1900. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
113 
THE FARMER’S SHARE. 
What Sugar Beets Pay Him. 
We take up a new phase of the dis¬ 
cussion this week in the following let¬ 
ter: * 
liast March the Lyons Beet Sugar Re¬ 
fining Company sent an agent into this sec¬ 
tion to secure acreage for their factory, 
and I will tell you he was one of (he 
sweetest talkers you ever ran up against. 
The result was that he induced quite a 
number of us to sign a contract which I 
mail you, so that you can see how easy 
we were. He said the average yield for 
the last five years was 15 tons per acre. 
There were other extenuating circum¬ 
stances. I wanted to lift the mortgage 
(and he talked so slick). I succeeded in 
spite of the unfavorable Spring in getting 
five acres (I signed for seven) and we 
spent more time on that five acres than we 
would on 15 acres of corn. When they 
were ready to thin they sent 11 “dagoes,” 
land butchers. I called them; they spent 
about six hours on them and I toil you 
they were a sick-looking crop when they 
got through. But we nursed them up as 
best we could and harvested what they, 
after scrubbing and scouring and cutting, 
allowed was 65.G67 pounds, the largest 
vield we have heard of. The enclosed 
will show you how much we received. 
U. C. FESSENDEN. 
The following statement is copied 
from the bill sent by the Lyons Beet 
Sugar Refining Co.: 
By 65,667 pounds beets, delivered 
'to 11-11 .$164.17 
To seed .$.14.70 
To thinning and weeding. . . . 37.50 
To pulling and topping. 37.50 
To interest . 1.00 
To sugar . 
Default on contracted acreage 
—two acres at $25. 50.00 
To check . 23.47 
You will see that Mr. Fessenden 
received $23.47 for five acres of beets. 
That means $4.70 an acre, out of which 
is to be paid rent, fertilizer and labor. 
We see that the company charged 
$37.50 for what Mr. Fessenden says 
represented 66 hours work for one 
man. This means nearly 57 cents an 
hour, or $5.70 a day. It is doubtful 
if the company paid over $1! 
Our understanding is that Mr. Fes¬ 
senden honestly tried to carry out his 
contract and sow the full acreage of 
beets. The unfavorable Spring pre¬ 
vented him from sowing the full seven 
acres. We have had statements from 
other farmers who say the same thing 
about their own contracts. We are not 
discussing the cause for the low yield, 
but we do want to know about that 
“default” of $50. In the contract which 
Mr. Fessenden signed the following 
section is printed : 
That in case of failure to live up to this 
contract any loss of bpets is to be adjusted 
on a basis of $25 per acre or as if 10 tons 
per acre had been raised, this to be re¬ 
garded as liquidated damages for the 
breach thereof, and that any expense 
caused by special reliefs granted from any 
eonditions of this contract be borne by the 
parly to. whom relief is extended. 
In other cases we have been told the 
agent informed the farmers that this 
meant nothing, but was put in as a 
form to protect the company against 
dishonesty if needed. Some farmers 
signed it with that understanding and, 
when prevented by the weather from 
sowing all the beets they hoped to, 
were docked. 
We wrote the Lyons Beet Sugar 
Refining Co., and have received sev¬ 
eral long letters in reply. In substance 
they state that they must contract for 
a certain number of acres of beets— 
about 6,000. They contract to provide 
labor to weed and top the beets. They 
say that in 1906 the weather was so 
bad that their help could not harvest 
all the beets they had contracted to do. 
Over 75 acres of beets were left in 
the ground. They claim that farmers 
made them pay “extraordinarily ab¬ 
normal damages,” which were “unjust 
and unreasonable.” Then they fixed 
the contract “as a result of the lesson 
then taught us.” In plain words, they 
decided to get back the money which 
they had paid out to those farmers 
whose beets were lost by the com¬ 
pany’s failure to provide help! 
Referring specifically to Mr. Fessen¬ 
den’s case the president of the com¬ 
pany says: 
Now say that every one of these farmers 
we have contracts with defaults on his 
contract as this particular party. Mr. Fes¬ 
senden, has done. Where would we be? 
where would be our material with which 
to run our mill? What would become of 
our employees or our factory? We leave it 
to you to think this out further. 
We do “think it out further.” Mr. 
