THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
271 
1909. 
SUGAR BEET GROWING IN MICHIGAN 
What Farmers Get From It. 
The Business. —“The Farmer’s Share 
—What Sugar Beets Pay Him,” is the 
heading of an article on page 113. I 
read the article over carefully, and 
noted the expense and the amount re¬ 
ceived by the farmer, which was $4.70 
per acre, or, in other words, they 
charged up $50 to Mr. Fessenden, and 
in so doing they received his crop of 
beets for $3.48 per ton instead of pay¬ 
ing him $5 a ton as he expected. I am 
located four miles from the Alma sugar 
factory, and V/z mile from the St. 
Louis (Mich.) sugar factory. I have 
raised sugar beets on my farm with 
one exception for the past nine years, 
and in that time we have had wet 
weather, dry weather, heavy rains after 
planting, and all of the different changes 
to contend with, and yet there, is -no 
crop that has done so much to -im¬ 
prove the country and give impetus to 
better cultivation of the soil as has 
the growing of sugar beets. They will 
grow and do better in a wet season 
than any other crop, and in a dry season 
like the last was, the tonnage per acre 
will be lighter, but the sugar per cent 
will be higher, which, as I will show 
later on in the article gives a higher 
price per ton for the beets. 
The Contracts used by the factories 
here give the farmer $4.50 per ton for 
12 per cent sugar, and 33j/j cents per 
ton additional for each per cent above 
12 per cent, and 33J/j cents less per ton 
for each per cent below 12 per cent 
sugar in beets. By that contract a 
farmer gets pay for what he raises; 
each load is tested an.d paid for ac¬ 
cording to the per cent of sugar found 
in the sample taken from the load. The 
St. Louis factory this year has paid 
as high as $8.10 per ton for some, that 
being the highest, and $4.70 per ton 
being the lowest. There are only a 
very few farmers who raise beets on 
what is known as flat rate contract, 
and those who did this last year were 
the losers by it, on account of the dry 
weather, which helped to put more 
sugar per cent in the beets. 
How to Raise. —No one should try 
to raise a crop of sugar beets unless 
his land is in condition to do it. In 
the first place, any soil that will grow 
a good crop of corn will ordinarily 
produce a good crop of sugar beets 
the next year, and the more thorough 
the cultivation given the corn the- bet¬ 
ter will be the crop, which will in¬ 
crease the possibilities for a good crop 
of sugar beets. The corn ground 
should be gone* over with a float to 
smash or crush down the corn stubble, 
and if it can be done while the ground 
is frozen it is the best time and the 
stubble will be got rid of then in the 
best shape. The plowing should be 
done as early as the ground is fit to 
plow in the Spring, and it should be 
well plowed, no cut and covering done, 
for the better the plowing the better 
the fitting can be done, and that is 
very important in the preparation of 
the soil for the seed. The. plowing 
should be followed With th'e roller, 
then harrow, then roll again, follow¬ 
ing with disk or spring-tooth drag, 
then follow with a float, which will 
smooth and level the surface, and re¬ 
peat until the surface is a perfect seed 
bed. When drilling put seed enough 
to insure a good stand of beets. Cul¬ 
tivation should begin as soon as a per¬ 
son can see the rows, and do not be 
afraid to cultivate. After the beets are 
blocked and thinned, the cultivator 
should be used, and the more it is 
worked until the beets cover or shade 
the ground the better. When hoeing, 
be sure to cut out all weeds. In harvest¬ 
ing the crop after the beets are loosened 
or lifted the dirt should he well shaken 
from the roots and the beets thrown in 
a pile, tops all one way; then the top¬ 
ping should be done with care so. as 
not to waste any of the beet, cutting 
the top close to the bottom of the 
leaves and cut square off, throwing the 
beets into a close pile, and cover up 
with the tops, and in those .piles the 
beets are all right until it freezes up. 
If they cannot be delivered to the fac¬ 
tor until after the first of December, 
it is then better to draw and put in 
long piles, placing a covering of tops, 
then just enough earth to keep them 
from freezing. 
