GROWING SUGAR BEETS. 209 



THE SUGAR BEET IN CALIFORNIA. 



All that has been said in preceding chapters on Cali- 

 fornia climates and soils has direct reference to the ex- 

 ceptional adaptation of the State to the growth of the 

 sugar beet and the manufacture of beet sugar. The vast 

 area of rich, deep, loamy and easily-worked soils, which 

 afford the plant deep rooting, free expansion and large 

 yield of rich beets; the equable climate, which insures 

 ample sun-action, freedom from low temperature, and an 

 almost continuous growing season through the year for a 

 hardy plant like the beet, and thus provides for sugar 

 factories a maximum working season without protection 

 of the rich, raw material from freezing these are local 

 advantages for beet growing and sugar making, the im- 

 portance of which it is difficult to overestimate. There 

 are also many incidental advantages and benefits in 

 ground which does not freeze and in factories where the 

 absence of freezing temperature makes it unnecessary to 

 build for protection of men, materials and machinery, ex- 

 cept from heat and rain. 



Nine California beet sugar factories produced, in 1908, 

 99,613 tons of sugar, a total value, at S 1 /^. per pound, of 

 $7,460,975. Two others were constructed in 1909, and the 

 aggregate producing capacity of the 11 will exceed 150,- 

 000 tons. Large as this quantity is, it is small compared 

 with the possible production in California, as it is esti- 

 mated that there are 750,000 acres well adapted to the 

 raising of sugar beets. Allowing for proper rotation of 

 crops, about 200,000 acres would be available each year 

 capable of producing 2,500,000 tons of beets and 350,000 

 tons of sugar. The annual consumption of sugar in the 

 United States is about 3,500,000 tons. Comparative sta- 

 tistics show that the proportion of saccharine is greater in 

 the beets grown in California than in any other locality, 

 whether in Europe or America. The plant itself becomes 

 a more active worker and extracts more sugar from Cali- 

 fornia soil and sunshine than it does elsewhere. 



