Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1918-01-06

OF the Pacific and Indian oceans belonging
to England. The cane grows we'll in Brazil
and Argentina, and | have seen it twice as
high as my head in the irrigated valleys OF
Peru. There are also irrigated sugar plan
tatlons on the banks of the Nile near Cairo.
In fact, the cane grows here and there in the
tropics all over the world, and if it were not
for the submarines and other dangers to
shipping Europe would have her normal sup
ply and to spare.
short time ago | published a letter
from Louisiana, showing how our cane
sugar area is confined to Louisiana and
Texas. The sugar lands there are COM
paratively limited, and we shall not be able
to grow enough cane sugar for our needs,
outside OF our colonial possessions. 1t is
different with the Philippines, Hawaii and
Porto Rico md the new islands we have re-
Gently bought from Denmark They all
have good sugar soil, and the Philippines
could iced large part of our people
AS to our beet-sugar area, ID is so great
that we could grow enough beets to supply
every pound of sugar we use and still have
a surplus to sell to other parts of the world.
~ SSSoi bNSl Sdll DC grown anywhere
from Maine to California and from the
great lakes to the Ohio river. 1t needs
cool nights and moderately warm DAYS. and
1t thrives best along the isothermal line of
70 degrees. | have seen it in Utah and Cal
norma, where are some of the largest beet
sugar fields of the world.
The sugar beets look much like those in
your garden, and they are cultivated in about
the same way. The seed is sown in rows
about eight inches apart, and when the
plants come up they are thinned so that
they stand six eight inches apart in the
row. In Utah the seed is drilled in, and
there are drills that plant several rows at
time The beets are hoed and kept free
from weeds. 1t takes about five months for
them to mature, after which they are dug I'D
much like potatoes and taken to the sugar
factory.
The beets are not large. They weigh
from pound to pound and a half each.
and the smallest beet has the sweetest Juice
and makes the best sugar The beets pro-
duce more or less sugar according to the
percentage OF sugar contents in them. This
varies in different localities In the region
| visited it took six eight beets to make
one pound of sugar.
| was interested in the beet sugar facto-
rles. They have modern machinery based
upon cost efficiency methods, SO that min
imum OF human labor is used The beets
are taken in upon belts and carried to the
top of the factory, being washed on the way
They are cut into 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 colander. l picked up
some of these threads and tasted them
They are sweet, but they have also the bit
ter taste of raw beef
After cutting the threads go into great
iron tanks containing diffusion batteries SO
arranged that they move through from one
tank to the other The machinery is so
constructed that, a the beets go through,
part of the sugar in them goes out 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 it
flows forth. containing the sugar. it is as