Conditions for Growing Sugar-Beets 53 
will justify. For a good run of an average-sized factory, 
3000 to 5000 acres or more of beets should be grown. It 
has been found that factories with a slicing capacity of 
800 tons daily are materially more efficient in sugar manu- 
facturing than are those handling less than 500 tons daily. 
It is a mistake, however, to build a factory with a large 
daily capacity in a district not capable of furnishing 
beets to supply the daily tonnage for a run lasting in the 
neighborhood of ninety to one hundred days. Since it 
is impossible to determine accurately beforehand just 
what acreage a new region will grow, it is usually better 
to build a medium-sized factory capable of being enlarged 
than to build a large one that may need to be removed. 
In choosing a location for a factory, one of the first 
considerations is an abundant supply of pure water. 
Large quantities of alkali salts or other foreign matter 
in the water make the extraction and purification of the 
juices much more difficult than with pure water. Cheap 
fuel must be available as well as a good quality of cheap 
limestone. With much bulky material such as beets, 
coal, and limestone to be moved, transportation costs 
run high unless the lowest possible rates are secured. For 
this reason it is an advantage to locate a factory where 
there is competition from two or more railroads. It is 
also better to locate the factory in a position as nearly in 
the center of the beet-growing area as possible rather than 
to favor a position near a village. The closer the factory is 
to the beet fields, the better is the condition of the beets 
when they reach the factory. 
