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ff OF THE 



^UNIVERSITY jj 

 AMERICAN BEET SUGAR. ^^ 



wholly grown beneath the ground. Such a beet root will be very profitable to 

 both the grower and the sugar factory. 



LENGTH OF CAMPAIGN. Experience in Europe and in America has proven 

 that 1 20 days is about the limit of "campaign" (as the factory run is termed) for 

 a season. It is possible, however, to protract this period in California where 

 the peculiar length of seasons permits the first seed to be sown early in February, 

 and the last sowing in June, thus enabling the campaign to begin July ist and 

 to continue to December ist ; but in latitudes where killing frosts and rain, 

 or both, are liable at any time after October, silos are needed, out ot which the 

 beets are taken to supply the factory ; hence the danger of attempting a cam- 

 paign of a longer period. Taking, however, 120 days as a unit for a 35O-ton 

 factory, there would be required 42,000 tons of beet root. 



POSSIBLE RESULTS. An ideal soil, with a farmer of peculiar painstaking, 

 should produce sixteen to twenty tons of beets per acre ; but from a large acreage, 

 say 3,000 acres, with 300 different farmers, good, bad and indifferent as they are 

 apt to be, twelve tons is a far safer average to rely upon. Consequently 3,500 

 acres must actually be planted to beets each year, plus 7,000 acres upon which to 

 rotate other crops in order to maintain tonnage, saccharine and purity ; so we have 

 10,500 acres as the necesssary area to depend upon for the raw product for a fac- 

 tory of 350 tons capacity. 



QUANTITY OF WATER NEEDED FOR FACTORY. If the presence of suitable 

 water (at least a flow of 1,500,000 gallons daily), proper drainage facilities easily 

 provided for, limestone of the desired quality reasonably near, and adequate 

 transportation facilities, can all be had, then locate the factory as near the center 

 of the 10,500 acres as is possible. 



DELIVERY BY WAGON VERSUS RAILROAD. The location of the very suc- 

 cessful sugar factory at L,ehi, Utah, and the larger plant at Chino, California, 

 and the smaller works at Eddy, New Mexico, all demonstrate the fact, that whilst 

 it is better for the farmer growing the beets to be sufficiently near the factory to 

 deliver the crop by wagon and thus save paying railway freight, it is possible to 

 secure farmers' contracts for factory delivery by rail to the maximum distance of 

 TOO miles. The Chino factory buy fully one-half their product an average dis- 

 tance of 70 miles away ; Eddy, New Mexico, from 50 to 70 miles; Lehi, 25 to 50 

 miles. The Nebraska factories, the great sugar works at Watsonville, Cal., also 

 buy great quantities that are delivered by rail. Hence, while it is greatly to be 

 desired that the beets be grown near the factory, for the farmers' sake, it is not at 

 all impractical to depend upon outlying lands on the railway. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF LIME IN THE SOIL. Prof. Hilgard, of Berkeley, Cal., 

 who is considered the highest authority in America in agricultural chemistry, 

 confirms the experience of all close observers when he states that of all soil 

 ingredients favorable to best development of the sugar-making qualities, lime 

 stands foremost. Another authority, who has had much experience in soil 

 analysis in the West, being agricultural chemist for the Pecos Companies in 

 New Mexico, says : 



i. "The beet requires for its development a certain amount of heat, which can 