Some Figures. —The freezing . does 
not lessen the amount of sugar in the 
beet, but, at the same time, freezing 
lessens the weight and does not in¬ 
crease the sugar per cent enough to 
make any gain to the farmer, and the 
chance is that he will lose thereby. The 
average load of beets drawn to the fac¬ 
tories in this county would be about 
three tons, while some have drawn 
more than twice that amount. The 
farmers who draw from five to nine 
miles calculate to draw about three tons 
at a load. The past season less than 
one-half of the beets have been deliv¬ 
ered by teams. As a result of the 
above plan of culture we have the fol¬ 
lowing : The St. Louis Sugar Co. re¬ 
ceived this last season 32,255 tons of 
beets, from which they made 9,232.815 
pounds of granulated sugar. The aver¬ 
age price per ton paid the farmers for 
the beets was $6.23 per ton. making a 
total amount paid the farmers $200,- 
948.65. The average sugar per cent 
was 17.2; the highest sugar per cent 
being 22.8 and the lowest 12.6. The 
Alma Sugar Co. received at their fac¬ 
tory 43,457 tons of beets, from which 
they made 12,000,000 pounds of gran¬ 
ulated sugar; they paid the farmers for 
the crop $257,000. The average sugar 
per cent was 18, the highest sugar per 
cent was 22, and the lowest was 15 per 
cent; making as total amount paid the 
growers this last season from the two 
sugar companies the sum of $457,948.65. 
The Farmer’s Share. —In addition 
to the above figures T have some in¬ 
dividual statements I wish to give 
to compare with those in the article 
referred to. First man planted 16 
acres; beets raised, 126 tons; cash re¬ 
ceived, $780.57; average, per acre, $48 - 
78. Second man planted six acres; 
beets raised, 71 tons; cash received, 
$456.13; average, per acre. $76.02. 
Third man planted four acres; beets 
raised, 36 tons; cash received, $221.15; 
average, per acre, $55.29. Fourth man 
planted four acres; beets raised, 43 
tons; cash received, $259.44; average, 
per acre, $64.86. Fifth man planted 
17 acres; beets raised, 144 jX tons; 
cash received, $892.67; average, per 
acre, $52.51. Sixth man planted five 
acres; beets raised. 43 tons; cash re¬ 
ceived, $271.32; average, per acre, 
$54.26. The above are calculated to 
be an average of the growers, and they 
are from three different townships. 
One of the men told me that his beets 
delivered at the factory, paying for all 
work, cost him $30.30 per acre. The 
growers in. the article pay too much for 
the seed, and the hauling is too high; 
beets can be delivered anywhere in a 
radius of two miles of either one of 
the factories for 45 cents per ton. 
T he New York Contract. —In the 
article the writer says: “If there is 
any contract with the farmers built 
nearer the shape of a jug handle than 
this, we would like to see it.” I can¬ 
not say I do, and I can truthfully say 
I want nothing to do with any factory 
that would put out such a contract. 
Why will farmers submit to any such 
deal? In this country such a deal as 
the settlement made with Mr. Fessen¬ 
den would be discussed at the farmers’ 
clubs, farmers’ institutes and Sub¬ 
ordinates and County Grange meetings, 
and the factory managers would soon 
think they had punched a hornet’s 
nest, and as a result they would he 
hustling around to see if they could fix 
things up in some honorable way. No 
factory managers can ignore the fact 
that the farmers hold the key to the 
success or failure of any sugar fac¬ 
tory, and the farmers know that a beet 
sugar factory cannot turn out its mil¬ 
lions of pounds of sugar annually un¬ 
less they get the beets from the farm¬ 
ers. The work between farmer and 
factory should be mutual and co-op¬ 
erative in its operations. 
NEWTON BURNS. 
The Am rati can Lemon Industry. —All 
about San Diego Bay, Cal., is found the 
American lemon belt. Here are grown the 
finest lemons in the world. The soil and 
climate are suited to the successful culti¬ 
vation of this fruit and they are here 
grown in large quantities. Here also is 
located the only American citric acid and 
oil of lemon factory, crushing 10 tons of 
lemons each day, the growers receiving 25 
cents per 100 pounds, sending in ail the 
small, overlarge and irregular shaped 
fruits. j. y. p. 
