BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY. 211 
an average of twenty-five tons per acre, but the decline of saccharine 
properties counterbalances the increase in quantity. 'The average crop 
of the two hundred productive acres in 1870 was about nine tons, but 
the beets were much richer in sugar than in wet seasons. Much labor 
is saved in harvesting the beets, by a simple contrivance admitting the 
application of horse-power. The roots are preserved in pits, and pro- 
tected from the frost until the manufacturing season approaches. 
Hand labor in cultivation is almost entirely confined to thinning out the 
beets. The full success of the enterprise, however, can be secured only 
by the extension of sugar-beet culture among the farmers, to whom it 
recommends itself by several economic advantages. Its beneficial in- 
fluence upon the soil, and the cheap stock-feed which it furnishes, will 
doubtless attract the attention of the meat producers of Llinois. 
The sugar already produced at Chatsworth is highly recommended. 
The first yield was placed in the Chicago market without brand, and 
was pronounced by experts to be equal to A 1 New York sugar, readily 
bringing the price of that article. From the beginning, a fair article of 
sugar was made by this establishment, but in the earlier efforts the 
expense of the process overbalanced the market value of the product. 
This has been attributed to injudicious management of the enterprise in 
its earlier stages, and to a too rigid adherence to the ideas and formule 
of European industry. The present superintendent, Mr. Jonathan Per- 
riam, is a native American and a Western farmer. He seems to have 
overcome, to a great extent, the practical obstacles in the way of the 
economic success of the enterprise. In a letter to this Department, 
dated January 2, 1871, he states: ‘“‘ The continued lack of water puts us 
to the most serious disadvantages in the manufacture.” He further com- 
plains of the necessity of depending “upon foreign laborers who do not 
understand our language, nor appreciate the necessity of economizing.” 
He hopes by the extension of machinery to overcome this latter diffi- 
culty, and expresses his decided opinion that “ beet-sugar, upon favor- 
able soils, with plenty of good water for manufacturing, will be a success, 
in a business point of view, if economically managed.” It is proposed 
to remove this establishment to a location having a soil better adapted 
5H the growth of the sugar-beet, and one with a more abundant supply 
of water. 
Great confidence is felt upon the Pacific coast in the final success of 
the beet-sugar industry in that region. Ten years ago Mr. George 
Gordon, since deceased, exhibited at the fair of the Mechanics’ Institute, 
in San Francisco, a superior article of beet-sugar. Still later, Mr. Claus 
Sprechman, of the California sugar refinery, imported beet seeds from 
Germany and France, and made a liberal distribution of them among 
the farmers of California, stipulating for a specific quantity of beets in 
return, with information as to locality, modes of culture, &c. With these 
beets critical and scientific experiments were made by machinery. It 
was found that alkaline elements in the soil deteriorated the practical 
value of the roots. This result so discouraged Mr. Sprechman that he: 
abandoned the enterprise. Mr. Gordon proposed to resuscitate it, but 
prior to commencing operations he associated with him Mr. Sprechman 
and a Mr. Wentworth, with whom he visited Europe to observe the beet 
culture and sugar manufacture on that continent. They never renewed 
their efforts in this country. 
In the spring of 1870 Messrs. Bonesteel, Otto & Co., who had been 
engaged in the beet-sugar enterprise at Fond du.Lac, Wisconsin, were 
induced to remove to California, where they organized the Alvarado 
Beet-Sugar Manufactory, at Alvarado, in Alameda County, under the 
