Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1917-02-22
SUGAR BEET CULTURE

yUL UNE
that for a series of years 1t produces
a greatly increased yield of all other
crops which follow. Although the
natural soil and climatic conditions
of Europe are greatly inferior to-
those Of the United States, through
the Introduction of sugar beet cultured
their worn-Out soils have been so rel
juvenated that they now produce al
much greater tonnage of all crops.
Germany Leads in Production.
In 1908, Germany, the largest SUI
gar producing country in the world,
produced 30.5 bushels of wheat to thel
acre to 1853 bushels; So bushels
of oats to our 30.3 bushels; 1915 BUSH
els of barley to our 24.3 bushels; 1881
bushels Of rye to our ISL bushels,
and 208.9 bushels Of potatoes to our
1868 bushels. From 42,000,0 900 acresi
devoted to these five crops in 1909,
German farmers harvested 5000, 000,-I
90 bushels, while from 80, 900, 900 acres
American farmers harvested but 81
100000, 900 bushels.
frequent mention is made of Ger
many's preparedness in military or
~ganization, in munitions, in Industrial
enterprises, in chemistry and in the
construction of strategic railways, but
inasmuch as an army marches on its
belly and the civil population must
be fed, no other result of science,
pcnnonu n0r. fotncpnapcbin hos hnnpt
of such fundamental Importance toll
the German empire as the increase
of her agricultural yields to a point
where, with her ports blockaded, shel
is able to produce from an area far
less than that of Texas the food with
which to sustain a population three
fourths as large as that of the entire
United States. Without exception,
the noted ~agronomists and economists
of the German empire attribute the
wonderful progress which that coun-l
try has made in agricultural methods
to the introduction of sugar beet cul-
ture.
Sugar Beet Culture Helps Soil.
Wherever sugar beets have been
grown in the United States the yields
of other crops grown in rotation have
increased more rapidly than they In
creased in Germany, and oftentimesl
have far exceeded the German Yields.
If, through the general introduction
of sugar beet culture our soils were
made to equal the German acreage
yields, based On the United States
farm value in 1909, without extending
their acreage, but solely through the
value of the excess yield, u farm
ers would be richer by $1,340.00 600
a year.
Sugar beet culture not only has
grains in Europe. but it has enabled
European countries to retain at home
hundreds of millions of dollars which
they formerly sent abroad for their
sugar supply, and now brings in addi-
tional millions of dollars by reason of
their sugar exports.
1000, 600 Invested in United States
I'm the United States the establish
ment of the beet sugar industry has
resulted in the Investment of over
500, 100000 in a new American indus
try.
ut has kept at home and distrib-
uted amongst American farmers, la
boring men, artisans, railroads, ETC.,
hundreds of millions of dollars, which
otherwise would have gone abroad.
"By reason of its competition with
foreign sugar imported and refined by
our seaboard refineries, with a conse-
quent reduction in the price of all
sugar while it is being marketed, it
has saved the American people mil
lions of dollars annually in their SUI
gar bills.
sThe domestic beet sugar industry
has afforded the American farmer a
market for a profitable crop, the price
of which, unlike other crops, he knows
precisely before he plants the seed in
the ground.
Sugar beet culture has taught the
American farmer better cultural
methods which he has applied to the
cultivation Of all other crops, thereby
increasing his yield of cereal crops
from so to 75 per cent without in.
creasing his acreage and with but
little additional labor and expense"