STATE BOUNTIES AND BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY 917 



agreed that this aid, granted for the first two years, was an 

 important factor in the firm establishment of that plant as a 

 successful manufacturing enterprise and a profitable outlet for 

 a new crop. 



Kansas first passed a beet-sugar-bounty law in 1887. This 

 law which gave a bounty of 2 cents per pound on beet sugar was 

 amended in 1891, when the rate w r as cut to | cent. The largest 

 sum paid in any one year under these laws was $50,304, in 

 1 89 1. After 1896 the beet-sugar industry was abandoned in the 

 state. Sugar-beet growing was subsidized directly by a new bounty 

 law passed in 1901. This law differs from nearly all other state- 

 bounty laws in that the bounty of $1 a ton on beets grown was 

 paid directly to the farmers instead of being paid indirectly by 

 the sugar factory. A limit of $5000 was set for this bounty, and it 

 was provided that if the claims for bounty totalled more than this 

 amount, the $5000 should be divided pro rata among all growers 

 on the basis of their tonnage. In 1901 the farmers of the state 

 received $1747, and by 1904 the $5000 limit was passed. In 

 that year, 6378 tons were produced, so that the farmers each 

 received almost the full bounty of $1 per ton. In 1905 there 

 were 8605 tons grown by 132 farmers, and in 1906, 69,000 tons 

 were grown by 245 farmers. Of this total, 11,000 tons were 

 grown by the United States Sugar and Land Company and 

 were chiefly manufactured at the company's plant at Garden 

 City, although small quantities were shipped by them to other 

 factories, not under control of the company, at Holly, Colorado, 

 and at Leavitt, near Ames, Nebraska. 



The state of Idaho passed a bounty law which was brought 

 into the courts before any money was paid under it, and was 

 finally declared unconstitutional only a short time before the 

 bounty period provided by the law expired automatically in 1904. 



The state of Washington, in 1898, passed a law providing for 

 a bounty of I cent per pound on raw sugar, with a limit of 

 $50,000. This was to be paid only to factories built before 

 November 1, 1899 (afterwards extended to 1901). It was to be 

 in effect only three years. Only one factory made claims for 

 bounties under this law. 



