BEET SUGAR 929 



and cannot apply moisture exactly when needed difficulties 

 which threaten not only the quantity of the crop but also its 

 saccharine Content. 



The same climatic difficulties are encountered in the European 

 countries where sugar beets are grown. There also the beet 

 harvest and the sugar output are greatly affected by the weather 

 during the growing and harvesting season. The north central 

 states of our own country are not in this respect at a disadvantage. 

 But they possess no climatic superiority for beet growing ; 

 whereas they do possess agricultural and industrial superiority 

 for other crops. Beet growing, in other words, suffers from a 

 comparative disadvantage. The Far Western region, on the other 

 hand, does have unusual natural advantages for the sugar beet. 

 Whether these natural advantages are so great as to enable the 

 industry to hold its own, in free competition with cane sugar 

 and with beet sugar made in the European regions of perma- 

 nently cheap labor supply, is another question. But they explain 

 why, under the stimulus of protection, the industry grew fast 

 in that region, and in widely distributed parts of it ; while yet 

 under the same stimulus it made little progress in the typical 

 agricultural states. 



It is constantly said, with reference both to the Mountain 

 states and to those of the central region, that the culture of 

 the sugar beet brings special agricultural benefits. The high 

 cultivation, it is said, improves the quality of the land ; general 

 fertility is enhanced ; a better rotation is established ; the by- 

 products, especially the beet cake, are valuable for cattle feeding, 

 and this in turn provides manure and maintains fertility ; the 

 factory makes a market for local coal and lime ; it " stimulates 

 banking and almost all kinds of mercantile business." These 

 advantages have been dwelt on almost ad nauseam in the pub- 

 lications of the Department of Agriculture. So far as the tariff 

 question is concerned, they prove altogether too much. If beet 

 culture is so very advantageous for the farmer, .why does he 

 need a bonus or protective tariff to be induced to engage in it ? 

 The American farmer is not an ignorant or stolid person ; he has 

 access to a multitude of educational and propagandist agencies, 



