INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAE-BEET CULTURE. 



13 



years by the greatest executive agriculturist we have produced, a 

 more intelligent and well-to-do class of farmers, and yet, with all 

 these superior conditions, our combined average acreage yields of 

 wheat, rye, barley, oats, and potatoes in 1907 were but 21.2 bushels 

 per acre, as compared to an average yield of 43 bushels for the same 

 crops throughout the Continent of Europe, exclusive of Russia. 



Our increased use of commercial fertilizers from $45,000,000 valu- 

 ation in 1890 to $110,000,000 in 1910 would seem to be inadequately 

 reflected in our 8 per cent increase in combined average acreage 

 yield of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and potatoes during the past 30 

 years, especially when compared to the 75 per cent increase in acre- 

 age yield of the same crops in Germany during the same period, as 

 shown by the following official figures of the two countries: 



Increase in yield of five staple crops in Germany and the United States. 



As all the preceding statements concerning the acreage yields and 

 production in Europe and the United States are based on official 

 figures which readily can be verified, they should correct the all but 

 universal misconception concerning this important subject, humiliat- 

 ing though the truth may be. 



Conceding the fact, which can be substantiated by the written 

 words of Europe's foremost thinkers of the past century, that the 

 l^eet^ugaiL industry more than any one or all other causes combined 

 has furnished the inspiration which has resulted in placing Europe so 

 far in advance of the United States in concrete agricultural results, 

 the question naturally arises as to why \ye Jiave not fonpwed_more 

 closely in Europe's footsteps, doubled the acreage~yieIcToT our" staple 

 crops, and produced all of our sugarjit home, instead of producing but 

 500,000 tons of beet sugar at home and importing 2,500,000 tons, 

 the equivalent of what Europe exports after supplying her 400,000,000 

 inhabitants. 



Of minor causes, there are several, including the 'low wage rate of 

 Europe,Hhe lower price for beets;* the fostering care of their govern- 

 ments, extending even to the placing of large bounties on sugar 

 exports in order that they might compete successfully with tropical 

 sugars, while our fiscal system has been unstable and vacillating, 

 sometimes affording protection to home producers and sometimes 

 not. Since the time France prohibited the importation of sugar and 

 established the beet-sugar industry in that nation, the United States 

 customs duty on imported sugar has undergone thirteen revisions, 

 being reduced from time to time by various Congresses from 10 

 cents per pound to absolute free trade, and now is fixed at 1.65 cents 

 > and 1.9 cem 



for 95 ' 



cents for refined sugar. 



