b4 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 
tional legislation and advancing prices for sugar increase its value, the price of beets 
for 1897 will be not over $4 per ton. That was the price for 96, the extra dollar being 
conditional upon the state paying the bounty. 
THE RECORD OF THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY IN NEBRASKA. 
The dry season of 1894 produced beets of a low water content that yielded an aver- 
age of 216 lbs of refined sugar to the ton, compared to 176 lbs thie year before. In 
1895, on the other hand, late rains and a warm fall started a second growth which in- 
creased the size and weight at expense of sugar, which averaged only 150 pounds of 
refined to the ton. The average for the last campaign will be fully 200 lbs of refined 
sugar to the ton and will thus compare with previous years since the factory began 
operations: 
Tons of beets worked— Granulated sugar produced lbs No of growers 
Year GI Norfolk Total GI Norfolk Total GI Norfolk Total 
1890, 4,414 _ _— 736,400 _ — 607 _ _ 
1891, 10,868 8,179 19,047 1,415,800 1,318,700 2,734,500 408 204 612 
1892, 13,055 10,725 23,780 2,110,100 1,693,400 3,803,500 240 490 430 
1893, 11,150 = 22,625 «= 33,775 1,835,900 4,107,300 5,943,200 1385 181 316 
1894*, drouth 25,633 25,633 — 5,556,100 5,556,100 — 534 534 
1895, 24,343 31,194 55,537 2,983,400 5,395,500 8,378,900 619 698 1317 
1896,t 75,000 — 75,000 - — 15,000,000 _ — 2000 
*General drouth made tonnage so small in 1894 that the beets belonging to the Grand Island factory 
district were worked up at the Norfolk factory. + Partly estimated. 
The average yield last year was 10 to 12 tons per acre, but some experienced grow- 
ers on richly manured bottom land had from 18 to 25 tons per acre, and even more. 
Growers of beets for these factories are more or less scattered over the state, and 
much of the crop has to be hauled by rail. The freight is 30c per ton for distances of 
25 miles or less, 50c for 25 to 45 miles, and 80c for 45 to 100 miles, the rate being a lit- 
tle higher on another railroad, which exacts an additional charge of $2 per car for 
switching. The cars are loaded to their visible capacity. The factories paid about 
$300, 000 for beets in ’96, or $35 to $75 per acre and even more in a few instances. 
Renters pay $8 to $10 per acre per year for choice beet land. 
But for the splendid and persistent work of the Nebraska experiment station (es- 
pecially H. H. Nicholson), which conducted tests in all parts of the state and made 
thousands of analyses, and even conducted a sugar school, the present assured posi- 
tion of the business in Nebraska could not have been reached. The station has made 
10,000 analyses, the average of all being over 14 per cent of sugar in Nebraska beets. 
It is now certain that only moisture and proper culture are needed to enable the 
beet to be grown to perfection in almost any part of the state. There is a great 
demand for beet-sugar factories in almost every county in Nebraska. 
UTAH. 
Keen interest is felt in the beet-sugar industry all over this state, o-ving to the 
established success of the (at present) only sugar factory in the whole inter-mountain 
region of the United States, at Lehi, a few miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah. 
Beets for sugar manufacturing can be ruined by a superabundance of moisture just at 
the ripening period. As sugar beets can be grown here only by irrigation, the indus- 
try at the outset was surrounded by new and peculiar conditions. The knowledge 
and science of beet growing (it is a science) were obtained from experts from Cali- 
