AMERICAN BEET SUGAR. 9 



With this object in view, he, with his son, Edward F. Dyer, and nephew, Harold 

 P. Dyer, spent several months in France and Germany, visiting the largest sugar 

 factories and works for the manufacture of beet-sugar machinery there. 



Upon their return to this country they designed and erected the factory at Al- 

 varado, in accordance with American ideas and with special reference to the economy 

 of labor and fuel, which enabled them to extract all the available sugar from the 

 beet at a much less cost than ever before . These years of experience convinced 

 Mr. Dyer that the business could be made a grand success in the United States. 



This was in 1879, and the factory is still in operation ; the capacity was in- 

 creased to 300 tons per day in 1888, and has been increased for the 1897 cr P to 

 800 tons per day. The success of the Alvarado factory led Mr. Spreckels to build 

 the Watson ville factory in 1888, and also the Oxnards, the Grand Island (Neb.) 

 factory in 1890. Since that time the Oxnards have built their Norfolk (Neb.) 

 and Chino (Cal.) factories. 



In a recent book published in the interests of sugar, a gentleman well known 

 as an organizer and promoter of beet sugar industries is credited as being the 

 "founder of America's beet sugar industry." This is erroneous, and if credit is 

 to be given at all, let it be given where it belongs. To E. H. Dyer of Alvarado, 

 California, all the credit of founding the industry that promises to represent more 

 capital and occupy more people than any enterprise in the United States belongs. 



The remarkable success at Alvarado led E. H. Dyer & Co. to arrange for the 

 construction of the machinery for other factories ; consequently an alliance was 

 made with the most elaborate machine shop in Cleveland, Ohio, where was built 

 in 1891 the first complete American beet sugar works, which was erected in the 

 beautiful Utah valley at Lehi. This plant was not only of American make but 

 was technically managed by the builders for two consecutive years ; this factory, 

 incorporated as the "Utah Sugar Company," made a dry granulated sugar of su- 

 perior quality, which found a ready market ; the company always making money 

 and the community constituting the village of Lehi prospering beyond the com- 

 prehension of anyone not conversant with the results of the establishment of such 

 an industry in an agricultural community. 



In 1896 Mr. J. Ross Clark of Clark Brothers, bankers and smelters of Butte, 

 Montana, sought health in the genial climate of Los Angeles. Finding what he 

 sought for, he cast about for lucrative investment of idle capital. The beet sugar 

 industry was not at that time as prominent before the people as it is to-day, although 

 the dividends had been large and regular by the three plants in California and one 

 in Utah. Fortunately Mr. Clark met Mr. E. F. Dyer, and becoming interested in 

 the possibility and ultimate expansion of the beet sugar business, made most care- 

 ful inquiry, visited the Lehi and other beet sugar factories, confirming every as- 

 sertion made by Mr. Dyer, with the following results: 



In 1897 J- Ross Clark and his brother Wm. A. Clark (a multi-millionaire) or- 

 ganized "The Los Alamitos Sugar Company," located the plant twenty miles 

 from Los Angeles, Cal., gave E. H. Dyer & Co. a contract to erect a 35o-ton plant 

 and have it ready for the crop of the same year, '97. The mill was completed 

 on time, perfect in every detail. The first campaign was a phenomenal success, 

 and resulted in an enlargement of the factory to double its original capacity for the 

 crop of 1898. The investment of the Clarks in the Los Alamitos plant was in- 

 creased by the purchase of 8000 adjoining acres the following season, with the in- 



