^04. THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



comparatively slight for a few weeks, and the beets are worked up before material 

 injury occurs. 



In the colder climate of Utah, where the temperature goes as low as in any part 

 of the United States, it was formerly thought that the beets must be carefully stored 

 in expensive silos or sheds. Hence when the Lehi factory was first tuilt, the five 

 frost proof beet sheds shown on Page 111 were built of lumber, the walls being lined 

 with straw. Each shed is 500 ft long and 26'ft wide, constructed with a sluice in the 

 center so that the beets can be shoveled into it and brought to the factory by water, 

 which is not only economy of labor but it gives them a thorough washing. 



Manager Cutler writes: "We have discovered since then, that frost is something 

 we are not afraid of, providing that our beets are brought here in a perfect state. We 

 have erected since then several platforms, one of which has sides to it, but the top is 

 left entirely open. It is 500 feet long by 34 feet wide, and will hold fully 3000 tons 

 of beets. We also have other platforms with a sluice in the center, but without any 

 sides and we use a movable railroad track as fast as the beets are unloaded the track 

 is moved further out, until we have an enormous pile resting on the plank or plat- 

 form as above described. This system has worked admirably, and the best beets we 

 had stored were those that were left entirely open to the weather. The system of 

 storing in large open piles has proven satisfactory under our conditions. We have 

 stored some 6000 tons of beets in piles on the bare ground, sluices having first been 

 constructed to carry the beets by water to the factory from the piles. When the frost 

 came(and we had the temperature as low as 10 degrees below zero in December, 1896, ) 

 it froze over the surface of the stored beets to the depth of two or three beets, but 

 there was enough vegetable heat generated in the large pile to keep the beets in good 

 condition and we have never yet lost a beet from frost. We are more afraid of the 

 sun's rays than we are of frost. There was some loss of sugar in the small outside 

 layer of beets that was frosted, but it was not enough to be of much importance, and 

 the loss is infinitesimal compared with the expense of storing in sheds." 



The two past seasons are the only ones in which this method of storing in large 

 open piles without protection from the weather has been tried in severe American 

 winters. The author is not yet ready to recommend this method, as a general prac- 

 tice, in the severe cold weather and alternating freezing and thawing of a northern 

 winter in the middle or eastern states. It should be carefully experimented with un- 

 der the conditions in each locality. 



This plan is not feasible on the farm. Even in Utah, the factory authorities have 

 preferred that the farmers store their late beets in the field according to the system 

 much in vogue in Europe. When this is done, the factory pays the farmer 25 to 35c 

 per ton for thus storing the beets and delivering them when wanted. For this pur- 

 pose, the Utah plan is to dig a few rows of beets, then to run a tongue scraper down 

 the field, making a shallow trench. As the beats are dug and topped, they are thrown 

 into this trench and covered with leaves, a furrow is plowed down each side to drain 

 off the water, if it should storm, and the leaves are covered with a little dirt to keep 

 them from blowing off the beets. The beets thus stored have generally come in good 

 condition. Some were frozen, but as a rule, the farmers feel that they can store the 

 beets and deliver them at almost any time within two or three months in good condi- 



