The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1910-12-22
SUGAR BEET GROWING GOOD
In Its Influences Upon the De-
velopment of Agricultural
Sections Such as This.

ed by the National Farmer last week,
Michigan sugar factories disbursed to
farmers November 1st, for beet deliv-
cries an aggregate of over two and a
half million dollars.
Three factories in Bay City paid out
l,052, 900. The Corrolton plant of the
Michigan Sugar Company paid out over
5000, 600, the Alma plant of the same
company over 1920, 600, the Sebewaing
plant also of the same company 1921, :
900; the Crosswell plant nearly as much
and the Caro- plant considerably in ex-
cess of the sums paid by the other
thumb concerns. The Owasso, Lansing
and st. Louis companies paid proper
tionately.
The aggregate disbursements of the
Michigan sugar concerns for the pres
ent campaign will amount to the beet
growers alone approximately six mil
lion. Never have the factories been
deluged with such tidal wave of beets
as at this campaign. Every siding at
the factories is crowded with long
trains of beet-laden cars; hugh piles of
beets are on the ground at the factories
and at weigh stations provided by com
panes for piling beets to convenience
| the farmer who can harvest his crop
aud haul it to either of the weighing sta
tions of the cars before cold weather
and bad roads come on to subject him
to delay and greater expense in harvest
ing. This rehandling of beets involves
considerable extra expense to the sug-
ar companies but they make this con-
cession to the farmers as an added in
centive to grow beets. And the far
mer is not obliged to rely on the cap
riees of spectators in marketing his
crop he is not affected by high prices
one day or week and drop when he
hauls his beets TO the market. The inn
portant matter is determined long be-
fore hand and is of great advantage to
him. The ordinary produce buyer is at
comparatively small expense in engag-
ing In business. He erects a small
elevator at an expense of few thous-
and dollars, buys wheat, corn, oats, po-
tatoes, live stock or dressed pork, and
ships it as fast as a car load is accumu.
lated. He pays the market price and
is subject to Its ups and downs as is
the farmer. He may pay a dollar a
bushel for wheat one year and 80 cents
another and every crop the farmer
raises is subject to the same fuctua-
tions.
The company invests one-half to
three-quarters of million dollars in a
plant that is operated sixty to one hun
dred days only in the year, yet it must
be kept in repair and at large expense.
The other supplies and the employees,
necessary to operate the plant require
an expense of more than $50. 900 in a
single campaign. There is freight to
pay for hauling the beets to the fac
tory and the manufactured sugar to
market.
The factory markets the products in
competition with the cane and beet
sugar product of the world. Cane
sugar grown in the tropics is laid down
on the Atlantic and Pacific coast at a
fraction over two cents per pound,
while at the existing prices the Michi-
gan factory pays the beet grower 212
cents or more on every pound of
sugar manufas t,red. Nowhere in the
world is labor so well paid in the beet
industry or the farmer so well remun-
Grated for his crop as he is in Michi-
gan.
A writer in a contemporary journal
pointedly remarks that when one stops
to think of the change that has taken
place in the appearance and prosperity
of this portion of Michigan since the
culture of sugar beets began, he finds
himself marveling thereat; when he re-
members the mortgages lifted, the
buildings erected, and the general i'm
provements made and, above all, the
increase in the price of farm lands, he
finds himself specializing as to what
the conditions would be were it not for
the sugar beet.
The benefits the sugar factories have
conferred upon the people of Michigan
is almost beyond computation, and none
but sore-headed or disgruntled agitata-
tors who are never content with pros
perity, cause any annoyance. With
five to six million dollars distributed
every year among the farmers, this
vast sum to drift into the channels of
business at time of the year when
ready cash is most needed. there to
benefit to a greater or less degree all
classes of business, he must be a mis-
anthrope or an ungrateful person in
de, d, who would fail to give full credit
and the need of praise TO which the in
dustry is justly entitled for what it has
aoco,,, pliahad for the state ar large and