14 



If we were to particularize, we would call attention to the following 

 articles, some of which have been partially tried in our State, and if 

 thoroughly tested, we believe all could be proved most valuable additions 

 to our agricultural products : 



BEET SUGAR. 



California imports annually about thirty million pounds of sugar and 

 about five hundred thousand gallons of molasses. The sugar costs our 

 people about four million five hundred thousand dollars, in gold ; the 

 molasses, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; in all, four million 

 .seven hundred and fifty-thousand dollars. This amount of gold is shipped 

 from die State annuallj' to pay for these two articles. On the sugar we 

 pay an import duty of an average of four cents per pound, equal to one 

 million two hundred thousand dollars; on the molasses we pay a duty 

 of about five cents per gallon, equal to twenty-five thousand dollars; 

 making our annual duty on sugar and molasses, one million seven hun- 

 dred and fifty thousand dollars. This last sum is simply a tax on the 

 consumers, which is paid by them in the proportion to the amount con- 

 sumed, and hence it falls upon the poor much more heavily than upon 

 the rich. 



Now, we believe all this sugar and molasses can just as well be pro- 

 duced within our State as any where else, and thus save within the State 

 the annual sum of four million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 

 to be distributed among our own people, and principally among the day 

 laborers, for labor performed during the winter season — the idle season. 

 We all believe this, and yet we do not know it. Capitalists will not 

 take their money from investments where it pays them from twelve to 

 eighteen per cent, per annum to invest in uncertain experiments, unless 

 some extra inducement is offered them. Nor is it rij^ht that thev should 

 be asked to do so, for every citizen in the State is to some extent inter- 

 ested in the experiment, and should, therefore, pay a proportion of the 

 expense of making such experiment. Now, suppose the Legislature 

 were to offer a premium of two cents a pound, one-half the tax we are 

 now paying on imported sugar, for say the first one million two hundred 

 and fifty thousand pounds produced from beets within the State. The 

 whole amount of this tax, if the sugar were produced, would be twenty- 

 five thousand dollars, the amount we now pay annually as duty on 

 molasses. This sum, we have no doubt, would be sufficient to induce 

 people to enter into the business with energy and capital sufficient to 

 secure success, and, within five years, to produce all the sugar and 

 molasses we consume. 



Then, what would be the financial operation resulting to the people of 

 the State ? Simply this : That, by the payment of twenty-five thou- 

 sand dollars to our own people, and principally to laborers, they would 

 have added to the working capital of the State the sum of four million 

 seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And while the premium would 

 only be paid once, four million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars 

 would be added to the capital of the State each year, so long as the pro- 

 duction of sugar and molasses should equal the present consumption ; and 

 if the production should be doubled, as it probably would be in a few 

 years — for we could always find a read} T market for all we could produce 

 — the saving to our State would be at the rate of nine million five bun- 

 dred thousand dollars per annum, and so on, in an increasing ratio. 



We are glad to be able to state that the Sacramento Beet Sugar Com- 



