294 Nlh'AL MICHIGAN 



the same territory, favored the erection of beet- 

 sugar factories in the same portion of the State. 

 With the introduction of beet culture came an influx 

 of Bohemians and Hungarians, familiar with beet 

 tillage in the mother lands. From hired help in the 

 beet fields, these national types hitherto strangers to 

 this section of the State have become landed pro- 

 prietors and are rapidly becoming a significant ele- 

 ment in the agricultural population of east-central 

 ]\Iichigan. It should be noted, however, that coun- 

 ties in all sections of the Lower Peninsula grow 

 sugar-beets to some extent, from Monroe in the 

 southeast and Berrien in the southwest, to Charlevoix 

 and Cheboygan counties in the north. 



The sugar-beet growers in Michigan have for years 

 been dissatisfied with their contracts with the beet- 

 sugar companies, and, through organization, have 

 vigorously sought readjustments in their favor. The 

 Michigan Sugar Beet Association, in 1921, was re- 

 ported to have 9,000 members, out of the 12,000 

 sugar-beet growers in thirty-eight counties. The 

 Association prepared a schedule of prices calling for 

 compensation to growers of $6.45 a ton when sugar 

 was bringing five cents a pound. There was an 

 ascending scale of prices, until a price of $19.35 was 

 to prevail when sugar was selling at fifteen cents. 

 The sugar companies refused to have anything to do 

 with this schedule of prices and the growers were 

 left free to contract as they might determine. 



The manufacture of cheese in the factory dates 

 from the close of the Civil War, and it seems to have 