Fessenden raised something over 32 
tons of beets. We believe the com¬ 
pany made a profit of 50 per cent on 
£at labor, but let the amount go as 
v~5. The company saved $50 by dock¬ 
ing the two acres. Instead of $164.17, 
therefore, the beets cost them $114.17, 
figuring the full price of seed and 
labor. This means as we figure it 
$3.48 a ton instead of $5. If therefore 
they were able to dock every grower in 
like proportion they would get their 
beets at a lower figure than ,ever. The 
only way we can “think it out” is that 
this sugar company has held up $50 
of Mr. Fessenden’s money—taking ad¬ 
vantage, through a technicality, of his 
inability to sow two acres of beets. In 
other words, they have taken 10 tons 
of his beets away from him. At the 
same time this company insists upon 
the following clause in its contract: 
(2) That any bounty paid by the State 
of New York is to go to the sole benefit 
of second party, and whether paid for the 
raising of the beets, or the making of 
the sugar therefrom, or for any other pur¬ 
pose affecting the sugar beet industry, it 
is hereby iu consideration of this contract 
expressly assigned to second party except¬ 
ing in case of destruction of second party’s 
factory in which event this contract is to 
be void. 
Thus if anything happens to the fac¬ 
tory the beet grower must lose his 
crop, though be would be obliged to 
pay back any advance money which lie 
had received from the company. On 
the other hand, if flood or drought 
destroy a seeding of beets the company 
have the right to dock the grower $25 
per acre ! Again, the grower agrees to 
give up all benefit from a State bounty 
on sugar. New York has paid out 
about $34,000 in such bounties, all go¬ 
ing to the manufacturers! If there is 
any contract with farmers built nearer 
the shape of a jug handle than this 
one we would like to see it! 
Our reports from Wayne Co. are 
much like the following: 
As for this section I don’t think there 
were 10 acres raised in this town. When 
the factory started many farmers took 
hold, but the management of the factory 
was such that the farmers would not sub¬ 
mit to their methods and quit growing 
beets. During the past five years the fac¬ 
tory has been obliged to go farther and 
farther west and seek new territory each 
year to find growers, until now they have 
beets grown 50 to 75 miles from the fac¬ 
tory. 
The sugar company have referred tts 
to one of their best growers with these 
figures: 
K. I,. Newton contracted for 35 acres of 
beets. lie sowed 35 acres, and delivered 
the tonnage from 35 acres. 
Delivered 913,991 pounds.$2,284.98 
Less seed .. $84.00 
Less advance for Spring 
hand labor . 260.54 
Less advance for Fall 
hand labor . 270.00 
Loss sugar furnished him 24.50 
Less cash advanced.1,000.00 
Less interest on advances 15.30 
Check sent Dec. 20, 1908. 630.64 
We wrote to Mr. Newton, asking 
him to give the cost of growing an 
acre of beets, lie has sent us the fol¬ 
lowing statement: 
I give you an estimate of what it costs 
to grow an acre of sugar beets, etc., when 
land is good enough to grow 12 tons per 
acre : 
For rental of land in this 
locality that will grow 10 to 
12 tons per acre.$15.00 
Plowing land . 2.00 
Fitting the same for drill.... 2.00 
Drilling . 1.00 
14 pounds beet seed. 2.10 
Fertilizer, 400 pounds. 6.00 
Contract labor charged by 
Lyons Beet Sugar Refining 
Co. 15.00 
Plowing out beets in the Fall 1.50 
Hauling beets to cars not to 
exceed one-half mile, 75 
cents per ton. 9.00 
$53.60 
Twelve tons beets .$60.00 
$53.60 
$6.40 
This is an actual cost and it takes the 
very best of land to grow 12 tons per acre 
—the very choicest. The average land will 
not grow eight tons. As I see it by my 
experience, the beets ought to bring $7 flat 
on cars here. 
R. LIVINGSTON NEWTON. • 
If we take what Mr. Newton calls 
average land, which gives a crop of 
eight tons per acre, we have $40 as the 
income. All expenses except rent of 
land and hauling would be the same. 
Deduct one-fourth of these charges, 
which is in the proportion of yield, 
and we have $47.60 as the cost of pro¬ 
ducing $40 worth of beets. Most 
growers could not figure as closely as 
Mr. Newton does either. Problem:— 
Find the farmer’s share out of this? 
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