Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1912-12-18
sanity. He brands this statement as
calumny diametrically opposite to
the truth.
Sugar Bects VS.. Wheat.

Sugar at Glance" graphically
sets forth most remarkable and
monumental folly on the part of the
American farmers. The document,
prepared by Truman G. Palmer, en-
braces 67 large pages, and besides a
number Of photogravure illustrations
1t makes use Of J%42 charts to drive
home in an impressive manner a
number of startling truths.
For instance, Chart No. 40 pictures
to the eye the prodigality Of Ameri-
can farmers in dissipating their soil
fertility, and contrasts this foolish
ness with the wise frugality and
thrift Of the German farmers in con-
stantly building up the fertility and
productivity Of their lands.
This chart shows that in 1909
American farmers exported wheat.
cotton seed meal and linseed meal to
the value Of $93,203,226 and i'm
ported foreign raw sugar to the
mount Of $93,379,O29--a almost iden-
tical amounts. Now this $9S,2O3,226
worth of wheat, cotton seed meal and
oil meal contained $35,793,342 worth
of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and pot
ash, the three principal elements of
soil fertility, which they had taken
from the soil upon which they grew;
while the $93,379,029 worth of raw
sugar imported contained not a dol
lars worth Of soil fertility. In other
thirty-siX million dollars worth of
soil fertility and got not one dollars
worth In return.
On the other hand, during the same
year Germany exported s49,339,542
worth Of raw sugar, carrying away
not particle of soil fertility, since
the pulp Of the beets from which it
had been extracted We're fed to cat
tie and converted into beef and but
ter and cheese that were consumed
at homo and the manure spread upon
the home farms. And during that
year German farmers imported cot
ton seed meal and linseed meal val
ued at $4S,552,952 and containing
$2S,77O,564 worth OF soil fertility.
These meals were fed to the stock
or German farmers and their soil
fertility was recovered in the manure
and applied to the German farms.
Chart No. 80 shows at glance the
result Of long series Of years Of this
sort Of crop exchange during which
time the German farms have rapidly
increased In productive capacity at
the expense Of American FARMS, so
that the 42,776.0O0 acres Of wheat,
rye. barley, oats and potatoes in Ger
many yielded 2,975, 5,742,0OO bushels,
valued at s1,S10,87S,000; while in
the same year the S5,546,00O acres
In the same crops in this country
yielded only 1,S74,635,00O bushels,
worth $1,17S,O05, 900. In other
words, with only half as many acres
In these five crops, Germany produc-
ed over a million bushels more than
we did the same year, their average
yield per acre Of these crops being
more than double ours.
And yet. Chart No. 81 shows that
while the prices Of other farm crops,
particularly potatoes, extensively
grown for export in this country,
huctuate widely; the price paid for
sugar beets at the factory has stead
lily increased from year to year with
the single exception of the year 1901,
when the price was 13 cents per ton
less than in 1900. The factories paid
$40 per ton in 1897, $4.30 in 1898,
S4.60 in 1899, $4.73 in 1900, $3.50
in 1901, $4.98 in 1902, since which
time the price has risen every year,
reaching Sc per ton in 1910. The
price Of Irish potatoes Is not nearly
so reliable, having dropped from 55
cents bushel in 1897 to 43 cents in
1900 and then jumped to IT cents in
1901 and fallen to At cents the next
year, and since then the, average
price has continued to nuctuate be-
tween widely separated extremes.
Altogether this document would
seem to be an unanswcrable argl-
ment in favor Of the production Of
our own sugar supply and in favor
OF feeding all Of our highly concan-
trated feeding stuffs on American
farms and reaping the threc-fold ben
eft Of tho feeders profit, increased
fertility Of our lands, and greatly re-
duced tonnage on which to pay trans
portation charges; for four or FIVE
tons OF fcedstuffs can be condcn ,cd