194 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



wide attention on the basis of its achievements on 

 the continent of Europe and many highly antici- 

 patory declarations were made in California publi- 

 cations of the time. One writer exalted the oppor- 

 tunity by calling attention in 1865 to the fact that 

 "beets grow all the year in California and a single 

 beet has been known to attain in one season^ near 

 Sacramento, the remarkable weight of one hundred 

 pounds." However, this misconception of size of the 

 beet as an exponent of availability for sugar-making 

 does not fairly represent the local knowledge of the 

 time. There were many illuminating discussions and 

 official publication of translations of European trea- 

 tises covering the growth and contents of the beet, 

 also methods and machinery for sugar manufacture. 

 It is interesting that at the same time the idea pre- 

 vailed that sugar could be made profitably from wa- 

 termelons and this conviction actuated the first en- 

 terprise. Before building was undertaken, however, 

 the melon was scouted by the chemists and the com- 

 pany decided on a beet-sugar factory instead. This 

 was the Sacramento Valley Beet Sugar Company or- 

 ganized in March 1868 but, as it was delayed in con- 

 struction, the California Beet Sugar Company or- 

 ganized in 1869 and its factory, in operation at Al- 

 varado the following year, manufactured in Novem- 

 ber 1870 the first beet-sugar in California, and has 

 besides the distinction of being the first beet-sugar 

 factory in the United States. In its original and 

 subsequently enlarged form it has, with the excep- 

 tion of a single year, been in continuous operation 



