The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1916-09-14
SUGAR FACTORY
BENEFIT TO STATE

The short-sighted farmers of Chur-
chill county are not particularly
keen about subscribing to contracts
for the planting of sugar beets dur
ing the ensuing year. The new own
ers of the sugar factory ask growers
to guarantee 1000 acres of sugar
beets. Less than 40 per cent of the
required amount has been signed up
and ii begins to look as though Fall
lon would be deprived of an infant
industry that gave promise OF a lusty
manhood To lose this sugar factory
at this primal stage of agricultural
development would be nothing short
of calamity that would set Nevada
back 20 years in farm development.
The sugar beet is peculiarly adapted
to the soil under the Lahontan pro-
ject, since it thrives most Iuxuriant-
ly in soil carrying a small percentage
of alkali to impair it's value for al
falfa. The advantage of subscribing
to the sugar contracts has been de-
picted by the best agriculture writer's
and lecturers. who have devoted con-
siderable time to convincing the peo-
pie of Churchill county that their
best interests parallel those of the
tai stock of the sugar company.
At this time, when the people of
Nevada are enlisted in a movement
for preferential campaign to boost
Nevada products, it should be borne
in mind that home made beet sugar
occupies an important place in the
economic scale. In the case of beet
sugar an unwarranted prejudice has
nhf ninad in ho de- x@f
wives that it is not the equal of the
cane article for preserving and other
purposes. This opinion has not only
prevailed in Nevada, but in some
other of the older beet sugar states,
and color has been given to this by
many local grocers who have en-
couraged buyers to purchase cane
sugar. In California, few years ago,
the question became statewide one
and in order to test the relative mer-
its of the two sugars exhaustive ex-
periments were made under the di-
rection of Prof G. w. Shaw, a noted
and recognized specialist on sugar.
Recognizing the Importance of Prof
Shaw's experiments, the United
States government caused to be pub
lished a special bulletin (Circular No.
Oo)s IIOl. SHAW ISpOiL tONCIbAE tAC
findings in the Investigations made.
The best evidence of the profits
arising from the manufacture of beet
sugar is furnished by the state of
Utah, where the first plant was oper-
ated in 1891 with an output of only
/ 100000 pounds of sugar. This fac
tory has been enlarged three times
and now has a capacity of 1400 tons
of beets per day and makes about
100000 pounds of sugar yearly. In
1915 the farmers of Utah raised and
delivered to the sugar companies
613,S40 tons of beets, for which they
received upwards of s3,000000. These
beets produced about 10000 tons OF
finished sugar, which ought to sell
for about $4,000 900. 1t requires an
army of men to work these beets and
il will take upwards of 100000 tons
of coal, $4,000 tons of lime rock, 1000
tons of coke, and several hundred
thousand dollars of other manufac-
turing material. Only 10 per cent OF
the sugar manufactured in Utah is
sold at home, the balance finding
market in the eastern states. Yet
Utah ranks only fourth among the
states of the Union in its production
of sugar and number of factories
Tonopah Bonanza.