160 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pounds of seed were sent out to experiment stations for distribution. 

 The value of the government's work is shown by the rapid strides with 

 which the industry has advanced. In 1897 there were nine factories in 

 operation in the United States, of which four were in California. In 

 1900 there were thirty-six, ten of them being in Michigan, which 

 three years earlier had none. Germany has four hundred factories and 

 turns out an average of between four thousand and four thousand five 

 hundred tons of sugar for each factory. The average increase per 

 annum in the consumption of sugar in the United States between 1881 

 and 1899 was over sixty thousand tons. In order to meet this increase 

 alone, fifteen factories would need to be added each year. It is thus 

 evident that though the industry has grown so markedly, the increase 

 in consumption is not provided for. Nearly five hundred factories 

 would be required for our present needs, and, after those were provided, 

 ten or fifteen should be added each year to provide for growth, if the 

 increase in consumption keeps up at the rate of the last twenty years. 



As has been stated, one of the causes of the early failure of the beet 

 sugar industry in this country was the location of factories in unsuitable 

 places, and one of the most important features of the governments 

 work of late years has been the investigation of the places where beets 

 can be grown profitably. Beets should have a sugar content of at least 

 12 per cent, and perhaps even 13 per cent, or 14 per cent., otherwise it 

 will not probably pay to erect a factory. This is not because at present 

 prices a factory using beets of 12 per cent, sugar could not pay, but 

 because in many parts of the country a considerably higher percentage 

 is obtainable, and, in view of competition, the most favorable locations 

 should be chosen. In the examination made by the Department of 

 Agriculture of beets sent in during the year 1897, '98 and '99 from 

 thirty-nine states and territories, it appeared that Arkansas was least 

 suited for beet culture, giving an average of a little over seven per cent, 

 of sugar. On the other hand, Nevada showed an average of eighteen 

 per cent, of sugar in the samples examined. 



A matter which is almost, if not quite, as important as the 

 percentage of sugar is its purity and in this respect Nevada was almost 

 at the top of the list, the 'coefficient of purity' being 83.8. The 

 coefficient of purity means the percentage of sugar in the total solids 

 dissolved in the juice. For example, if one hundred pounds of beets 

 yield a juice containing fifteen pounds of solid matter dissolved in it, 

 twelve pounds of which is sugar and the remaining three something 

 else, the sugar content is said to be 12 per cent, with a coefficient of 

 purity 80. Impurity keeps part of the sugar from crystallizing and so 

 prevents its recovery in the factory and hence a high coefficient of 

 purity is exceedingly important. 



A very important factor in the cultivation of beets is the tempera- 



