BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY. 213 
trifugal and “second-class” sugar is produced. The process is repeated 
for the third and sometimes for the fourth time. 
The heavy-lifting operations of this establishment are all done by 
steam raised from the screenings of the Monte Diable coal mines, about 
nine tons of which are consumed daily. The working force embraces 
about thirty white men, and as many Chinese. The greatest economy 
of material is strictly observed in all parts of the process. The scum 
of the defecating pans is removed, and subjected to a separate filtering 
process, when its residuum is allowed tp mingle with the defecated 
juice. The machinery, so far, has worked remarkably well. 
The success of this enterprise being greatly dependent upon an abun- 
dant supply of raw material, the company have engaged extensively in 
the culture of the beet. About eight hundred acres of their land will be 
planted in beets during the season of 1871, for which a full supply of 
seed has been imported from Germany. This arrangement is pro- 
visional, and will be superseded when a sufficient number of farmers 
can be found competent and willing to engage in the culture. Allow- 
ing an av erage | of twenty tons of beets per acre, aud an average Mae 
of 8 per cent. of sugar, the company will have a sufficient supply of ra 
material to enable them to operate at least three hundred days in the 
ad and nearly two and a half millions of pounds of sugar to pro- 
uce. 
This union of diverse processes of production, embracing both raw 
material and finished product, is not in accordance with that principle 
of division of labor which has enabled modern industry to achieve its 
splendid results. It is to be hoped that the agricultural part of the - 
enterprise will soon be assumed by agricultural men. The Mitchell 
nursery, near San José, has produced fifty tons of good beets per acre. 
The present price of roots at the Alvarado factory is $3 50 per ton. A 
product of twenty tons will realize $70 per acre. 
The Alvarado Company has hitherto confined its attention exclusively 
to the German beet. Experiments will be made with other seeds to dis- 
cover the variety best adapted to the soil. 
An establishment has been in operation at Sacramento, and during 
the past year a considerable quantity of sugar has been produced, bus 
expenses have not been realized, and an assessment of $2 per share has 
been made upon the stockholders. This company has been paying 85 
per ton for beets; $1 50 more than was paid by the Alvarado Company. 
The difficulties that embarrass the enterprise seem to be in the beet eul- 
tuxe of the neighborhood, and in the low percentage of sugar secured. 
The experience of the proprietors leads them to conclusions very different 
from those of European beet-growers. The latter obtain the maximum 
of saccharine matter in the lat éest growth prior to autumnal frosts. The 
beets grown here lost half their sugar during the last six weeks of their 
growth. Perhaps in the adjustment of this difficulty the beet culture 
here may find its final opening to success. 
__ Under date of December 29, 1870, Tyler Beach, secretary of the Santa 
Clara Valley Agricultural Society, informs this Department that, under 
the auspices of that society, a beet-sugar company has been formed, 
with a capital of $200,600 for the manufacture of beet sugar at San J osé, 
California. He solicits from this Department a variety of beet seeds, in 
order to test by actual experiment the adaptability of each to the soil 
. and climate of that locality. In answer to this request four varieties of 
seeds were sent. This enterprise is prosecuted by intelligent and care- 
ful business men, who, with the experience of the Alvarado Company 
before them, entertain strong hopes of success. 
