932 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



by the opportunities for using machinery and for the exercise 

 of American inventive and engineering capacity in improving 

 machinery. Such evidence as I can get indicates that so far as 

 this branch of the industry is concerned, the conditions are not 

 unfavorable to its sustained prosecution with little need, if any, 

 of tariff support. Whea the first factories were built in California 

 the machinery was imported from Germany. " The Yankee in- 

 ventive genius of machinery men at once took hold of the matter, 

 making so valuable improvements that both the above-mentioned 

 factories (at Watsonville and at Chino) were shortly refitted with 

 machines of American make, and every factory in this country 

 in the last few years has purchased American machines." So in 

 the Department of Agriculture's pamphlet on the industry, it is 

 stated that " in the early days of the beet-sugar industry in this 

 country, Europe was called on to furnish all machinery. Now 

 very little is imported, and in fact some of the foreign factories 

 are using American-made machinery." The breaking loose from 

 European tutelage and the introduction of technical improvements 

 are significant indications of the successful adaptation of a new 

 industry to American conditions and of the ability to meet foreign 

 competition unaided. It should be borne in mind, moreover, that 

 the factory managers take an active part in directing and super- 

 vising the agricultural operations. In this regard there seems 

 to be abundant and successful enterprise. The managers of the 

 beet-sugar factories have been chiefly instrumental in bringing 

 the indispensable labor supply to the farms. Through traction 

 engines and the like they have grappled with the difficulties of 

 transporting the beets from the field to the factory. They have 

 selected the seeds and have assiduously spread information 

 among the farmers on the best ways of getting a large tonnage 

 of beets and a large content of sugar. In the Far West especially, 

 all this activity has been carried on with industrial and pecuniary 

 success. Neither in the factory itself nor in the problems of or- 

 ganization arising from the interdependence of farm and factory 

 has there been a lack of skill or energy. 



It is probably another sign of successful adaptation to new con- 

 ditions that the American beet-sugar factory carries its operations 



