THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY. 127 



The Sprocket factory at Watson vi lie and his new mill at Salinas pay a straight price, 

 at present $4 per ton, though before the repeal of the McKinley bill it was $5 per 

 ton. We believe the Alvarado factory has also paid a straight price. At Chino, how- 

 ever, the first five-year contract was based on $3.50 per ton for beets containing 12 

 per cent of sugar and 25c additional for each additional 3 per cent, and under it fann- 

 ers received an average of $4.50 per ton. In 1896, contracts were based on $3.25 per 

 ton with an additional 25c per ton for each percentage above 12, which has netted the 

 growers nearly $3.78 per ton. To protect their interests, the growers are well organ- 

 ized and choose their own weigher and chemist and also their own tare man, the 

 expense being about 3c per ton. 



In Nebraska, at first $4 per ton was offered for 12 per cent beets of 80 purity, the 

 price being advanced 25c for every additional percentage of sugar, up to $7 for beets 

 containing 20 per cent sugar, but it was afterwards found to be more satisfactory to 

 have an average price for all beets above 12 per cent sugar with 80 purity, aud this 

 price was fixed at $5 per ton (including the $1 state bounty). If the beets run below 

 this standard, they are accepted at half price. In Utah, the plan was tried of pay- 

 ing different prices for different qualities of beets, but it proved so unsatisfactory to 

 farmers, that one fixed price of $4.25 was established for all beets containing 11 per 

 cent sugar of 80 purity, the price for 1897 being $4, and beets below this standard 

 are not accepted at all. Where the farmer is careful with his growing crop and at 

 harvest sorts out all the large coarse beets, this crop will usually fulfill the contract. 



HOW TO GET A SUGAR FACTORY. 



The first step to take to get a beet-sugar factory, is to demonstrate that your 

 township, county and district can grow the right kind of beets in profitable quan- 

 tity. If your farmers have not demonstrated this fact, apply to your state experi- 

 ment station for particulars about tests that have been made in other parts by the 

 state. Get all the points you can from your experiment station that's what it is for, 

 to help your farmers and free of cost to them. Then from the instructions given in 

 this book, let every farmer grow half an acre or less of beets. Have samples of all 

 these beets analyzed at your state experiment station* to determine their sugar con- 

 tent and purity. Keep a record of all these crops, the soils and conditions under 

 which they were grown, yield, cost, etc. Repeat these tests a second and third year 

 if necessary, to establish the fact that your locality is adapted to the crop. A small 

 patch of beets on various soils on each farm is better for testing than a few large 

 areas. The beets can be fed with profit to stock, if no factory is available to which 

 they can be shipped. This sort of preliminary work has been done for years in many 

 parts of California and accounts for the firm position of the industry in that state. 



Analyses of beets grown under all sorts of conditions and soils will enable any 

 practical beet-sugar man to decide whether such locality can be depended upon to 

 furnish beets in sufficient quantity and quality to operate a factory successfully. 

 There is no doubt in the least of the reliability of the laboratory or analytical work 

 of our sugar chemists. Consequently, we were surprised to have a gentleman who 

 was supposed to know something about the industry advise localities wanting sugar 

 factories to begin by establishing a small distillery. "With a capital of $30,000, such 



* See addresses of experiment stations at bottom of next page. 



