Beet Raising and Community Welfare 251 



their soil in better condition, increases by 25 to 80 per 

 cent the acreage yield of all other crops grown in rota- 

 tion, and annually saves them from sending several hun- 

 dred million dollars to the tropics to purchase a neces- 

 sary food commodity. In no beet country visited was 

 there found a disposition to regret its establishment or 

 the money it cost to establish it. Germany alone spent 

 over 8351,000,000 in export bounties in order to encourage 

 the industry." 



STABILITY TO AGRICULTURE 



Wherever the beet-sugar industry is permanently es- 

 tablished, agriculture reaches a greater stability than it 

 had previously. The fact that the farmer has a sure 

 market for his crop at a price known in advance enables 

 him to judge more accurately the value of the land. Ex- 

 perience shows the approximate yield of beets he may 

 expect ; and since he knows the costs of producing the 

 crop and the returns he is likely to receive from it, he is 

 able to calculate rather accurately how much he can af- 

 ford to pay for beet land of known quality. This re- 

 duces the rapid fluctuation in the price of land that is 

 often met in regions where profits are less certain. 



In areas where crops have no regular cash market, it 

 is difficult to obtain stability to the agriculture. Many 

 fruit-producing sections boom during years of good market, 

 and land prices become greatly inflated. This condition 

 may be followed by a series of years when no market can 

 be secured or when the crop is a failure due to frost or 

 some other unfavorable condition. The result is that 



