Sugar Beets. 
11 
sians. Women and children work with the men in the fields. 
Where a large acreage is in beets, the thinning, weeding, hoeing, pull¬ 
ing, and topping is done by contract. Laborers receive from fifteen 
to twenty dollars per month, the usual wages by the day being one 
•dollar and board. On contract work the rate is from fifty cents to 
one dollar for boys; one dollar for men and women, without board. 
For a man and team, two dollars and fifty cents per day; for man 
and horse, one dollar and seventy-five cents. Land rent from three 
dollars and fifty cents to six dollars per acre. 
The average yield in 1897 was 7.25 tons, and the sugar ex¬ 
tracted by the factory at Norfolk was 10.95 per cent. The per¬ 
centage of sugar in the beets was 13.1 per cent., purity 81.5 per 
•cent. 
The Grand Island beet raisers averaged 8.1 tons per acre. The 
average percentage of sugar in the beets in 1897 is said to have 
been 12.87, and purity 79.5. The percentage of sugar obtained from 
these beets by the factory was 8.72. 
The tables given show that in 1897 the factories at Norfolk and 
Grand Island treated the largest tonnage and made the highest sav¬ 
ing attained up to that year. The range of farm wages is from 
fourteen to twenty dollars per month, with board ; and from one 
dollar to a dollar and a quarter by the day. Women and children 
generally work on the contract plan. Many girls get a dollar a day in 
the beet fields, and prefer it to house work. Boys from ten to eighteen 
years of age receive from fifty to eighty cents per day, a man and 
team two dollars and fifty cents, and a man and horse one dollar 
and seventy-five cents per day. Contracts can occasionally be made, 
as in Colorado, at two dollars per day for man and team. Land 
rentals range from four dollars to seven dollars per acre. The crop 
of 1897 is said to have been reduced fully one-third by drought. 
No beets are grown by irrigation in Nebraska. 
At Lehi, Utah, the conditions are said to be ideal for the growing 
of beets and running a sugar factory. The farms vary from five to 
forty acres in extent, and fully nine-tenths of them are worked by 
the owners. Mortgages are rare and the farmers prosperous. The 
women do not work in the fields, and the girls seldom work there 
unless at home. Much of the hand labor is done by boys. The 
average acreage per grower is less than four acres. The highest 
average yield per acre was in 1896, 13.5 tons. The average per acre 
from 1891 to 1897, inclusive, was 9.44 tons. The highest average 
percentage of sugar in the beets was, in 1896,13.9 per cent. The aver¬ 
age percentage from 1891 to 1897, inclusive, was 12.4 per cent. The 
average percentage of sugar extracted, 1891 to 1897 inclusive, was 
8.46. Land rentals range from $7.50 to $15.00. The soil shows a 
