222 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



BEET SUGAR. 



Office of the Western Beet Sugar Co., 327 Market Street, 



San Francisco, December 28, 1887. 



Edwin F. Smith, Esq., Secretary State Board of Agriculture: 



Dear Sir: The inquiries regarding the cultivation of sugar beets in 

 California, and my intentions as to the erection of factories, have become 

 so numerous that it is utterly impossible to send a separate written reply 

 to each individual. I have, therefore, framed this letter, which embraces 

 all the necessary information that I am prepared to give at the present 

 time. 



My belief is that the cultivation of sugar beets will soon be one of the 

 largest agricultural pursuits, not only in California but in all the Western 

 States and Territories, both soil and climate being more favorable to the 

 purpose than even in Germany. The failure in the past to manufacture 

 sugar from beets, on a paying basis, has been mainly due to the absence of 

 the best available machinery. The beets that were grown have been suit- 

 able for the purpose but the machinery has been deficient. This, however, 

 will be obviated in the future, as I have secured the right for the whole of 

 the United States, of all the latest mechanical appliances and manufactur- 

 ing methods that are now in use in Germany, which is the largest and 

 most successful beet sugar producing country in the world. 



The soil best adapted for growing sugar beets is a rich, sandy loam. 

 Beets must not be grown successively in the same soil, and they must 

 never be manured. Land that has produced a crop of beets should be 

 planted in grain the next year, then manured and planted again in grain, 

 and in the third year it may be replanted with beets, but it must not be 

 manured that year. Thus a farm of one hundred and fifty acres would 

 enable a farmer to grow fifty acres of sugar beets in each year, and I think 

 I may safely say that the fifty acres planted in beets will prove more 

 profitable each year than the whole of the other hundred acres that are 

 producing grain at present prices. The price of beets will be determined 

 by the percentage of saccharine matter that they contain, a few beets being 

 taken from each load, as delivered at the factory, for analysis — the result 

 of that analysis forming the basis upon which each load shall be paid for. 

 By this means the best beets will obtain the best price, and the farmer will 

 be encouraged to careful cultivation. 



I propose to erect one factory at Watsonville, at a cost of about $400,000, 

 which will be in full operation by September 1, 1888. This factory will 

 consume three hundred and fifty tons of beets in every twenty-four hours, 

 but be doubled by the following year. At present it will require one 

 hundred cords of wood and seven tons of lime daily during the four or five 

 months that it is in operation. This will show the necessity for having 

 good supplies of wood and lime close to the factory, which should also be 

 near to a line of railroad or to suitable water facilities for shipment of raw 

 sugar to San Francisco. The lime is a good fertilizer and can be returned 

 to the soil again. The pulp from the beets can be fed to cattle and will 

 keep them in fine condition. 