Paint Talks, No. 4—Painting Farm Implements 
Do not buy “dipped” implements. Know beforehand, if possible, that 
your implements are painted with Pure White Lead and linseed oil But 
if you cannot be sure when you purchase your implements, at least in 
repainting them you can make sure that nothing but the purest White 
Lead and linseed oil are used. 
The extent to which your implements are exposed 
to all kinds of weather makes necessary the same 
extreme care in painting as you vyould exercise in 
painting the exterior of your buildings. The cost 
of your implements runs into big figures, and the 
use of a cheap paint only increases that cost; where¬ 
as, the use of a good paint keeps your implements 
in the best repair and pays interest on the invest¬ 
ment. To be sure you’re getting only the purest 
White Lead and linseed oil, look for the Dutch 
Boy Painter trade-mark. 
Meantime, send for our Painting Outfit, and if you need paint 
immediately ask your dealer for White 
Lead with the Dutch Boy Painter Trade¬ 
mark, It is the common-sense paint ma¬ 
terial for farmers who manage their farms 
on a business basis. 
NATIONAL LEAD COMPANY 
An office in each of the folloicina cities' 
New York, Boston, Buffalo, Cincinnati, 
Chicago, Cleveland. St. Louis; [John T. 
Lewis & Bros. Company, Philadelphia) ; 
[National Lead & Oil Company, Pittsburgh], 
Painting Outfit 
F ree 
We have prepared a 
little package of things 
bearing on the subject 
of painting which we 
call House-owners’ 
Painting Outfit No. 8, 
It includes: 
t—Book of color 
schemes (state 
whether you wish 
interior or exte¬ 
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2 —Specifications 
for all kinds of 
painting. 
3—1 nstrument 
for detecting 
adulteration in 
paint material, 
with directions 
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Free on request to 
any reader who asks for 
House-owners Paint¬ 
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Gaboon Seed Sower 
Sows all kinds of grain and grass seed. The most correct, simple and durable broad¬ 
cast sower made. Lasts a lifetime—made of steel, iPon and brass. Guaranteed to do 
more and better work than any other hand seed sower. You save time and seed and get 
bigger crops with the Calioon. Pays for itself many times over every year. Ask your 
dealer for the Cahoon. Send to-day for the Seed Sowers’ Manual. It tells how to save 
seed and have bigger crops. It's free. 
GOODELL CO., 14 Mnln St., Antrim, New Hampshire 
“Continental” Binder 
Three generations of farmers have used the Johnston binder— 
we have been building them better and better for 58 years—no wonder users call 
them the “King of Binders.” 
The Johnston Binder has greater strength and more elevator capacity than 
any other Binder. Roller bearing wheels, folding dividers, right-hand levers in 
easy reach of the driver, an adjustable reel and back wing, which can be set for 
any kind of grain under all soil conditions, a trip that never repeats, a knotter 
that always ties. Every Binder is guaranteed. Built in 4 sizes. The Johnston 
Binder meets every requirement of the farmer. 
Write today for our 1909 Library describing the Johnston Farm Tools. 
The JOHNSTON HARVESTER CO. 
Stevens Late Champion. —The Hope- 
Farm man speaks of several people asking 
about Stevens Late Champion strawberry, 
I would' advise testing this variety well 
before planting largely. I have grown this 
berry for the past three years (plants from 
J. II. Hale) and fail to discover its good 
qualities, if it 1ms any, but several bad 
ones. In the first place it is not a late 
berry; begins to ripen three or four days 
after Glen Mary and ripens the crop prac¬ 
tically all at once. I find that Sample, 
Glen Mary, Miss Boston, Nick Ohmer and 
other varieties produce fine fruit, from one 
week to 10 days after the Champion has 
gone out of business. It' well taken care 
of the planls show up fine, berries large, 
some very handsome: majority have bad 
dark seedy points. Not a good shipper, 
not a good table berry, certainly not a 
berry for this section. Let us bear from 
other parts. What l am looking for is a 
berry equal to Hie Marshall and late in the 
full meaning of the word. f. p. b. 
Picton, N. J. 
