1 Sepr., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 207: 
Probably one of the greatest dangers which the beet-growing industry in this 
country will meet is the tendency to begin the erection of a beet-sugar factory 
with cheap, old, or worn-out apparatus and appliances, and without a proper 
technical study of all the questions involved. The avoidance of this danger is 
all the more difficult, because there are few engineers in this country who have 
devoted themselves to the study of this problem, and European experts are 
not likely to understand and comprehend American methods and measures. 
Numerous inquiries have been received at this office for directions for making 
beet sugar with such appliances as a cider-mill and sorghum-molasses evaporator 
might afford. It would not be right to encourage the attempt to manufacture 
beet sugar in any such way. Nor should the expectation be excited among our 
farmers that they will be able to make a crude article of sugar which they can 
dispose of to a central factory for refining purposes. It is best to recognise at 
the very first the great expense which attends the erection of a sugar factory 
and the necessity for its meeting every modern requirement. Beetgrowing 
and beet-sugar manufacture are two distinct industries, but with common aims 
and interests. 
“ Co-operative Huctories.—It is seen from the foregoing paragraph that 
the farmer can have no reasonable hope of successfully establishing a home 
beet-sugar factory. It is not just, however, that he should be deprived of any 
co-operation in the process of manufacture or a reasonable share of the profits 
arising therefrom. The methods which have been practised in Europe for 
securing these results are probably those which will eventually come into use 
in this country. The co-operative sugar factory, in which the farmers growing 
the beets hold a part or the majority of the stock, realises the desired end. 
The growers of beets holding shares in the factory have greater interest in 
its prosperity, try to grow better crops, and to secure in every way a higher 
yield. Theco-operative factory renders impossible those disagreements between 
capital and agriculture which do so much to retard the progress of the industry 
and to embitter the feeling of the farmer against the factory. To show the 
extent of the participation of shareholders in factories in the growing of beets 
in Germany, it may be stated that, of the 11,672,816 metric tons of beets 
delivered to the German factories in 1895-6, 2,689,004 tons were grown by 
shareholders. Inasmuch as the farmers in a beet-sugar community are 
uniformly prosperous, they are able to subscribe for shares in a factory, and 
by a community of interests practically control its operations. The industry 
of growing beets is not yet sufficiently advanced in the United States to render 
possible any definite outline of the best plan of securing co-operation between 
the farmer and the capitalist. At the outset, it would probably be impossible 
to secure among the farmers alone a sufficient amount of capital to properly 
equip a factory. Hven could this be done, the additional difficulty would be 
encountered of a lack of experience among the shareholders, leading to poor 
judgment in regard to the methods of conducting the manufacturing operations. 
As long as the proprietors of the factory and the farmers growing the beets are 
satisfied with the contracts which they make, there is no urgent necessity of 
the establishment of co-operative enterprises. When the number of beet-sugar 
factories in this country, however, begins to reach the hundreds, favourable 
opportunities of co-operative establishments will be presented.” 
