138 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



of beets for a term of years for four or five dollars per ton, but the farmers, business 

 men and others in the community are ready to put up their money to build and equip 

 the sugar factory. So soon as the American market is insured for American sugar 

 many of these embryonic efforts will take on definite proportions. 



The idea prevails among some people, however, that sugar factories can be had 

 for the asking. Some of the places embraced in our list of towns that want sugar 

 factories seem to have the idea that to be put "on the list," is all that it is necessary 

 for them to do to secure a factory. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is 

 well to be in this list, so that any interested parties may communicate with you, but 

 if you think you can sit still and have a half-million-dollar sugar factory for the ask- 

 ing, you are very much mistaken. Why? Because, as stated in the preceding para- 

 graph, hundreds of communities that do not believe in the "sitting still policy," are 

 making determined efforts to secure factories. 



As a rule, the most difficult thing has been to get the farmers to understand how 

 necessary it is to prepare the soil for the beet crop. If the land is at all hilly, it 

 should be scraped down, as the beet field should be as level as possible. Another 

 difficulty is that the average farmer does not appreciate the necessity of care and 

 thoroughness in every detail with the crop. In raising sugar beets, it is absolutely 

 necessary to get rid of the idea of trying to save necessary labor. The crop cannot 

 be slighted, as can potatoes, corn or small grains. 



Another error which farmers in the older beet-growing regions are but just learn- 

 ing to avoid, is to be satisfied with a reasonable tonnage. Too much manure or too 

 much irrigation will produce beets large in size and of great tonnage per acre, but 

 such beets are often late in ripening and usually are inferior in sugar content and' 

 purity. It is impossible to extract sugar from beets when the beets do not contain 

 the sugar. 



Don't try to utilize old buildings for a sugar factory. A factory, to operate 

 profitably, should be constructed for this special purpose, so as to save every possible 

 item of expense. It might be possible to adapt an old building to sugar-factory pur- 

 poses and perhaps save a few thousand dollars in first cost, but in nine cases out of 

 ten, this would be "saving at the spigot to waste at the bunghole." The increased 

 expense of operating such a plant, owing to the necessarily inconvenient arrangement 

 of the outfit and work to adapt it to the structure, would rapidly eat up the saving in 

 first cost and thereafter would be a constant extra expense. 



Neither is it wise to bother with second-hand machinery or apparatus, unless the 

 same is comparatively modern and strictly adapted to the purpose in view. To con- 

 duct either a beet-sugar factory or cane sugarhouse to advantage, the latest, best and 

 most improved outfits only can be employed. This is what your competitors have 

 now or will have, and you cannot expect to compete with them with anything else. 

 If a second-hand outfit is offered you, be sure to get the judgment of a well-qualified 

 expert, like Mr Salich for instance, before doing anything with it. In these days, 

 however, such investments are likely to be unprofitable. 



It may be that in the eastern and middle states, where the soil has been better 

 cultivated and fertilizers have been used, that the land requires different treatment 

 than at the west, where the soil has received little culture and no fertilizers. Mr Lap- 



