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1588 pounds per acre. The beets used in the run of 
1897 said to have averaged 13.6 per cent sugar in the 
beet and 81.5 per cent co-efficient of purity. 
THE GRAND ISLAND, NEBRASKA, BEET SUGAR 
FACTORY. 
The Oxnard Beet Sugar Company built its factory at 
Grand Island in 1890, making its first run that year. The 
factory is located about two miles west of Grand Island. 
They use about 2,500,000 gallons of water per day from the 
Wood river. The capacity is the same as at Norfolk, Neb- 
raska, nominally 350 tons of beets per day. The machinery 
is said to be mostly of French manufacture. They do not 
use the Steffen process here. Part of the molasses made here 
is sent to Norfolk to be worked there by that process. This 
may explain since 1892 the higher per cent of sugar per ton of 
beets produced at Norfolk. 
The general terms of the contract with the farmers 
there are the same as at Norfolk. The deductions made 
for freight on beets shipped to the factory are: 30 cents per 
ton, for 25 miles or under; 50 cents per ton, for over 25 miles 
and under 45 miles; and 80 cents per ton, for 45 miles and 
under 100 miles. Carload minimum is 24,000 pounds and 
they can be loaded to their visible capacity. Some 580 
farmers contracted to grow about 5,000 acres of beets for 
this factory in 1897 — averaging about 8.5 acres each. Among 
the large beet growers are Murr & Pinch, 125 acres; Sass 
Brothers, 1 15 acres; Theo. Hapke, 102 acres; Edmund Starke, 
100 acres; H. G. Leavitt, 50 acres and J. N. Newell, 40 
acres. 
This factory uses 75 to 100 tons of Rock Springs slack 
coal per day for fuel. It also uses about 50 tons of lime rock 
per day. This comes from Nemaha county, Nebraska. It 
uses about one-half carload of coke per day and about a 
carload of sulphur during a season’s run. The factory ex- 
ceeds its rated capacity, and used October 24th, 1897, 377 » 
tons of beets; other days 382, 383, 327 and 359 tons respect- 
ively. September 26th, 1897, they ran 397 tons of beets. 
They averaged last season, about 700 sacks of refined 
sugar per day. One day that season they produced 
829 sacks of sugar. They started work September 6th, 1897, 
and closed down December 31st, 1897, making the total run 
1 17 days. Including the “clean ups” and repairs, they aver- 
aged 333 tons of beets per day. 4,800 acres of beets were 
harvested for factory use, an average of 8.1 tons per acre. 
This would seem to leave only 200 acres, or say 4 per cent 
