FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 99 



have to pass through the hands of the sugar trust and thus escapes 

 the exactions of that great monopoly. Do you know that the sugar 

 trust fixes the price at which sugar must be sold in every city and 

 village in our land? The only untaxed white sugar is the beet sugar 

 produced of such excellence as not to need refining. This is our only 

 way of escape from the sugar trust. It has been darkly hinted that 

 beet sugar is not as good as cane sugar; that preserved fruits and 

 jellies made with beet sugar will not keep, etc. I placed some beet 

 sugar from the Michigan Sugar Co. in the hands of the domestic de- 

 partment of our College, to be tested as to culinary quality, and re- 

 ceived a tumbler of jelly of such beauty that it was threatened with 

 ''quick consumption." The fact is that for two years past about the 

 only granulated sugar used in Michigan has been beet sugar. 



The supply of cane sugar has been cut off from the West Indies and 

 Philippines on account of the Spanish war; none reaches us from the 

 Sandwich Islands, and Louisiana makes no more than is required by 

 her people. The question remains. Shall we use our, home product or 

 depend upon beet sugar imported from Germany and France by the 

 sugar trust, paying any tax that monopoly may impose? When we 

 think of the large dividends the sugar trust bonds are said to pay, how 

 easj' to place these bonds in the hands of our national legislators when 

 questions of revenue come up for consideration, and the trust, which 

 was once for tarifi' on sugar, is nov/ for free trade. I recall the words 

 of the Good Book, 'Tut not your trust in princes." 



The reading of Dr. Kedzie's paper was follovv'ed by a discussion of 

 the points treated. The first question taken up was that of the method 

 of sampling at the factories. The method most generally employed is 

 to have a man appointed for the purpose, who visits each load of beets 

 as ii is being unloaded and takes from the load a half bushel of beets 

 to be cleaned and tested, to determine first the tare and afterward the 

 per cent of sugar. Minor differences in the details of selecting the 

 beets from the wagon load to put in the basket were mentioned. In 

 most of the factories the assistant, who is pledged to do exact justice 

 between the parties, sees to it that when the farmer fills the measure 

 he does so with beets that fairly represent the load, as to adherent dirt 

 and topping and shape and as to being conical or prongy. The consensus 

 of oi)inion seemed to be that while a given half bushel might not fairly 

 represent a given load, still with the samples taken, using fair judg- 

 ment, as indicated above, the average for the whole crop of the farmer 

 will be fairly represented by the samples taken. 



In sampling carload lots it is customary to take two samples, one 

 from toward each end of the car. 



Little dissatisfaction was reported with the method of taking sam- 

 ples. It was generally agreed that with competent men to do the 

 work the present methods do not need change. Politics, however, 

 should play no part in the selection of the men who thus represent both 

 the factory and the farmers. These men must be neither ignorant nor 

 dishonest. 



The next question was as to the method of treating the representa- 



