16 The Sugar-Beet in America 



THE INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES 



The first effort to grow sugar-beets in the United 

 States was made about 1830 at Ensfield near Philadelphia. 

 In 1836 a number of citizens of Philadelphia became in- 

 terested in sugar-beet culture and sent James Pedder to 

 France to study the business. A company known as 

 "The Beet Sugar Society of Philadelphia" was organized 

 with James Donaldson, the chief promoter, as president. 

 Pedder sent home about 600 pounds of seed to be dis- 

 tributed among the farmers for trial. No evidence is 

 available that a factory resulted from this effort. 



The first factory was erected at Northampton, Massa- 

 chusetts, in 1838, by David Lee Child, assisted by Edward 

 Church and Maximin Isnard, who had played an impor- 

 tant part in establishing the industry in France and who 

 was at this time French vice-consul at Boston. The seed 

 was imported from France. It gave a satisfactory yield 

 from thirteen to fifteen tons to the acre but the 

 beets were low in sugar. In 1839, 1300 pounds of sugar 

 were produced and several prizes were taken. The in- 

 dustry could not be made to pay under the circumstances, 

 and the factory never ran after 1840. 



Soon after the settlement of Utah, in 1847, the Mor- 

 mon pioneers began to establish different home indus- 

 tries in order to make themselves as industrially inde- 

 pendent as possible. Since at this time all manufactured 

 goods had to be hauled from the Missouri River to Salt 

 Lake City by team, sugar was worth from forty cents to 

 one dollar a pound. John Taylor (Plate II), who was 

 laboring as a missionary in France, studied the beet-sugar 



