400 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



in prominence, and much greater llian that for iiulia rubber, tea, silk 

 or liemp. Every year we pay about |10(),00(l,()()0, or $1.35 for every 

 man, woman and cliild in the countiy. to foreiijn countries for sufjar. 

 Indeed, out of more tlu\n 2, 000, 000 tons of snicar which the United 

 States consumes annually we produce a paltry 270,000 tons, mostly from 

 the cane fields of Louisiana. This does not include the production of 

 the new island possessions, Porto Kico, Hawaii, and the IMiilippines; 

 but these would add only 400,000 tons to our ])i'oduction, still leaving 

 us to obtain much more tlian half of our sugar from the foreigner. And 

 all this in the face of the fact that so good an authority as Secretary 

 Wilson of the Department of Agriculture says: 



"We have no more need to import sugar than to import wheat." 

 Secretary ^^'ilSon spoke from a thorough knowledge of the remarkable 

 strides made during the past two or three years by the sugar beet in- 

 dustry in this country. The American farmer has suddenly discovered 

 that he can raise with large profit as good sugar beets as there are in 

 the world, and the American manufacturer has learned that he can 

 make those beets yield the highest grade of pure sugar. Twelve years 

 ago the total production of beet sugar in America was 255 tons; six 

 years later the production had jumped to 1G,000 tons, and last year 

 (1899) the production was about 80,000 tons. For 1900 those who 

 know predict a production exceeding 150,000 tons, nearly doubling the 

 output of a year ago and making the beet sugar yield of the country 

 nearly equal to the cane sugar yield. And thus, out of almost nothing, 

 the United States has built a sugar industry in half a dozen years, the 

 output of which this year will be about double that of the island of 

 Porto Rico. And the 'work has barely begun. In 1898, Michigan had 

 one sugar beet factory; two years later in 1900 she had ten factories. 

 In California the largest beet sugar factory in the world has just been 

 completed, larger than anything in Europe, although Germany has been 

 years at the business. This enormous factory cost |2,750,000, and it 

 will turn out upward of 400 tons of sugar every day, using 3,000 tons of 

 beets for the purpose and consuming yearly the product of 30,000 acres 

 of laud. Capital is always shy about venturing into new industries, 

 but it has taken beet sugar making to its heart. Indeed, one who 

 reads of the growth of the industry in Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado, 

 New York, Iowa, ^Minnesota, New Mexico, and other states can hardly 

 resist the contagion of the beet sugar enthusiasm. At the rate at 

 which the industry is now growing, it will be only a few years before 

 the United States will supply her own sugar needs, great as they are, 

 thereby keeping at home the large profits of growing the beets and 

 manufacturing the sugar, and saving the expense of shipping the sugar 

 hundreds or thousands of miles. 



ENCOURAGEMENT FROM WASHINGTON. 



Sugar beet growing is typically a new industry, born of scientific 

 investigation and intelligent governmental encouragement. In the first 

 place, the sugar beet is nothing more than the ordinary garden-beet, 

 bred and developed by years of careful selection until it produces a 

 very large percentage of sugar. To the Germans belongs the credit 

 for working out this development, and for beginning the manufacture 



