22 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of New York. Through the courage of our friends at Bay Cit,y the mak- 

 ing of sugar from beets has had its inception, and from the experience of 

 factory and farmers we may learn many valuable lessons as well as re- 

 ceive much very solid encouragement. 



How great the profits of the factory may have been, from the campaign 

 just closed, I do not know, but I have visited the factory many times; 

 have met the farmers frequently; have studied their methods somewhat 

 thoroughly, and investigated the financial results of their enterprise. I 

 am glad to report that the cases are few where the farmer has not made 

 a large profit over all expenditures, including pay for his own time and 

 for the labor of his teams. 



CASH PER ACRE. 



The farmers managing their w^ork intelligently and keeping a careful 

 account with their fields report, giving itemized statements, a cost per 

 acre of amounts varying from $30.00 to |45.00. A careful review^ of the 

 reports from some forty farmers leads me to believe that the cost of rais- 

 ing;, harvesting and delivering an acre of beets at a distance of three 

 miles does not exceed approximately thirty-two dollars, where the work 

 is economically managed. 



Where unusual pains are taken in the matter of cultivation and hoeing 

 the cost may run higher, but if it does the yields are correspondingly en- 

 hanced. 



RETURNS PER ACRE. 



On the other hand, I found the returns per acre to vary from forty-five 

 to eighty dollars and in exceptional cases to a much higher figure. The 

 net profit per acre seldom fell below twenty dollars and often ran above 

 thirty or even forty dollars. This is the word of encouragement. At the 

 present prices paid for beets there is a good profit to the grower. 



NOW FOR THE WORDS OF WARNING. 



1. Don't locate factory where cheap coal and limestone are not easily 

 obtainable, or where there is not a large supply of pure water free from 

 potash salts especially, to be had without pumping. 



2. Don't go blindly into a contract with a construction company for 

 the erection of a factory. It has the experience and you the money 

 when you begin, how will they be divided when you end? Go into the 

 thing on business principles. 



3. Look up the element of labor. When you remember that it takes 

 one man fully seven and a half days to thin an acre, and farther that the 

 period of most economical thinning extends but two weeks after the 

 beets are ready, you will see that you need for this job one person to 

 every two acres of beets. Before deciding therefore on how many acres 

 he will put in. the farmer needs to cast about to see how many persons 

 he can command to do the thinning. This job commences just before 

 haying and may last long enough to overlap the latter job. 



Again, harvesting the beets is another job that requires lots of help. 

 It comes in late September and early October, just as the corn is ready 

 to harvest. It is well to see if plenty of extra help is available at that 



