404 STATE BOARD OF A(UIICULTURE 



Tin: (ASH I'ROCRKDS T( » TIIK (V (MMIN I'lV. 



Tlu' ^ii'atcst ditticulty oxju'riciictMl h_v ilic iaiiiicis in cvrry jiart of 

 the oomitiy wliciv tlio new iiidustiy is hcinj; iiiau^iirntcd, is to liiul 

 euoii<;li work men during!: the busy season To tliin and weed the beets. 

 In Europe this (]uestion is solved by tlie cheai) Uibor of women, and to 

 some extent tlie same das'-! of liclp is cmiihjycd in tiie fields ai-ound 

 Bay City, women of foreign birth bein^ hired from llie cities of Sa<i,inaw 

 and P»ay City, lioys are also lai-}iely employed at wages as liigh as 

 $1 a day and dinner. (In Nebraska single families have made .^100 

 or more a month working in the beet fields.) All this has tended to 

 make the pooi*er classes of the two towns exceedingly prosperous. In- 

 deed, the beet sugar industry is contributing wealtli to the Bay City 

 region in a manner quite unexampled, except in other neighborhoods 

 where The new industry is equally prosjx^i-ons. This year il'.MXIi the 

 three factories will pay in cash for beeTs sonieThing more than $4(M),0(M» 

 to the farmers within a radius of 25 miles of Bay (,'ity. Certain it is 

 that the farmers in that part of the State never before saw sucli a 

 cash income as this. 



THK ArANrFACniUNG PROCESS. 



As soon as the beets are harvested, in September, the factories notify 

 the various farmers, and a certain number of loads ai-e brought in every 

 day and dumped into the great reserve bins, adjoining the factory. They 

 are weighed with great cai-e, and a sample is taken from each load to be 

 analyzed, payment being made on the basis of the amount of sugar 

 which the beets contain and the percentage of its purity. All this 

 requires an extended and intricate svstem of laboratorv analvsis and 

 the most methodical bookkeeping, so that every farmer shall have 

 justice done to lilm. Indeed, the whole process of nmnufacturiug sugar 

 from beets is comi)lex and costly. 



I shall not attempt here to give a detailed descri[)tion of these manu- 

 facturing processes; that would require too much space, but in brief 

 they consist in first thoroughly cleaning the beets and then in slicing 

 them into thin i)ieces, after which wasm water is employed to dissolve 

 out the sugar. The juice thus produced is clarified with lime, then con- 

 centrated, then evaporated, and finally crystallized. In about twelve 

 hours from the' time that the raw beets enter the factory to be sliced, 

 the pure, white-grained sugar comes from the crystallizers ready to be 

 barreled for -inarket. In making cane sugai-. the factories on the ground 

 usually produce only the raw sugar, aixl this is purchased and refined 

 by the great sugar companies of New York and elsewhere. This work 

 of refining at a point far distant from the place of production has 

 enabled what is known as the "sugar trust" to control in large measure 

 the output of fine granulated sugar. But the advent of the beet sugar 

 industry, with every factory producing the very best grades of white 

 sugar directly fr<»m the beets, may play an important part in placing 

 sugar again among those commodities the prices of which are regulated 

 solely by the law of supply and demand. The "sugar trust," there- 

 fore, looks with small favor on the new industry. 



A sugar factory requires large quantities of pure limestone for use 



