50 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



water daily and it paid $100,000 in wages to the 350 men employed in and about the 

 factory. 



THE NEW FACTORIES IN CALIFORNIA. 



Work is going forward on Mr Spreckels' immense plant at Salinas City. While it 

 will have a capacity of some 3000 tons of beets per day of 24 hours, it will practically 

 consist of three sets of machinery under one roof, each of 1000 tons capacity daily. 

 Mr Spreckels will have to pay out $12,000 a day for beets and $5000 daily for labor 

 and other materials at the factory. According to this estimate, the daily expenses 

 will average no less than $17,000, or nearly $2,000,000 fora campaign of under four 

 months. It was expected at first that this immense plant would be ready for the 1897 

 crop and before it was decided upon, Mr Spreckels insisted on having contracts with 

 farmers to grow 25,000 acres of beets. It now appears that delays in making the 

 machinery are such that the plant will not be in operation until 1898. While it will 

 use the product from 25,000 to 35,000 acres of land annually, fully 100,000 acres will be 

 involved, in order to permit the necessary rotation of crops. Farmers in the contigu- 

 ous country, however, are ready to grow 100,000 acres of beets every year if factories 

 are put up to work them. 



The Los Alamitos Sugar Co is building a large factory in the center of the Los 

 Alamitos Rancho, which contains 6700 acres of choice sugar-beet land belonging to 

 the Bixby Land Co, which has contracted to furnish the sugar company with its full 

 complement of beets for a term of five years. This ranch lies about ten miles inland 

 from the sea, near Los Angeles. The climate is perfect the year around. The soil is 

 a deep, sandy, sub-irrigated loam, having been deposited for centuries by the over- 

 flow of the San Gabriel river, and according to the artesian-well borings, its depth 

 exceeds 400 feet. It is believed that there is sufficient moisture in the soil to produce 

 beets in the dryest years without irrigation. The factory is being equipped entirely 

 with American machinery by E. H. Dyer & Co of Cleveland, Ohio, who furnish both 

 buildings and machinery and turn them over to the sugar company when in full oper- 

 ation. The frame of the factory is of Steel and the walls of brick and will be 

 equipped to work off 350 tons of beets per day of the 1897 crop. The building is so 

 large that more machinery can be added to double the present capacity at the mini- 

 mum of additional expense. Great care has been given to so plan the building and 

 machinery as to secure the utmost economy of labor and fuel. These works will han- 

 dle 350 tons of beets per day with less than 100 men, and consume under fourteen per 

 cent of lignite coal for fuel. A sectional view of the structure is given on Page 37. 



Many of the sugar factory propositions in California are awaiting the action of 

 congress. Should it be favorable, several new enterprises will be established in time 

 to handle thousands of additional acres of beets in '98. 



NEBRASKA. 



The efforts to establish the beet-sugar industry in Nebraska date back about ten 

 years, and her experience is typical of the obstacles in the way of the industry. A 

 factory was established at Grand Island in 1889, by the Oxnards, being aided by the 

 gift of land and a cash bonus, while the state offered a bounty of one cent per pound 

 on the sugar, which yielded the factory $7,364 on the product of its first campaign 

 on the crop of 1890. The law was repealed at the session of '91. Meanwhile the 



