18 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



N. B. Bradley, Bay City: Yes. All our beets about Bay City are first "buached" 

 with a hoe and then each bunch thinned to a single beet by hand. 



Q. Does it not cost more in proportion to grow a single acre than a larger area? 



N. B. Bradley: Certainly; but the government experts report the cost for single 

 acres to be less than $40.00. 



Q. Is the matter of help so important as to prevent beet growing away from big 

 cities? 



N. B. Bradley: The help must be secured in advance. Just let it be known that 

 a larger demand than usual will be made for help in a given locality, and the un- 

 employed will find their way there. I do not think there will be serious trouble on 

 that score; but, of course, beet growers must exercise business foresight and 

 secure help in advance of the need. 



Q. Are the tops of the root and the leaves of value for feed? 



N. B. Bradley: Yes, of great value for feeding, but they should be left on the 

 ground to keep up the fertility of the soil, as a very large share of the total min- 

 eral content of the beet is in the leaves and very top of the root. 



Q. Is not six or seven pounds of beet seed enough for an acre? 



N. B. Bradley: Yes, if properly spaced by some special tool. At present, how- 

 ever, we know of no safe way of dispensing with the apparent necessity of sow- 

 ing twelve to fifteen pounds per acre with a garden drill or drill made for the 

 purpose. 



At this point Steward E. C. Smith, of the Asylum for the Insane, ex 

 tended a cordial invitation to delegates to the Institute to visit the as> 

 lum at anytime during their stay in Pontiac. 



SUGAR BEETS— FROM THE FACTORY STANDPOINT. 



N. B. BRADLEY, BAY CITY. 



To make profitable the raising of sugar beets a market for them must 

 be had. This can only be secured by building beet sugar factories. The 

 annual consumption of sugar in this country I estimate to be seventy 

 pounds per capita of the population. This would make Michigan's con- 

 gumption 140,000,000 pounds, costing the people of the State about $7.- 

 000,000. This large sum of money is paid out by our people for an article 

 that we must have, every year, and the money for it goes out of the State, 

 and no part of it returns. We consume the sugar and that value is lost 

 to the State as much as though consumed by fire or other element. 



The legislature in 1897 acted wisely in passing a bounty law for sugar 

 made within the State, and as a result thereof, one factory has been 

 built. Five or six more factories are now in process of construction, 

 indicating that in 1899 some portion of the sugar consumed will be pro- 

 duced at home. 



Michigan requires the product of twenty factories of medium capacity. 

 To build these it would require an investment of about |8,000,000; to 

 gtock them with beets a yearly product of 800,000 tons would be required, 

 for which an outlay of $3,200,000 to the farmers would be made, and a 

 further sum of |1, 600,000 to work them up. These, with other items of 

 cost, would distribute annually to tue people more than |5,500,000, in- 

 stead of sending this money, together with the earniugs of the factories, 

 away. Our own people would be profited by it. 



In addition to the $8,000,000 expended in building the factories, a large 

 part of the annual cost of the crop would be invested in permanent prop- 

 erty, the stimulating influence of which to all branches of industry would 

 cause an influx of population and of wealth; the latter for investment 



