384 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I cite these cases as examples of intelligent mana«;enient of good 

 soils in a favorable season. Frequent visits to the farnuM's about Ray 

 City during tlie sunnner of 181)8 convinced me that the community as a 

 whole was enthusiastic in the belief that great ])rofits were to accrue 

 from the growing of beets. Other communities began to send commit- 

 tees to Bay (Mty, and the good fortune of that factory in 1808 was 

 without question one of the strongest inducements to both capitalists 

 and farmers to invest mone}- and work in sugar production in Michigan. 



It was assumed that the almost phenomenal results obtained on a 

 peculiarly favorable soil in a peculiarly favorable season by experienced 

 beet raisers would be duplicated on less favorable soils by inexperienced 

 farmers regardless of the season. Farmers all over the State were 

 aroused from aj^athy and indifference to unbounded and unwarranted 

 confidence in the certainty of ])rofit from this new industry. From all 

 parts of the State was heard the call for new sugar factories. Capital 

 was ready to invest. The legislature had offered a bounty of one cent 

 per pound for all sugar made from beets grown in the State, for which 

 the factories should pay four dollars per ton for beets containing twelve 

 per cent sugar. Eight new factories were built in the fall of 1898 and 

 the earl.v summer of 1899. Nine factories were therefore in operation 

 in 1899. They are located as follows: three at Bay City, viz.. The Michi- 

 gan Sugar Company, The Bay City Sugar Company, and the West Bay 

 City Sugar Company; The Alma Sugar Company at Alma, forty milea 

 directly west of Saginaw; The Peninsular Sugar Company at Caro, east 

 and slightly north of Saginaw; The Detroit Sugar Company at Koches- 

 ter, Oakland county; The Kalamazoo Sugar Company, at Kalamazoo; 

 The Wolverine Sugar Company, at Benton Harbor, Berrien county, and 

 The Holland Sugar Company, at Holland. Ottawa county. 



While the soil about these factories is far from uniform and not all 

 of it adajited to beet growing, there is an amount of good beet land 

 within reach of ^ach factory to supply it with all the beets it can handle. 

 The broad, alluvial Saginaw Valley, in which are located the three fac- 

 tories at Bay City, is undoubtedly the most promising section of the 

 State from the standpoint of the beet grower. The water-table is within 

 a few feet of the surface. The soil, while rich in organic matter, has 

 an abundance of the needed mineral constituents. It is friable and 

 easily penetrated by the growing roots, resembling in physical make-up, 

 water-holding capacity and relation to the water-table, the valley of the 

 Platte in Nebraska. The area, having once been the bottom of a broad 

 lake, is almost or quite level. Much of the land, since grown over to 

 beet growing, was formerly devoted to truck farming and gardening, 

 lines of work which fitted both the farmer and the farm for the economi- 

 cal production of large crops of beets. 



Near Alma the soil is for the most part a loam, tending toward a clay 

 loam, ricli in fertility and possessing a good water-holding and drouth- 

 resisting capacity. 



I submit in the table below some of the facts in the campaign of the 

 factories in 1899: 



