The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-03-01
Lille Wood From West;
Somo Suggestions.
>S,Ar CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED
The Cultivation of Vegetable Is
Not All Pleasure; Billings
Has Factory.

Lille Wood, who has charge of a
-four mill at Billings, Mont, writes
letter to his father, Judge Wood, in
Lake Crystal, on sugar beet raising,
and published in The Union, which
will be of interest to those who con.
template raising sugar beets:
Billings, Mont, February Is, 1912.
Il noticed in The Union that there
was some talk of raising sugar beets
around Lake Crystal. 1t seems to
me that these would make fine
crop for that district, especially in
that heavy black soil north of town
and in Butternut. Probably they would
not do as we'll on the south where
the soil is so sandy, as it is out in
Lincoln.
Means Hard Work.
Raising sugar beets means a lot
of hard work and would bring in
lot of new people as it takes a lot
of help to properly care for them.
Out here the work is largely done
by Russians and Japs.
The land has to be well prepared
and carefully looked after and the
sugar company has experts visiting
the fields every few days to direct
the work. A great deal of cultiva-
ton is done by plows, ETC., but a
large share of it has to be done by
hand. he beets have to be thinned
hand. The beets have to be thinned
labor here but could probably be
done there much cheaper, as labor
is not as high as it is here.
Factory at Billings.
The factory here was started
about six. years ago. There. were
about 10000 acres of beets raised in
this section last year and the COM
pany paid out over million dollars
for beets to the farmers. -.
The factory here is rated at 1900
tons of beets daily capacity, but
most of the season last year they
were cutting about 1900 tons a day,
SO you can. see from that how it has
grown here. There is talk of one
or two more sugar factories being
built around here now.
When the factory was first started
ton for beets but the last two sea-
sons they have had a graduated
price, based on the amount of sugar
the beets contain. Some of the
fields here raised from sixteen to
twenty-five tons per acre last year
and the prices ran as high as $3.50
per ton. Probably an average yield
would be from sixteen to eighteen
tons, and a price of about $3.50 per
ton.
Payment Last Year.
The first payment last year
amounted to about 100000 and there
were several others that brought
the total to over million dollars.
1t was not at all unusual last year
for farmers to clear $50 to $40 an
acre on beets, over and above all
their expenses. Work on this years
from now and about that time there
will be several trains of beet work
ers brought into the country Men,
women and children work in the
fields from then until October and
Harvest begins in Sep
TENDER and during that time it is
almost impossible to hire man
and team here as they are all busy
hauling beets. The beets are dug
by blowing and have to be topped
by hand.
Few Acres Each Year.
A few acres of beets are all that
each farmer can raise each year as
there is so much work connected
with it and it takes lot of help
and teams for each field. q
TT Seams IN me- that beet raising
would be a good thing for the
farmers around Lake Crystal and
would mean a lot more business for
the stores if many were raised, as it
would bring in lot of beet workers.
The sugar factory would furnish this
help and also supply the seed to use.
pncTpnNETuE FREIGHT RATES