The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1912-11-20
MODERN WITCHCRAFT
Trapping a Billion Pounds of SUN
shine and Turning it to Sugar

for trapping sunshine is over for
1912, and as result, wealth to
the amount of $1,OOO,OOO day
is now being taken from the bill
lions of traps set out throughout
the country when the season open
OF catching the elusive sunbeam.
That the season has been re-
mark ably good one is shown by the
estimates of the trappers them
selves to the effect that 100000
900 worth of sunshine weighing a
billion and a half pounds has been
trapped. figure far exceeding the
returns of any previous year BY
the wagonload and carload this i'm
prisoned sunshine, still in the
traps in which 1t was caught. is
being hauled to factories where it
will be taken form the traps, put
into shape for general use. and
shortly appear on the tables of
the land in the shape of snow
white sugar. Indeed should the
waiter at the hotel or restaurant
inquire. "One or two Jumps of sun
shane din the coffee. SIR" he would
he correct in SO doing for sugar is
really nothing but sunshine.
To put the matter more prosa-
ically. the country is now in the
midst of it's sugar harvest. digging
from the soil some 10000 'ons of
this commodity. The traps are
nothing more complicated than the
ordinary sugar beet, which all dur
ing the summer has been catching
sunshine and storing it in their
roots in the form of sugar Few per-
sons realize that as they pass by
a sugar beet field in any of the
seventeen states where the tuber
Is now grown that they will even
tually be eating the very sunshine
which is being soaked up by the
greenish bronze leaves. Fewer still
understand the story of sugar and
the sugar beet.
The sugar beet. which now pro-
duces abont half the sugar of the
world. originally came to this cOun-
try from Europe where 1t had been
cultivated for more than GEN.
tury. until now, through the stim-
ulus of bounties and protective tar
ifs. 1t is produced i'm enormous
quantities. since European coun-
tries have come to realize that
the home production of sugar is not
only of vast Importance in itself
but also that it is chiefly due to
this agency used in rotation with
other crops. that they have been
able to secure an average yield
per acre of other crops almost twice
as large as that produced in this
country.
1t was not until the early sew
enties of last century that sugar
beet culture was attempted in this
country and then ON such a small
and crude scale that the trial prov
ed unsuccessful. Within the last
fifteen years with the introduction
of new methods in manufacturing,
the industry has gone ahead by
leaps and bounds as is shown by
the fact that the output has in
creased from 72.0OO.OOO pounds
in 1899 to 100000 pounds now
estimated as the yield for the
present year That this represents
only fraction of the sugar which
could be produced, however, is
shown by the statement of the de-
partment of Agriculture that there
is in this country 100000 acres
of land adapted to sugar beet grow
ing and that the use of only one
acre in every two hundred would
be sufficient to produce all our
sugar at home.
A number of factories have op-
Grated to make the development of
this industry slower than would
naturally be expected in view of
its benefits. AS a new crop farm
ers have been slow to take it up.
Once tried. however, it's popularity
has been general. Not only has
the farmer discovered that it Is one