176 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Voy. VIII. 
able to their successful growth. For some years past the Ontario Agricul- 
tural College at Guelph has, as a consequence of the excellent results ob- 
tained at their experimental stations, been carrying on an educational 
campaign among the farmers of the Province. Asa result of this the qual- 
ity and tonnage of beets now grown in different parts of Ontario surpass 
those of many American States. The climate of this Province, with its 
sunshine and long autumns, is peculiarly favorable to the cultivation of 
the beet, which takes about four months and a half to reach maturity. 
It requires, however, to be demonstrated to the farmers that the culti- 
vation of beets will pay them better than other land produce before the 
requisite supply of suitable material will be obtained. That the profits are 
large can be gathered from the fact that wheat yields in Ontario $15 an acre 
per annum, oats, $9.74, and beets for sugar, $60. In the last case the cost 
of production is necessarily large, owing to a great amount of labour being 
required, but, all the same the profits to the farmer should, with skilful 
treatment, be at least $30 per acre per annum. ‘The beet tops are of value 
as a fertilizing agent owing to the salts they contain, and find a use also 
as a food for cattle. In 1901 beets were grown —under instructions from 
the Agricultural Department—in fifteen districts of Ontario, and the aver- 
age yield per acre was over seventeen tons of a high quality of beets which 
gave an average of 15.6 per cent. of sugar of an average purity of 87.7 
per cent. All this points to a future for Ontario as a sugar-producing 
country; this fact has been fully realized by the Provincial Government, 
which offered a bounty of $275,000 for three yeats,** and at its recent ses- 
sion extended this bounty for a further period of two years, to be distributed 
among factories according to the amount produced. Four companies 
were organized a few years ago, namely, the Wiarton Beet Sugar Company 
(capital $500,000) which has since been shut down; the Dresden Sugar 
Company (cap:tal $600,000) which has now removed its factory to Michigan; 
the Wallaceburg Sugar Company (capital $500,000) and the Ontario Sugar 
Company, of Berlin (capital $1,000,000); each of these companies received 
a bonus from the town where it was situated, averaging $28,000. The cap- 
italization of a company engaged in this industry depends entirely on the 
size of the plant, a general estimate of $1,000 per ton of beets per day 
may be considered a fair calculation of what would be required. 
Two companies only are thus in the field this year, and it seems rea- 
sonable to expect that both factories will increase their output over that 
of 1903. The nearness, geographically speaking, of the Wallaceburg and 
Dresden concerns to one another—some nine miles apart only—militated 
against their success, and it is to be hoped that now the former is, so to 
speak, alone, it will do better than heretofore. 
(58) 1, Edw. VII., Cap. II, (1901). 
