168 CULTURE OF THE SUGAR BEET.' 



two principal conditions of successful culture, failed after a struggle of nearly six years. 

 Bad management and lack of practical knowledge of the industry in the first few 

 years, had culture in 1868, deluging rains in 1869, and drought in 1870, in addition to 

 the ahundance of nitrates found to exist in the soils, appear to he the causes tending 

 to the disastrous result. As a final struggle to maintain an existence the company 

 removed the works to Freeport, in Stephenson County, of the same State, and though 

 the saline character of the soil, which was a hane to the culture in the former locality, 

 did not exist here, the efficient management of the ahle superintendent could not pro- 

 vide against the unfavorahle climatic influences, and one year later the Germania 

 Beet-Sugar Company finally succumhed, and its superintendent removed with some 

 of the machinery of the late company to Black Hawk, Sauk County, Wisconsin, to 

 join with the co-operative enterprise that had heeu started there a year before. But 

 the lessons of experience appear to have been no guide, for this attempt was made, 

 like the previous ones, in a section not provided with the principal requirements for 

 successful work. 



The crop of 1870 partially failed through drought. The machinery for the utiliza- 

 tion of what there was arrived late, and the ponds upon which the company relied 

 for water supply dried up before all the roots were worked for sugar, and a portion 

 was left to be fed to cattle. Though additions were made to the works during the 

 following year by means of machinery brought from Illinois and Fond-du-Lac, the 

 result of 1871 does not seem to have been profitable, for since that time the enterprise 

 has been so completely lost sight of that it is impossible to obtain any further inform- 

 ation concerning it. The experiment at Fond-du-Lac, which, however, was not Jong 

 continued, seems to have been the first to give unquestionably good results. It was 

 started by two Germans, Messrs. Bonesteel and Otto, who organized a company with 

 $12,000 capital, and though compelled, with their limited means, to work on a small 

 scale, their success was such during the two years of existence of the enterprise as to 

 attract the attention of capitalists on both sides of our continent, and they received 

 an offer from Philadelphia of funds to carry on the work where they had so success- 

 fully established it, and another from San Francisco to put them in charge of the 

 works of the Alvarado Sugar Company, which had just been organized with a capital 

 of $250,000, and, finding the latter offer the most tempting, they abandoned their works 

 at Fond-du-Lac and migrated to the Pacific coast, where they managed to carry on 

 the work with varying success until 1873, when it was reported that the company pro- 

 posed removing to a more eligible locality. But it does not appear that this proposi- 

 tion was carried out, for what reason we are not infoimed; though Mr. Otto, who was 

 then superintendent, and who, with his colleague in the Fond-du-Lac enterprise, Mr. 

 Bonesteel, had become partners in this company, was shortly afterwards transferred 

 to Soquel, in Santa Cruz County, where as late as 1876 the factory was reported as 

 being in successful operation. The Alvarado Company struggled on until 1876, when 

 drought having destroyed the crop so completely that there was no raw material for 

 work in the factory in the ensuing winter, the company not having realized enough 

 to enable them to carry over until the following season, failed financiallv, and perma- 

 nently closed their operations. 



The Sacramento Valley Company was organized in 1869, and commenced extended op- 

 erations in manufacture iu 1870, and its existence was maintained until the close of 1875, 

 when the machinery, which had cost $160,000 in Germany, was offered for sale at 

 $45,000, and wo have no information to the effect that it has been sold. Concerning the 

 industry, a writer in the Alta California during 1869 says: " Something new and un- 

 expected has revealed itself. In Europe the beet attains its maximum of sugar in the 

 latest period of growth before the frost sets in. Here it has lost half its sugar in the 

 last six weeks — last of October. The beets taken from the same soil and milled in 

 December by Wadsworth, superintendent, had the full complement of sugar." 



The Soquel factory soon followed the fate of the others, but causes of its failure 

 have not been assigned. 



