THE SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY. 



255 



THE FUTURE SUGAR FIELDS OF AMERICA, WHERE BEETS WILL BE PRODUCED BY IRRIGATION. 



about equally divided between the cane and the beet. 

 Germany produces most beet sugar, under the stimu- 

 lating influence of a bounty which has served for 

 many years to expand the industry to very large pro- 

 portions. France, Russia and Italy are also large 

 producers of sugar from beet roots, but nowhere else 

 is seen so great expansion of the industry due to a 

 government bounty as in Germany. At the present 

 moment, however, there exists in the United States 

 an analogous condition in the two-cent bounty created 

 by the McKinley tariff act. This bounty applies not 

 only to sugar produced from beets, but also to that 

 produced from canes and from the sap of the maple 

 tree. At this writing the House of Representatives 

 has passed the Wilson bill, providing for a gradual 

 abolition of the sugar bounty, but whether such 



action will be finally sustained by the Senate is not 

 yet known. It is probable, however, that by the time 

 this issue of THE AGE reaches the public the matter 

 will have been settled, either by the adoption or 

 rejection of the measure on the part of the Senate. 

 At present, therefore, we shall be concerned with 

 the economic consideration of the question rather 

 than with its political aspects. 



AN IMMENSE FIELD FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 



No other avenue at present opens so wide a field 

 for American capital and labor as that of producing 

 our home supplies of sugar. The United States as a 

 people consume about one-third of all the sugar pro- 

 duced in the world, and the annual increase in con- 

 sumption is held to be about five per cent. The 

 present yearly consumption is, in round numbers 



