300 Transactions of the 



The process of manufacturing sugar from the beet has been brought 

 to a high degree of perfection, but without Government support and 

 encouragement at the outset it would not now be numbered among the 

 industries which bless the world. 



The French Government offered a prize of one million francs for the 

 most successful method of obtaining a supply of indigenous sugar. It 

 was soon proved that the supply could only be furnished from the 

 beet root. In Poland, as early as eighteen hundred and twelve, Govern- 

 ment loans and exemption from conscription were offered in aid of the 

 enterprise. In fact, the principal Governments of the continent of Europe 

 vied with each other in perfecting and extending the new enterprise. 



Our own Government has, during the past ten years, thoroughly in- 

 vestigated the beet sugar interest, as can be seen in the various agricul- 

 tural and commercial reports. Since eighteen hundred and sixt} T -six it 

 has removed all the duties on sugar machinery imported from Germany 

 (where the machinery for this process has been brought to the highest 

 degree of perfection), and protected the manufacture of sugar from 

 beets by a tariff of from two to four cents per pound; whereas, the 

 various European Governments exact a revenue of nearly an equal 

 amount from this manufacture. 



Further: at the Exposition of Paris in eighteen hundred and sixty- 

 seven, the great danger to our agricultural interest was shown, and has 

 since been plainly verified; and, referring to this, the President, in his 

 message in eighteen hundred and seventy-one, uttered the following 

 words of warning to agriculturists: 



" The beet sugar interest opened to our view a field until lately untried 

 by the American agriculturist, in which other countries have met with 

 most distinguished success, as may be illustrated by reference to the his- 

 tory of this single product." 



It may be interesting as a fact illustrative of the cheapness with which 

 beet sugar is produced in France, to note that though England is so well 

 supplied with Colonial grown sugar, she nevertheless imports annually 

 a considerable quantity of beet sugar from France. 



It is also a well known fact that the expense of the late Franco-German 

 war w T ere in both countries, in a great measure, defrayed by the taxes 

 on beet sugar — so large and so important is that branch of industry. 



The declared value of various forms of foreign sugars, which, in the 

 year eighteen hundred and seventy, were consumed in the United States, 

 was nearly seventy-tw T o million dollars, being little less than the value 

 of the total domestic export during that year of wheat, flour, and all 

 Other kinds of grain products. • • 



Counting commissions, freights, etc., sugar costs the country many 

 dollars more than was realized from its foreign trade in breadstuff's. 



In eighteen hundred and seventy-two, the entire export of bread- 

 stuffs amounted to ninety-three million dollars, and the import of sugars 

 from all quarters amounted to the enormous sum of one hundred and 

 three million dollars. 



In an agricultural point of view, it would be of great advantage to 

 divert a considerable portion of the lands and labor given to wheat cul- 

 ture to the growth of sugar beets. The agricultural interest of Cali- 

 fornia has now been proved so much more important than the mining, 

 or any other interests, that our farmers are now rapidly becoming both 

 practical and scientific, and from both standpoints are realizing the 

 necessity of preserving the strength of their lands by alternating other 

 crops with their wheat. 



