The Washington herald., 1911-12-17
NEW YORK HAS REDISCOVERED
SUCCULENCY OF ROAST PIG

pulled out. It is tedious, back-breaking,
and expensive work.
The Agricultural Department, Mr.. Du-
val says, has been trying to develop
one-germ beet ball. or seed that WIN
grow but one sprout. 1t has reduced the
number of sprouts to six, and Mr.. Du-
val believes that 1t will finally obtain
single seed that will grow a single beet.
Hand work will then be unnecessary, ana
the United States will speedily produce
all the sugar II consumes. As II 10, the
production of beet sugar has increased
from 1000 tons in 1885 to $4,000 tons IN
1910. About 10000 tons Is made In
Louisiana and Texas from cane. More
than 2,5Oo,oOo tons Of raw cane sugar is
purchased abroad, either from Cuba
Java, and other countries, or from the
American colonies OF Porto Rico, Hawaii,
and the Philippine Islands. Naturally,
Mr.. Duval thinks that every pound of
sugar eaten IN the United States should
be grown and manufactured within the
country.
The Profts in Beet Culture.
American farmers are now planting
400, 900 acres to beets. European farmers
are planting 5000, 900 acres. The price
here averages about So a ton. Taking
one region with another, the yield In
this country is a fraction over ten tons
to the acre, the same. practically, that
1t is in Europe. Everywhere. except at
two factories, the beets are supplied by
the farmers living in the locality. Small
factories make $50 tons of sugar a day;
large factories make 5000 tons and en-
ploy 500 hands. A ton of beets is con-
verted into sugar, sacked, and made
ready for shipment in from eighteen to
twenty-four hours. Beets will grow In
Of dry a1l Of NnrfhPTn
States, including New England, and on
high ground in some of the Southern
States. The SOIL however, must be good.
Since 1897 the American farmers have
received 1853, 900, 900 for beets. Last year
they were paid 81, 100000. The producing
cost is about $50 an acre in regions where
there is rain. and $35 where the land has
to be irrigated. The seed is bought in
Germany and is sold by the factories at
cost 1t is drilled in rows a foot and
half apart, and the plants are thinned
until they stand eight inches from one
another. They are plOwed up at harvest
time, and the tops are cut of and fed
to cattle. The pulp at the factories is
used in fattening live stock. Alcohol is
made from the molasses. Great Britain
consumes ninety pounds of sugar to the
person. the United States eighty-one and
three-fifths pounds. The French people
paid 81 a pound for sugar before Napo-
leon got his factories into operation.
Thirty-five years ago the wholesale price
in New York was about II cents. -Four
years ago the retail price was 51z cents
pound in this country, cents in
Madrid, Spain, and u cents In Milan,
Italy. Sugar is called 'sucrose" in
chemistry, whether found in cane, beets.
or maple sap. Glucose is made from
starch by chemical process. When
solidied by evaporation it is called grape
sugar.
But sugar cannot be manufactured
for less than 31a cents a pound" Mr..
DuvaI told me- Interest on capital and
the depreciation of the plant brings the
cost to cents. II is impossible to make
sugar for any less. Europe, for nearly
a century, has been trying to cheaper
production. No method has been found.
Nor can we find any. If We are per-
mitted to develop the business, every
pound Of sugar consumed by the Ameri-
can people will ultimately be made in
the country-that would mean right now
$3.50, ,OOO, 900 a year additional in the poCk
cts of our farmers. workingmen, and
capitalists. It is an economic. as well
as an agricultural and industrial ques-
ton. In the main, however. it depends
on the land, as does everything else"
Copyright. 1911. by James B. Morrow
The North Pole.
The class was just beginning the study
Of geography.
James, said the teacher to the small
boy in the front row, tell me all you
know about the north pole"
The north pole is up at the end of the
world and the earth turns around it and
Eskimos live there and-and-'
We'll James, is that all you know
about the north pole? What about the
climate?"