Imperial Valley press., 1913-11-10
BEET SUGAR PRODUCTION
GAIN 500 PER CENT

Washington, Nov. 10.-Final sta
tistics of the sugar industry in the
United States for 1909 are presented
in detail in a bulletin soon to be is
sued by Director Harris of the bureau
of census, department of commerce.
There were 291 establishments in
the United States engaged in the
manufacture and refining of sugar
and syrup in 1909. Of these SO were
engaged in the manufacture of sugar
from beets, 214 in the manufacture of
sugar or syrup from cane, and 10 in
the refining of cane sugar. The total
number of persons engaged in these
three industries was 24,047, of whom
34.9 per cent were employed in the
beet-sugar factories, 22.1 per cent in
the cane mills and 43 per cent in the
refneries.
The quantity of beet sugar reported
by the factories in 1909 was SOL ,6S2
tons, valued at $45, ,937 ,629, and that
of cane sugar S26,s5s tons, valued at
s26, 6,Os5,673. !
According to the census Of agricul-
ture, the farm production of sugar
and syrup in 1909 amount to 125,647
pounds of cane sugar, 14,060, ,206
pounds of maple sugar, 1883, ,759 gal
Ions of cane syrup, 16,532,000 gal
Ions of sorghum and 4,106,419 gallons
of maple syrup. The glucose factories
produced in 1909 769,66O,21O pounds
of glucose, valued at $17,922,514, and
159,060,478 pounds of grape sugar
valued at s3,62O,s16.
Based on the daily sicing capacity
of their mills, as reported in 1909
the three leading states in the beet
sugar industry are Colorado, Michi-
gan, and California, in the order
named. These states reported COM
bined slicing capacity equal to 67.9
ger cent of the total for the United
States, which is about the same
as their proportion of the total num-
Der of factories. The average num-
Der of persons engaged in the beet
sugar industry during 1909 was $3.50
of whom 1904, of $50 per cent, were
wage earners. During the "cam-
paign", as the active period in the
sugar industry is termed, nearly all
the factories operated continuously
the wage earners working in shifts
of from liz to II hours each, seven
days in the week.
With a single exception, all the
beet sugar factories are owned by
corporations. Only two of the estab-
lishments reported a value of pro-
ducts amounting to less than 100000,
while forty-two reported value in
excess of 100000, but less than
81 100000, and fourteen value in
excess of s1,OOO,0OO. This last group
gave employment to an average OF
3430 wage earners, or 47.6 per cent
of the total for the industry. The
total expenses in the beet sugar in
dustry in 1909 were $37, 1853, ,066, dis
tributed as follows: Cost of materials,
$27, ,265,170 or 73 per cent; wages,
S4,8O8,446, or 1919 per cent; salaries,
1,769,454, or At per cent; and mis-
cellaneous expenses, $3,509, 1896, or 9.4
per cent.
The total number of acres planted
to beets for factory use in the United
States in 1909 was 415,964. Of these,
29,459 acres, or IL per cent, were
planted directly by factories; 1876
acres, or A per cent, by tenants of
factories, and $368,339 acres, or 1876
per cent, by independent growers.
The total quantity of beets used in
the industry was 3,965,356 tons. OF
this total 266,768 tons, or 6.7 per
cent, were grown directly by the
manufacturing establishments; 1884,
843 tons, or Al per cent, by tenants
of these establishments, and 1884,
745 tons, or 98.1 per cent, by indie
pendent growers. The average yield
of beets per acre was 9.5 tons. The