MICHIGAN BEET SUGAR 



403 



12 to 20 tons of beets, and the vahie per ton is from 14 upward, accord- 

 ing- to the richness of the beets in sugar. Say that the yield is 15 tons 

 per acre and that the farmer receives the minimum of price for his 

 I»roduct. his income would then be |60 per acre, very much more than 

 any other farm crop w^ould yield. 



in order to show wiiat was being done by these farmers, I obtained 

 from Prof. C. D. Smith a number of actual instances of profits made in 

 raising sugar beets, the year being 1898. 



Name. 



G. Hine 



S. F. Sayles 



J. F. Boes 



Thomas Handy 

 C. B. Chatfield. 

 J. W. Mcintosh 



Cost per Receipt 

 acre for ! 

 raising. I 



$41 25 

 46 30 

 32 02 

 31 63 



38 82 

 35 15 



per 

 acre. 



$64 59 

 67 52 

 89 09 

 67 34 



65 25 



66 75 



Trofits 



per 



acre. 



$23 34 

 21 22 



57 08 



25 71 



26 43 

 31 60 



With such profits as these, dollar wheat, as one of the Bay City 

 farmers expressed it, "ain't no whar'." It is a good crop of wheat that 

 yields a profit of |5 an acre. 



THE BEET AS A FERTILIZING AGENT. 



Nor are the great profits the only advantage which accrues to the 

 farmer from beet raising. The thorough working of the soil necessary 

 to the production of a good beet crop leaves it in superb condition for 

 a crop of wheat or corn during the following year, thus adding a new 

 and valuable element to the system of crop rotation. Moreover, the 

 leafy tops and the crowns of the beets, which are cut off, can be fed to 

 stock, or left to fertilize the fields, and the pulp which is thrown out 

 from the factory after the saccliarine juice has been extracted, also 

 makcjs a most valuable cattle food. For the peresent the Bay City fac- 

 tories give away this pulp free to the farmers, the idea being to teach 

 them its excellence for stock feeding purposes, but in many other 

 states it is sold at a good profit. In Germany this pulp is an important 

 article of commerce, and not a pound of it goes to waste. It will be 

 seen, therefore, that the beet is very thoroughly worked up and saved, 

 and that the cro]) may be made to return to the farm practically as 

 much f<'rtility as it takes away. Of no other crop can this be said. In 

 sliijij»ing sugar from the country no important element of soil fertility 

 is lost, sugar b<'ing, as Dr. Kedzie expresses it, ''condensed sunshine, 

 wind, and water,'' com]H)sed wholly of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 

 In slii]t]»ing wheat from the counti-y, on the other hand, the farmer 

 sliips ilie very life of the soil — the nitrogenous and phosphatic mat- 

 ter. The grain raisers of the United States do not fully appreciate this 

 fact as yet, because their land is new and rich; but in Europe, where the 

 fertilizer (|ueslion is of burning importance, the question is given its 

 due weight. No less accomi)lished a student of the sugar question than 

 11. W. Wiley, chemist of the Department of Agriculture, calls beet 

 growing "the salvation of American agriculture." 



