402 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



ill ooiitral Mirhiiiaii from the pine* timber iiidnstiy. but the forest lands 

 are now practically denuded, and the great sawmills, one after another, 

 have been closing, leaving no other great industry to take the place 

 which they filled. Capital had accumulated, and being driven from 

 The old channels of activity. to(»k up with avidity the manufacturing 

 of beet sugar. Nor is this a merely local condition; in many parts of 

 the I'uited States sugar beet raising has appeared as the salvation of a 

 failing community. 



Here around ]iay City the land is flat and rich. It is settled largely 

 by Hollanders, with a liberal admixture of Americans of other origin. 

 The farms are small and thoroughly tilled, and when the farmers were 

 first approached by the representatives of the sugar factories they 

 showed much more than ordinary willingness to take up the expcM'iment 

 of sugar beet raising. This enterprise on the part of the farmers is the 

 more surprising, because sugar beet culture rej)reseiits an entirely dilfer-' 

 ent kind of farming from that usually practised in America, a more 

 careful or intensive farming as distinguished from the extensive fann- 

 ing practised by the prtulucers of corn, wheat and hay. It more nearly 

 approximates the system in vogue in Europe, bordering, as it does, on 

 gardening. By the old system a farmer planted a field of wheat and 

 l»aid no imu'e attention to it until it was ready to harvest. But when 

 beets are planted they require constant and costly attention during 

 many months. In the first place, the ground must be much more thor- 

 oughly prepared, plowed deeper, and more carefully pulverized than 

 for any other crop; then the seeds must be sown with care in drills, 

 and when they come up. the ])lants must be thinned out to give room for 

 the beets to grow — work that requires the painful labor of knees and 

 back during the long, hot days of June. Weeds must also be kept 

 down with jjerseverance. and cultivation must go on steadily until the 

 leaves of the beets are large enough to shade the ground. All this 

 costs immense labor, and care, and expense, especially if the fields are 

 large. The farmer cannot depend on his own family to do all the work, 

 but must hire boys, and Avonieu, and sometimes men, to help with the 

 thinning and weeding. In short, it is a much more scientific method 

 of farming Than that (u-dinarily in vogue in this country; it uses the 

 land more thoroughly and profitably, and it requires much more busi- 

 ness capacity on the part of the farmer. But if it costs more to raise 

 fleets j»er acre than wheat or corn, the x)rofits are correspondingly much 

 greater, and as soon as the farmer can be made to see this great ad- 

 vantage, he is usually more than anxious to take up the work. The 

 Bay City factory already mentioned, in common with many other fac- 

 tories throughout The cf)untry. employs a man whose sole duty it is to 

 go Through tlie country and iiiTerest The farmers in beet raising, sliow- 

 ing them how the work is done, making contracts with them, and then 

 watching the crop the whole season, giving his advice and assistance 

 wherever possible. At the time of my visit at Bay City the beets were 

 just ready for harvest and the great flat fields of them covered with 

 spreading green leaves, furnished an example of farm wealth to be 

 equaled in few other places in the country. The sizes of the crops of 

 various farmers varied from two or three acres uy» to ISO acres, all 

 planted to beets. Every acre of these splendid farms will yield from 



