2 5 6 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



about two million tons of sugar. For the fiscal year 

 ending with June last, sugar was imported to the 

 amount of 3,733,040,266 pounds, or 1,866,520 tons, 

 besides 15,490,679 gallons of molasses. These im- 

 portations cost the stupendous sum ot $116,947,430. 

 It will thus be seen that besides the home product of 

 all kinds of sugar, our imports amount to about sixty 

 pounds for each of our 65,000,000 inhabitants. Thus 

 no other field for American enterprise of a creative 

 nature in our own country and to supply a home need 

 compares with that of sugar production, provided the 

 conditions be favorable for its full development. 

 That such conditions now exist under the bounty law 

 there is no question ; and that with present conditions 

 remaining constant for a period of years the produc- 

 tion of sugar in this country would be immensely 

 extended is equally sure. What effect pending legis- 

 lation will have upon this important question cannot 

 now be told; but supposing that it will permit the 

 expansion of sugar manufacture to the point of sup- 

 plying the entire demand, the following data may 

 afford the reader some conception of the gigantic 

 nature of the consequent development and upbuild- 

 ing of the country. 



ROOM FOR MORE FACTORIES.' 



To produce from beets grown in the United States 

 the amount of sugar imported from other countries 

 for the last fiscal year would require 240 factories of 

 equal capacity with that at Watsonville, California, 

 the largest on the continent. At the ratio of 8.4 tons 

 of beets to one of sugar, as at the Watsonville estab- 

 lishment, the beets required would amount to 156,- 

 787,680 tons, and would occupy about 1,300,000 acres, 

 producing 12 tons each per year. At a labor cost 

 of $20 per acre annually in the production of this 

 crop, there would be disbursed on this account each 

 year over $260,000,000 for farm labor alone, to say 

 nothing of the labor and expense of the manufacture 

 itself. To erect the factories needed for the work 

 would require an outlay of a half-million each, or say 

 $120,000,000 for the various sugar plants throughout 

 the country. And this would not be disbursed in 

 cities, nor invested in corner lots or brick blocks in 

 cities or towns, but would all be expended in rural 

 districts for the practical upbuilding of farming com- 

 munities. While it is true that the two-cent bounty 

 on this enormous production of sugar would amount 

 to $74,660,000 annually, yet it would all be expended 

 in our own country and among our own people. 

 The per capita tax for the payment of sugar boun- 



ties would amount to about $1.15; while the amount 

 per capita now sent out of the country annually to 

 purchase foreign sugar is $1.80. In addition to the 

 benefits previously mentioned, a number of collateral 

 industries would be developed about each center of 

 sugar manufacture, resulting in a great rfumber of 

 prosperous and thickly populated communities, not 

 possible except for such favorable conditions. From 

 the beet pulp at the Chino factory Mr. Gird has fat- 

 tened some 1,500 head of cattle, which add greatly to 

 the profits of the enterprise. All such collateral 

 advantages would be shared to some extent by the 

 communities in which the factories should be located, 

 and the number of factories named would furnish 

 material for the fattening of 360,000,000 pounds of 

 beef annually. 



Thus while actual experience in the communities 

 themselves in which sugar factories are located 

 demonstrates the correctness of the figures above 

 made relative to the paramount advantages to be 

 derived, it remains to be seen whether the sugar 

 interest in this country absolutely requires the stimu- 

 lus of a government subsidy to insure its timely and 

 permanent development. 



LOCAL BENEFITS. 



As illustrating to some extent the advantages to 

 flow from the establishment of beet sugar factories, 

 it may be mentioned that three years ago Chino, Cal- 

 ifornia, was an insignificant hamlet comprising but a 

 few families, with only the average conditions of the 

 small country village. Through the stimulus given 

 by the beet industry the town has grown to consider- 

 able importance, has several hundred voters, as well as 

 a goodly number of school children, who will attend 

 school in a $10,000 house the present year. An able, 

 clean and bright weekly paper is published at Chino, 

 the surrounding country is thickly populated, and 

 altogether there has been created in the short period 

 of three years a prosperous and progressive com- 

 munity, centering therein nearly all of the most 

 modern accessories of the highest civilization and 

 culture. 



All of the advantages which have come to Chino by 

 reason of the beet root industry maycome to any and 

 all of the hundreds of centers of sugar making, 

 whether from canes or beet roots, which would spring 

 up under such economic conditions as would permit 

 the people of this country to produce the raw 

 materials and then manufacture their own supplies 

 of sugar and syrup. 



