The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-06

ein rows about eight inches apart, and when the plants come up they are thinned, so that they stand six or elght inches apart in the row. In Utah the seed is drilled in, and there are orlus that plant several rows at time ne boets are hoed and kept free from weeds. 1 1t takes about five months for them 10 mature. after which they are dug up much like potatoes and taken to the sugar factory.
 The hcets are not large. They weigh | from a pound to pound and han l each and the smallest beet mas the | sweetest juice and makes the best su- gar. The beets produce more or less su- gar according to the percentage of sugar contents in them. This varies in differ | ent localities. In the region visited 1t ' took six or eight beets to make one pound of sugar.
 was interested in the beet sugar fac tories They have modern machinery based upon cost efficiency methods so l that a minimum of human labor IS used. The beets are taken in upon belts and carried to the top of the factory, belng washed on the way. They are cut lhto | little pieces by knives which slice them | into bits the width and thickness Of slate pencil They look like the threads of mashed potatoes when squeezed through a colander I picked up some | of these threads and tasted them. Tney are sweet but they have also the oitter l taste of the raw beet
 1 After cutting the threads go into great Iiron tanks containing diffusion batteries | so arranged that they move through l from one tank to the others The ma chinery is so constructed that, as the beets go through, part of the sugar Tn | them goes on into the tanks. which are | filled with warm water, and at the end | of the process all of the sugar has gone into the water. At the start the water Is as clear as crystal, but when 1t flows 1 forth. containing the sugar, it is as black as ink, and it has to be purified before being boiled down to get out the sugar, 1 This is done by various processes, which 1 make the sugar water as clear as pure alcohol. The water Is now passed through tanks filled with steam pipes, the Hquld growing thicker and thicker until 1t turns to a syrup and then to a mixture of su- gar and molasses.
 This mixture is refined in about the same way as cane sugar. and at the end 1t becomes the sweet. white stuff we use on our tables. It is now just like cane lsugar. Pure sugar is the same every where, and no pure sugars gre sweeter than others. The great quantities of Hams and iellies which were formerly ex- ported from France and England were
 sweetened with sugar that came from the beet.
 And now let us see what we can do to
 help the sugar famine in Europe. The
 food administration will do all in it's
 power, but 1t depends upon you and me,
 and the 30 99,99S other people or the United States as to whether we can ship
 a goodly supply of sugar to the soldiers
 and our allies this winter. It depends
 upon how much candy we eat and how |, ro1yA nin m
 dings and other desserts It depends
 upon whether we each use one or two
 Jumps or no sugar at all in our coffee and tea, for all these make up large part of our sugar consumption, which today is the grea test of the whole world. Do you know how much sugar we eat every year? Our average con sumption, taking every man, woman and child in the United States into ac- count. is 90 pounds, or almost two pounds per week. During the 10 years preceding the war our consumption ] was only 70 or so pounds. We then ate | on the average only 1000, 900 pounds / per year, which was an increase over the consumption of the preceding dec kade of about 43 per cent. It is not 3 very long since we were each eating
 only so pounds per year, and if we should cut down our ration to the same I amount we formerly used we would have plenty of sugar for any one oi T our allies. As it Is now the French people have been living on 2t pound. 4 per year and the English and Italian: Z have not more than that We are now eating about 20 pounds each in exees.
 of our average consumption during thu last 10 years, and 30 pounds more thar
 during the 10 years before that.
 Ninety pounds of sugar for each on of us and 21 pounds for each English man, Frenchman and Italian. Hoy H would you like to sit down at partner ship dinner with three other peopl H and have one of them grab three
 fourths of the sugar That is just wha
 we have been doing in the year of ou
 Lord 1917.
 If we could reduce our consumption
 one-half we should still each hay
 more than twice as much as Is used b
 our allies and the saving would b
 4.500,000.000 pounds If we could re
 duce it one-fourth we should still hay
 three times as much as either the Eng H fish. French or Italians, and ther
 would be 1.500. .000,0O0 pounds saved fo
 shipment to Europe To do that W
 should each have to save about on
 ounce of sugar day or seven ounce
 per week the year through.
 Take the single item of candy whic
 you send to your sweetheart in boxe
 ranging from one to five pounds l
 all the sugar we use in making con
 fectionery could be sent to Italy H would double that country's supply. I
 1917 we spent for candy twice as muc