15 



probable future of the business of making beet-sugar must depend 

 mainly on the comi)arative i^rofitof beet and cane-sugar. The difficulty 

 in the high price and unskilled quality of available labor will ulti- 

 mately be overcome. 



The first large experiment, at Chatsworth, Illinois, was a disastrous 

 failure, financially, from miscalculation, lack of skilled labor, unsuitable 

 soil for the growth of the sugar-beet, and a scarcity of water; yet the 

 sequel of this enterprise, at Freeport, Illinois, with a portion of the 

 same machinery, under different auspices, and with the lessons of the 

 failure well learned, promises successful results. It was under the 

 direction of Mr. Eoseutiel ; and Mr. Bunu, one of the Chatsworth own- 

 ers, and J. I. Case, are associated with him in the proprietorshij). 

 The location, on Yellow Creek, which furnishes an unfailing supply of 

 pure water, is said to be a good one; and the soil appears to be 

 well adapted to beet culture. We have had no statement of the 

 results of recent work, but have learned that Mr. R. is confident of full 

 success, and of a large extension of business in that vicinity. A dozen 

 factories in the neighborhood, wliich would mark the locality as a sugar 

 manufacturing section, would intensify greatly the force of the example, 

 and would illustrate far more conspicuously the auxiliary advantages of 

 such an industry to agriculture. 



The co-operative enterprise at Black Hawk, Wisconsin, which com- 

 menced in 1870, under difficulties, and made 40,000 j)ounds of sugar, 

 cultivated 200 acres of beets in 1871, and is i:)ushed with a determination 

 deserving of success. 



The most successful results as yet have been obtained in California, 

 where two companies are in operation, one producing more than a mil- 

 lion pounds of sugar from the crop of 1871, the second year of its 

 operations. This is the California Beet-Sugar Company at Alvarado. 

 The Sacramento Yalley Beet-Sugar Company, at Sacramento, also reports 

 comparatively successful results. The San Jose enterprise is not yet in 

 operation. Mr. S. O. Minor, the secretary of this comi^any, writes that 

 "owing to the fact that we found it impossible to procure a sufficient 

 quantity of the proper seed to start the business, the company could not 

 proceed as contemplated, and we have deferred the organization until 

 sufficient seed can be raised among our farmers here. We managed 

 to procure about two hundred pounds of the seedof the White Silesian, 

 (said to be the best,) which was distributed here, and from which we 

 bope next year to have enough seed to start the business." 



The following statement has been communicated by Mr. A. D. Bone- 

 steel, manager of the California Beet-Sugar Company, located at Alva- 

 rado : 



In the year of 18G9 my partners, Mr. A. Otto and E. Klineau, botb experienced sugar 

 men, and myself, were successfully engaged in Foud du Lac, Wisconsin, making beet- 

 sugar ou a small scale, and for the want of more capital I communicated my ideas as 

 to the feasibility of doing the same in this State to General C. I. Hutchinson, of Sau 

 Francisco, who at once formed a company with a capital of |250,000, and the result 

 to-day is a factory in Alvarado, in successful operation, having the capacity for hand- 

 ling sixty tons of beets every twenty-four hours, and we have the satisfaction of know- 

 ing that we have established the fact that beets can be raised in Wisconsin and Cali- 

 fornia containing saccharine matter in sufficient quantities to justify a remunerating 

 price to the farmer for raising and delivering them at the factory, and a margin for 

 profits for the manufacturer. 



With respect to the best variety of beets, yielding the most sugar, I should name the 

 White Silesian. For the manufacture of sugar tlie smaller beet, of which the roote 

 weigh from one to three pounds, are preferred. 



The seed is sown by a machine that we manufacture ourselves, which sows four rows 

 at a time. The rows are lifteen inches apart, and when the plant first comes up, wo 



