GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN CALIFORNIA. 5 
factory opened again for one year in 1880. About this time a new 
company was formed, which increased the capacity to 100 tons daily, 
but in 1886 the factory was partially destroyed by fire and the enter- 
prise failed. In 1887 and 1888 the factory was rebuilt and sold to 
the Alameda Sugar Co. The plant was subsequently enlarged in 
1890. This factory in 1916 had a daily slicing capacity of 800 tons. 
(See fig. 2.) t 
Other attempts to establish the beet-sugar industry were made at 
Brighton and Isleton, but these met with no success. In 1888 a plant 
was built at Watsonville with a 300-ton capacity. This was soon en- 
larged to 1,000 tons, but was later dismantled. In 1898 the Spreckels 
plant was erected at Spreckels, Cal., with a 3,000-ton capacity. This 
Fig. 3. — A modern beet-sugar factory in the Oxnard area. This factory has a daily 
slicing capacity of 3,000 tons of sugar beets. 
factory has become the largest in the United States, and in 1916 
sliced an average of 4,500 tons daily. 
At the close of the 1890 slicing season there were only three fac- 
tories in the United States, two in California and one in Nebraska. 
Following is a list of the beet-sugar factories now 
in California: 
Location. 
Date 
erected. 
Capacity. 
Location. 
Date 
erected. 
Capacity. 
1870 
1891 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1899 
1906 
Tons. 
800 
1,100 
800 
3,000 
4,500 
1,000 
700 
1906 
1908 
1908 
1911 
1911 
1912 
Tons. 
400 
Chino 
600 
600 
1 200 
Spreckels 
850 
1,200 
Hamilton Citv - 
During 1915-1916 two of these plants (Corcoran and Hamilton 
City) were not operating. 
