MILLIONS OF HEADS OF AMERICAN FAMILIES 

 ARE FARMERS^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 



Thirty millions of people and upwards constitute the agricultural 



. 

 population. Their prosperity or their adversity affects the nation to a 



S reater degree tnan anv other class. 



Seventy-four per cent of our total exports are agricultural products, 

 chiefly staples sold at so small a margin of profit as to make it a question 

 whether it would not be wiser to abandon their production in excess of local 

 needs. No new crop can be suggested that will so thoroughly change these un- 

 fortunate conditions as the Sugar Beet. Consequently in the development of the 

 Beet Sugar industry lies the hope of American agriculture. 



No other nation in the world is increasing in wealth and intelligent population 

 in comparison to the United States of America. 



In no other country is the burden of taxation lighter, or the guarantee of safety 

 to capital invested greater. 



In no other country has inventive genius been given greater encouragement, 

 or reaped greater results. 



Particularly in the manufacture of beet sugar machinery has this fact been 

 illustrated, as is shown in the very successful sugar factories at Alvarado, Califor- 

 nia ; Lehi, Utah ; and Los Alamitos, California, the first, the parent beet sugar 

 factory in the United States; the last, the best possible type of what American 

 genius and American-made machinery can accomplish. 



The subject is of vast importance, dealing with an industry the development 

 of which interests millions of people and capital of colossal proportions. 



EFFECT CN COMMUNITY LIFE. The effect on community life of the establish- 

 ment of the beet sugar industry, with necessary capital, amidst favorable physical 

 conditions, is very striking. 



The results are best shown at Watsonville, Cal., Chino, CaL, Los Alamitos, 

 Cal., and Lehi, Utah, particularly in the three last named places. Chino has grown 

 from a mere hamlet in the midst of a stock farm to a town of no small importance. 

 Over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum are paid to the beet 

 growers, in addition to a sum nearly as large for labor and officers' salaries con- 

 nected with the factory. Lehi, Utah, was a very ordinary settlement ; its pictur- 

 esque surroundings and fertile soil did not make a market for the farmers' prod- 

 ucts, and up to the date of the establishment of the sugar factory there was little 

 more than a bare living for the farmer ; he had no bank account, his taxes were 

 not always paid promptly, he owned no comfortable carriage or pleasure vehicle, 

 his lines were hard and unpromising fas is too true in the case of all outlying 

 farming villages, no matter where they are situated). But the sugar factory 

 came. A cash market, at a fixed price, was given him for his beets. Seven years 

 have passed. A bank with 700 depositors exists, largely farmers, and when the 

 writer visited this most interesting community, the balance to the credit of the 

 depositors exceeded $70,000, although it was the end of the season and just before 

 marketing the beets, hence the time of all times when the cash on hand should be 

 the least amount. The banker said, " We have no delinquent taxes, the farmers 



