BEET SUGAR 927 



beets ; but without the subsidy this use of the land cannot com- 

 pete with others more advantageous. 



When the tariff legislation of 191 3 was under consideration the 

 beet-sugar makers of Michigan pleaded strenuously for the main- 

 tenance of protection on the ground of consideration for vested 

 interests. It must be admitted that the plea was in one regard 

 of exceptional force. Not only had the general policy of protec- 

 tion been long maintained by Congress and investment in accord 

 with it encouraged, but, as one of the witnesses before the Ways 

 and Means Committee said in 1909, " The investment which our 

 company made in the sugar business was made on the invitation 

 and urgent advice of the United States government through its 

 Department of Agriculture." It was a serious responsibility which 

 the department thus took on itself. Its zeal too often was indis- 

 criminate. Its propaganda rested, in part at least, on a crudely 

 mercantilist principle on the assumption that it is desirable to 

 produce within our own borders anything and everything that can 

 possibly be produced there, and that a tariff policy based on this 

 assumption will be maintained indefinitely. 



Turn now to the Far West, where most of the beet sugar is 

 made. Two conditions are favorable to beet growing in this 

 western region : the climate and the special advantages of 

 irrigation. 



The variety of the beet suitable for sugar making flourishes in 

 a cool climate, but it needs plenty of sun. " Abundance of sun- 

 shine is essential to the highest development of sugar in the 

 beet. Other things being equal, it may be said that the richness 

 of the beet will be proportional to the amount not intensity 

 of the sunshine." Evidently the cool region of cloudless sky in 

 the arid West meets this condition perfectly. 



Again : "In respect to moisture, the sugar beet is peculiar in 

 some respects. . . . There are three periods in the life history 

 of the sugar beet which demand entirely different treatment so 

 far as moisture is concerned : ( i ) the germinating or plantlet 

 period ; (2) the growing period ; (3) the sugar-storing pertod." 

 During the first, " the beet needs sufficient moisture and warmth 

 to germinate and start it, but never an excess." During the 



