The Sugar Beet Industry 



In the general scheme of diversified farming the sugar 

 beet may become one of the most profitable features. 

 Sugar is an article of such general consumption that 

 for economic reasons it ought to be produced in this 

 country. 



While politicians may wrangle over the economic prob- 

 lems of a tariff, it might be well if we would bear in 

 mind that homely, but wise, answer given by the im- 

 mortal Lincoln when asked his opinion on the tariff. He 

 said: "If we buy from Europe a ton of rails, we get 

 the rails and Europe gets the money ; but if we produce 

 the rails, we have both the rails and the money." 



At the present time we have about seventy factories 

 in the United States, of which ten are in California. 

 In 1897 there was produced in the United States 45,000 

 tons of beet sugar, while there was produced in 191 1 

 560,000 tons. If it were not for the unfortunate agita- 

 tions that come up over the sugar question, the sugar 

 beet industry would by this time have become much 

 larger than it is. 



There is land suitable for beet culture that could be used 

 to produce all the sugar we need in America. The present 

 consumption of sugar amounts to about four million tons, 

 about one-sixth of which is produced in the United States, 

 the balance being imported raw from foreign coun- 

 tries where cheap labor is available, and the cost of re- 

 fining the sugar in the United States is only about one- 

 half cent per pound. If we imported all the sugar we 

 used, and merely refined it in this country at that re- 



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