The Republican journal., 1912-10-24
THE SUGAR BEET IN MAINE.

Can the sugar beet be profitably grown
in Maine? Is it feasible to introduce the
sugar industry here? Truman G. Palmer
thinks it is, and he has given his reasons
in letter to Senator Lodge. About
third of century ago, as older citizens
will remember, an attempt was made
here. Machinery was imported from
Germany and plant for the manufac-
ture of beet sugar was built on West
Commercial street. The late George S.
Hunt was interested in the enterprise.
Farmers were invited to grow beets for
the purpose, and numbers of them did
80 within the radius of forty miles from
Portland. Beet sugar was produced at
the factory in quantities, and so far as
mechanical processes went the expert
ment was successful, but commercially
it proved failure and was abandoned.
The failure was bitter disappointment
to those who had hoped for the introduce
ton of a. new industry. Earlier the
same thing had been tried in Massachu-
sets and at about the same time in Yer
mont. 1t was given up in the East.
The experiment was taken up in the
West, and there it has succeeded adj
mirably, particularly in Michigan, Col
orado, Utah and California. With i'm
provements in methods of culture and
manufacture and with the increase of
the sugar content of the beet, the in
dustry has grown to great proportions.
Already in the United States we produce
$40, 900 tons of beet sugar a year, or
about Is per cent of our annual consump-
ton. Beet sugar is now produced in 70
factories, located in 16 States, 500, O00,-
600 has been invested in the industry,
and the factories turn out an annual pro-
duct valued at $50, 600, 900 and distribute
$45, 600, 600 to the farmers and laborers.
All this has been achieved under the
protection and encouragement extend
ed by the Dingley tariff bill of 1897, but
large as it is, it remains but fraction
of what it might be and but a small frac-
ton of the product of the three great
beet sugar countries of the world,
France, Germany and Russia. There is
TO reason why the United States should
not produce its own sugar and cease to
be dependent on the foreign supply, for
which it expends hundreds of millions of
dollars. Napoleon started the beet sugar
manufacture in France hundred years
ago. He did it as war measure. He
saw that France was dependent on the
outside world for this important article
of food, and he wanted France to become
selfsustaining. The industry did not
get upon sure footing, however, for
fifty years or SO, when it became firmly
established, and now France produces
million tons year or more. Germany
followed suit, and then Russia. By
bounties and other encouragement these
countries bred up great sugar produc
ton, and the competition of the beet ex-
tract with cane sugar has made sugar as
cheap as it is today, when formerly it was
almost an article of luxury. The United
States has but just begun what it might
do in this production.
But the point Of immediate interest is
whe New England might not have
share of this production, whether the
failure Of thirty or forty years ago was
not due to imperfect knowledge of tech
of soil and climate. The latter was the
cause ascribed but Mr.. Palmer believes
it was mistake. He holds that New
England has the soil, the climate, the
area, and the capital to build up a large
and profitable sugar industry; that it
would pay the farmers we'll to raise the
beets, and that by the deep cultivation
required and by crop rotation they would
improve their soil and thus produce
larger general crops. The only way to
find out will be to try. Certainly the
addition of new money crop would be
welcome. Much depends on the cleo
tons, however. The policy of the Dem
ocratic party is free sugar and a tariff
for revenue only. Should that party
obtain control of the government, it
would be a death knell to the domestic
sugar industry, for it would expose the
American product to the competition of
the cheap, bounty-fed sugar of Europe,
and that would be the end of it. But
with the continuation of reasonable
degree of protection, and with the new
knowledge and experience acquired, it is
quite possible that the culture of the
sugar beet might prove advantageous in
New Fnpland Portland Press