AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BIIX, 1924. 261 



Mr. BrCHANAN. If tlirn* WCIf tun or tlirrr roltl tHMiillis. It would 

 keep, luit just us soon as llu* Wfatlu'r vT"' hk'"' '' umiiI.I fi-nin'Ht nr 

 sour. Tliat was tlu» trt)ul>lc' witli us. 



Mr. Skin.nkk. W'r have solvo*! that probU-in. 



INVKHTKIATION Of BEET HUOAK. 



Mr. C.v.MrMKi.i.. \\ on i you sun ■iomcthiiit^, too, about tlio w(»rk at 

 tlu" l)0(»t-sugjir factorii's, ln'causc tliat is ono of the serious prohloni.s 

 we have to concern ourselves with. Tell something; about that, since 

 we are askinjj; an increase on thi-i item. 



Mr. P.MNK. This is ici:ar(hn<; the waste in |)ro<luction of beet sugar 

 after the beet crop is nnuh'. After tlie full expense of raising beets 

 has been incuiTed there is a loss of something like $10,000, ()()() annually 

 in destruction of sugar or failure to recover sugar. .V considerabU* 

 part of this lo.ss is in failure to recover sugar eJIiciently from linal 

 molasses. In making cane suf^ar they do not recover sugar from 

 limil or exhausted molasses. In the Wet sugar industry they use 

 such a process jind if the process they use were perfect there w(Mdd 

 be no molasses; in other words, after rect)vering all the sugar from 

 beet molasses which can be obtained by crystallization the remaining 

 sugar can be extracted by a chemical process. In parts of California 

 the process used is practically 100 per cent eflicient. In other parts 

 of the country there is a big loss which is due to the fact that the 

 sugar beet does not fully mature in hardly any section of the country 

 except southern California; also, it is stored in other sections. They 

 must harvest the beets faster than the factory can use them in parts 

 of the country outside of California, and pile them up, and they 

 imdergo deterioration in storage. 



There is a loss during storage of some 10 per cent of the sugar in 

 the beet, which is lost \vhile they are piled up. This also unfavorably 

 affects the process of recovering sugar from molasses, so that the 

 factories are only able to utilize about 65 per cent of the molasses for 

 recovery of sugar; the other 3.5 per cent has ti> be sold for whatever 

 it will bring. The latter has formerly been used very largely in the 

 manufacture of mixed stock feeds. 



Mr. BuciiAXAX. In other ^vords, they are getting only a certain 

 per cent of sugar out of the beet now, when they ought to get a great 

 deal larger percentage? 



Mr. Paine. That is it exactly. As long as they got a pretty good 

 price for molasses for stock feed it did not make so much difference, 

 out the price now is largely nominal and some of it can not be disposed 

 of at all. We have been studying this problem and have been making 

 considerable progress. We hope before long to have the means of 

 making the process j)ractically 100 per cent eflicient. 



Mr. Ander.son. Ii you have got to store these beets you can not 

 stop that, can you? 



Mr. Paine. 1 am referring to the recoyer}' of sugar from molasses. 

 Of course, they have got to store the heels. The only thing they 

 can do there is to learn more efhcient methods of storage and reduce 

 the loss there as much as possible. 



Mr. Campbell. There are some beets ^rown under certain con- 

 ditions that lend themselves to storage without as much loss as other 

 types of beets in other sections. We have already made specilic 



