52 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. * 



Oxnards had established another factory at Norfolk, in the northwestern part of 

 Nebraska, but the farmers were slow to take hold of the industry, and with the re- 

 peal of the state bounties and the national elections of '92 forecasting the repeal of 

 the McKinley bounty and lower prices for beets, a decided set back was given to the 

 industry. On top of this came the drouth year 01 1894, with disastrous results. The 

 factories having been obliged to reduce the price from $5 to $4 per ton, not enough 

 were planted to run the factories a reasonable length of time, even had the season 

 been favorable. 



The state came to the rescue and by the act of March 25, 1895, offered a bounty of 

 f of a cent per pound on all sugar manufactured, provided the price of beets was 

 raised from $4 to $5. This bounty therefore amounts to an extra bonus of $1 per ton 

 on the beets to growers. Thus encouraged, 5000 acres were secured for the Norfolk 

 factory and 4000 for the Grand Island factory for the 1895 crop. The spring was not 

 favorable, the early summer was dry, but later fine-growing weather promised a mag- 

 nificent crop. Then came what the beet planter dreads almost as much as the cane 

 planter fears early frosts : September opened with a general rain followed by a period 

 of high temperature. The nearly ripened beets, responding to the moisture and 

 warmth, began a period of growth, drawing sustenance from the sugar already stored. 

 Before they could again begin elaborating sugar, a period of cold and cloudy weather 

 set in, checking growth and leaving the beets in an immature condition as a result of 

 these unprecedented climatic conditions. The result was that many beets were re- 

 jected by the factory because, being below 12 per cent sugar and under 80 purity, it 

 did not pay to work them at $4 per ton. This caused much dissatisfaction among 

 growers, who at first complained that the factory tests were not reliable, but they 

 employed a chemist of their own and also had analyses made by the state experiment 

 station. This work supported and justified the results reported by the factory 

 chemists, and convinced farmers that the fault was in the weather and not in the 

 factory. 



But for the determined efforts of the Nebraska beet-sugar growers' association, it 

 is possible that the whole industry might have stopped then and there. As the 

 bounty was supposed to stand for another year, a grand effort was made to give the 

 industry a thorough trial in 1896. The result was all that could be expected. The 

 crop was perfect in every particular, the weather in September, October and Novem- 

 ber was as usual all that could be desired, and the factories worked up over 75,000 

 tons of beets. Farmers have made handsome profits on the 1896 crop, they feel that 

 they have thoroughly mastered the culture of the sugar beet, and they offer to grow 

 many more beets for 1897 than the factories can possibly work up, even should the 

 beets be siloed so that the factories can run until March 1, as was the case at Norfolk 

 on the 1896 crop. Growers who had contracts the past year want to double or triple 

 their acreage and hundreds of others are anxious to raise beets on their own lands, or 

 lease lands for the beet crop of 1897. And this in spite of the fact that Nebraska's 

 supreme court has decided that the state bounty (of which $50,000 was paid on the '95 

 crop) is not payable unless the 'legislature specifically appropriates the money there- 

 for. Whether the state will pay this bountv of $1 per ton on the '96 crop is not yet 

 settled, but it is evident that the state will not renew the bounty, so that unless na- 



