THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



125 



says he is satisfied that there is no other line of farming in California in which he 

 can do as well as growing sugar beets. 



N. S. Rice planted sixteen acres, from which he harvested 201 tons net, or about 

 12i tons per acre. At $5. 60 per ton, these brought him $816.52, or $51.04 per acre 

 gross. The money he actually paid out in raising and harvesting the crop was as fol- 

 lows: Seed $57, thinning $54, plowing and planting $30, topping $10, total $242. All 

 the rest of the work was done by himself and no account was kept of it. This leaves 

 his returns on the sixteen acres $574.52. 



W. C. Kightmier harvested from twenty-seven acres 400 tons, or an average of 15 

 tons per acre. They analyzed between 13 and 14 per cent sugar, niakimr an average 



DELVER FOR WORKING THE SUBSOIL. 



Machines of this character are not used in America, but are considered almost indispensable In Europe. The 

 work of the deiver begins where the subsoil plow left off, the delver running after it to still more deeply stir the sub. 

 soil so that the beets have the least possible resistance to overcome in their descending development. Mr Ware says 

 In The Sugar Beet for November, 1896, from which our engraving is taken: " This delving operation is frequently con- 

 tinued even after the roots have attained considerable size, that is, after weeds are little to be dreaded and when the 

 cultivators are no longer necessary." It Is easy to see how useful such an implement can become, especially during 

 a long dry spoil, when the lower portions of the soil are frequently too hard to admit of a thorough penetration by the 

 shoots and hairy growth of the beet. 



price of say $4.10 per ton. This would give Mr Bightmier in the neigh borhooa of 

 $61.50 per acre from his field. Another field of eight acres gave 172 tons of beets 

 averaging 14i per cent sugar, 21i tons per acre at $4.50 per ton, or a return of $96.75 

 an acre for the field. 



HOW THE INDUSTRY EMPLOYS AND PAYS LABOR. 



The chief item in raising sugar beets is labor. It constitutes from 60 to 75 per 

 cent of the total expense of beets delivered to the factory, and in some cases even 

 more. Ont of average expenses of $36 per acre in Nebraska, over $25 was for 

 labor. Mr James Bardin's 225 acres that produced such a profit in 1892 (see page 121), 

 was sowed to barley the next year, the crop yielding 3500 Ibs per acre and at 05c per 

 cental made a net profit of $12.75 per acre about one-fifth the profit on sugar beets. 

 He paid for labor on this barley crop $360, while the labor on the beet crop on the 



