
quoted in the European statistics. This
grade appears to be much more general
~ consumed than graduated in most
countries of Continental Europe.
The Brussels Sugar Convention, which
oan I
caused radical reduction of the price
of sugar in many European countries
In Belgium the fall in the retail price
was 3A cents per pound, in the Ger
man cities ~ cents, and in Austria
Hungary IA cents.
The Secretary gives flatterlng ac
count of the progress made in develop
ing the beet-sugar industry, and takes
very cheerful view of its future pros
poets. He comedies that some failures
occurred among the earlier factories
but shows that the later factories have
been quite uniformly successful. He
saws that wherever factories have beer
successfully operated the values of farm
lands have risen very decidedly, es
pecially lands under irrigation In the
Far West. He says beet culture i'm
proves the land and educates the far
mer. The operation of factory lead:
to the investment of capital in many
industries more or less related to beet
sugar production. The by-products-
| pulp and molasses-are fed to stock
and their use has largely increased the
amount of livestock kept and fed in
most factory districts.
| Beet-sugar factories are now in sue
cessful operation in sixteen States.
Colorado leads all other States en-
gagged in the industry, having sixteen
| factories. In 1907 these produced
| 10000 tons of sugar, or enough, if ii
| had been passed around, to give all the
people in the United States four pounds
apiece.
California and Michigan follow Colo
RADIO at respectful distance in the
race for second place. Michigan ha'
the same number of factories as Colo
RADIO, but their product is considerably
| smaller California has only nine
plants, but some of the latter are very
\ large. From year to year the produc
| ton of sugar is about the same in thu
| two States.
4
| strong producers Idaho and Wlscon
sin follow with four each, and Their
are ten States with one factory each.
The most eastern factory is that a
Lyons, New York. Hamilton City
| California, has the most western fac
tory, Los Alamitos, California, the mos
southern, and Billings, Montana, tn
most northern.
The largest factory in the Unite
States, and one of the largest in tn
world, is the one at Spreckels, CalifoI
MIA. which is able to slice 5000 tons o
beets in day, or 100 carloads of thirt
tons each.
The Oldest successful factory in tn
United States is the one at Alvaradt
California, which was established i
1879, and has been making beet suga
for thirty years.
-.e.&-e.-
| Family high-class wines and liquor
Invalid Port, Montilla Sherry, Spe