46 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 
many respects typical of what the sugar industry can do for a community. A few 
years ago this wasa vast ranch, which Richard Gird had purchased and conducted 
asa cattie and horse-breeding establishment, on the liberal scale characteristic of 
California’s early days. With the decline in live stock, however, Mr Gird recognized 
the necessity of devoting his property to the production of some crop that could be 
utilized at a profit in the vicinity. Instead of going into citrus fruits or other spe- 
cialties already established in that region but in which he feared overproduction, he 
looked into the beet-sugar industry, raised beets for a number of years on various 
soils, determined their sugar content, and in due time was able to demonstrate that 
on this spot could be raised the largest yields per acre of beets richest in sugar. All 
this involved a vast amount of original and costly work, and thus it took two or 
three years to find capitalists and get them sufficiently interested to put up the 
money needed. The outcome was the establishment by the Chino Valley Beet-Sugar 
Company of the immense plant illustrated in part on Pages 30, 45 and 47, in which the 
Oxnards are the controlling spirits. 
Mr Gird had to contract to furnish the factory with at least 5000 acres of beets for 
several years—and this at a time when there was not another house to be seen from 
the homestead on the vast ranch. But with a market assured for a new, certain and 
profitable crop, Mr Gird at once offered liberal inducements to settlers, land was sold 
in small blocks on easy terms, people flocked to Chino, until it has now become a 
thriving community in a well-built town, surrounded by farms of from 10 to 30 acres 
or more, each with its comfortable home and well to-do family. All this where cattle 
and horses roamed the unbroken prairie previous to 1890. And so well was the 
enterprise conducted that when Mr Gird wished to retire in 1896, he was able to sell 
the balance of the ranch to an English syndicate for $2,500, 000. 
The factory really began operations in 1891, when less than 2000 acres of beets 
were grown, and the average yield was only seven tons per acre, or a total product of 
13,000 tons, for which the farmers were paid about $51,000. During the season of 
1895, five thousand acres in this township were devoted to beets, while the product 
from 2500 acres more were hauled by rail about 75 miles from the Orange county dis- 
trict. The factory that year converted 83,000 tons of beets into sugar, for which the 
farmers were paid nearly $362,000, Most of the beets are grown within two miles of 
the factory, the longest wagon haul being eight miles, and the shortest half a mile. 
Over twenty million pounds of refined sugar was actually made and sold, exclusive of 
a little raw sugar and all molasses, etc, or an average of 249 lbs of refined sugar ob- 
tained and sold from each ton of beets, or 2747 lbs from each acre of beets. The land 
about the factory is peculiarly fitted for this industry, as seed can be planted very 
early on the uplands, and then in succession on the lower lands. Thus the factory 
can begin to work up the early crop in July, and in the absence of frost can run until 
the latest seeding is harvested in November. All pitting and storing of beets is thus 
saved—a most important consideration. The season of 1896 was the dryest in 20 
years, but the factory milled 63,000 tons of beets before closing down about Nov 1, 
part of the crop not being accepted. Chino fields furnished nearly 50,000 tons. 
With the usual rainfall, 80,000 tons of heets was to have been expected. The full 
details of the last campaign are not available at this writing, but here is a table giv- 
