INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 5 



Five years ago a beet-sugar factory was erected at Chaska, Minn., 

 where it since has been operated each year, and as evidence of the 

 time it takes to disprove erroneous impressions and absorb the truths 

 which Napoleon publicly proclaimed a century ago, and which 

 since have been proclaimed by practically every European agri- 

 cultural economist of note, I quote a local notice which recently 

 appeared in the Wabasha (Minn.) Herald. This notice says: 



THE SUGAR BEETS WHAT IS DONE FOR THE LAND ATTENTION, FARMERS. 



One of the best crops of wheat raised in this vicinity this year was that of George 

 Hauswedel. The wheat was a fine stand of good quality and well filled out. There 

 were 14 acres, and the result in thrashing was an average of 32 bushels to the acre. 

 This comes as a surprise to many farmers, since the field was planted to sugar beets 

 last year, and the impression prevails that a crop of the latter will so exhaust the soil 

 as to yield a poor crop of grain the next year. Mr. Hauswedel, however, has demon- 

 strated the fallacy of this supposition. We understand that the soil was given no 

 special treatment, and no particular effort was made toward securing an exceptional 

 result. 



You see that with a factory operating in their midst for five years 

 the erroneous impression still prevails that sugar beets exhaust the 

 soil. Notwithstanding the contrary experience of all Europe, and 

 of this man, and probably many of his neighbors, I have no doubt but 

 what a canvass of the farmers about Chaska would show that the 

 general idea concerning beet culture is that beets injure the soil, 

 and that unless they harvest "so many tons of beets per acre at so 

 much per ton" they will decline to grow beets. The average wheat 

 yield of Minnesota is 13.4 bushels per acre, hence the yield quoted 

 above was 139 per cent in excess of the average wheat yield of the 

 State. If such a yield were secured throughout the State, it would 

 add $84,000,000 a year to the wealth of Minnesota wheat farmers, at 

 85 cents per bushel. Each increase of 1 bushel of wheat per acre 

 in the State of Minnesota will add $4,500,000 annually to the wealth 

 of her wheat farmers. This result at Chaska, which is reported as 

 being a general surprise, is but an echo of what one hears on all sides 

 in the sugar-beets districts of Europe and what our forefathers 

 could have heard over there 50, 75, and even 100 years ago. 



Last September I visited the 7,000-acre Tachlowic estate at Yenc, 

 30 kilometers from Prague, Bohemia, one of the imperial estates of 

 Emperor Francis Joseph. Sixty years ago a beet-sugar factory was 

 erected on this estate and since that time one-third of its cultivable 

 area has been planted to sugar beets, grown in rotation with other 

 crops. The records of the estate show that for the 60 years since one- 

 third of the area has been devoted to sugar beets, the remaining two- 

 thirds has produced a greater tonnage of all other crops than did the 

 entire three-thirds for 60 years prior to the construction of the factory, 

 and, in addition to this, the stock-carrying capacity of the estate has 

 been increased 100 per cent. 



At Hatwan, Hungary, 60 kilometers from Budapest, I visited the 

 25,000-acre estate of the Barons Alexander and Joseph Hatvany, 

 both of whom are agricultural economists of high repute throughout 

 Europe. This estate is equipped with the largest beet-sugar factory 

 in Europe, slicing 3,000 tons of beets per day and using the beets 

 grown on 50,000 to 70,000 acres. While they were producing sugar at 

 a small profit, the great inducement in operating the factory was the 

 indirect advantages secured through beet culture. They grow 3,000 

 acres of beets on the estate, which they rotate with 9,000 acres of 



