The sugar-beet in America

Front matter

Copyright If

CfDEffilGHT DEPOSm

Ubc IRural Science Series

Preface

Sugar, which was once a luxury, has become a necessity in modern dietaries. The civiUzed nations have become so accustomed to its use as an important food that great inconvenience is experienced if it cannot be had or if the supply is reduced. This has made sugar-producing plants almost as staple as those from which bread is derived. As a result, sugar-beets, in the past century, have won an important place among the profitable crops of the temperate zone. In most of the European countries they have been raised extensively, whereas in America their growth has been confined to a comparatively few localities. In recent years, however, the area has been greatly extended, and increased interest has been taken in establishing a domestic beet-sugar industry.

Much has been written about sugar-beets in America within the last thirty years, but most of this material is scattered through numerous bulletins and reports of experiment stations and the United States Department of Agriculture, and is not easily available. For some time a book containing the important facts regarding sugar-beet production has been needed. This has become more apparent since the beginning of the European war, which caused a sugar shortage in western Europe and America. In response to this need the present volume is prepared. It is hoped that it may be useful to farmers who are raisvi Preface

ing sugar-beets, to agriculturists of the sugar companieSj and to students of sugar-beets in agricultural colleges as a text. Those who do not find in the volume sufficient information for their needs will find references to additional material in Appendix A.

The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to the many individuals who have been helpful in the work of preparing the manuscript. He is under special obligation to Prof. George Stewart, Dr. E. G. Titus, Mr. J. W. Jones, Dr. G. R. Hill, Jr., Prof. G. B. Hendricks, Dr. George Thomas, Dr. W. E. Carroll, Prof. 0. W. Israelsen, Mr. D. W. Pittman, Prof. H. R. Hagan, Prof. M. H. Greene, Mr. L. A. Moorhouse, Dr. M. C. Merrill, Mr. W. K. Winterhalter, Mr. H. Mendelson, Mr. A. M. McOmie, Mr. J. A. Brock, Dr. N. Kopeloff, Dr. C. O. Townsend, Mr. Truman G. Palmer, Dr. E. D. Ball, Dr. O. E. Baker, and Mr. W. H. Wallace, who have read chapters and offered valuable suggestions ; to Mrs. F. S. Harris, Mr. K. B. Sauls, Miss O. Blanche Condit, and Miss Carrie Thomas for assistance in preparing the material for publication and in proof-reading; and to the various sugar companies who have furnished photographs, statistics, and other valuable material. He wishes to make particular mention of the assistance rendered by Mr. N. I. Butt, who did much laborious work on the literature and helped in collecting statistics and preparing diagrams.

F. S. Harris.

Logan, Utah, Oot. 1, 1918.

Chapter I Paobb

General view of the industry 1-5

CHAPTER II Development of the beet-sugab industet . . 6-21

Early use of sugar 6

Early history of beets . 8

Discovery of sugar in beets, 9

First commercial extraction of sugar, 10

Assistance from Napoleon, 11

Decline of the industry, 12

Revival of the industry, 12 The industry in the United States . . • . . 16

Commercial success in the United States, 18

Later developments, 20

CHAPTER ni

Botanical group 22

Habit of growth 23

Parts of the plant 24

How the plant feeds and grows 26

The storage of sugar 29

Factors affecting percentage of sugar .... 31 vii

Contents

Relation of size of beet to sugar-content ... 32

Flowers and seeds 34

CHAPTER IV Conditions for growing sugar-beets . . . 36-53 Climatic conditions 37

Temperature, 37

Sunlight, 40 ^ .

Moisture, 40

Wind, 43

The soil 43

Economic conditions 44

Competition with other crops, 44

Labor, 45 .

Capital, 48

Transportation, 49

Special troubles, 50

Kind of farmers, 50

The factory, 52

CHAPTER V Relation of soil to beet-culture 54

Origin of soils 56

Classification of soils 57

Soil and subsoil . . . ..... 58

Soil texture , . 59

Soil structure , 61

Improvitig soil tilth 61

Air in the soil 62

Soil heat 63

Contents ix

PAQEB

Organic matter 63

Soil moisture 64

Soil alkali 66

Acid soils 68

Plant-food in the soil 69

Soil bacteria 70

Selecting a sugar-beet soil 71

CHAPTER VI Manueing and rotations 73-91

Plant-food requirements of beets . , . . . 74

Ways of maintaining soil fertility 75

How to detennine fertilizer needs 76

Commercial fertilizers for beets 77

Nitrogen, 78

Phosphoms, 79

Potassium, 80

Indirect fertilizers 81

Home-mixing of fertilizers 82

Farm manure for sugar-beets . . , ■ . . 82

Handling farm manure, 84

Green-manures 85

Rotations 86

Reasons for crop rotations, 86

Principles of good rotations, 88

Rotations vnih sugar-beets, 88

CHAPTER VII Advantages of contracting 92

Items included in the contract 93

Contents

Types of contracts Sample contracts

CHAPTER VIII Prepaeation of seed-bed and planting . . . 103-116

Effect of previous crop ....... 103

Reasons for plowing 104

Time of plowing 106

Depth of plowing 108

Final preparation 110

The seed 112

Method of planting 114

The stand . 115

Chapter IX Cultubal Methods 117-125

Thinning 117

Preparation for thinning, 117

Blocking and thinning, 118

Losses from poor thinning, 121

CHAPTER X Irrigation 126

Beets adapted to irrigation farming, 126 Sources of irrigation water, 127 Measurement of water, 128 Preparing land for irrigation, 129 Methods of irrigating beets, 130

Contents xl

PAGES

Water requirements of beets, 131

Time to apply water, 133

Size of irrigation, 136

Relation of irrigation to size, shape, and qvality of beets, 137

Drainage 144

Reasons for drainage, 144 Effects of drainage, 145 Kinds of drains, 146 Installing the drainage system, 147

CHAPTER XI Time of harvest 148

Digging . 151

Topping 152

Mechanical harvester 154

Hauling . . 155

SUoing 157

CHAPTER XII Sugar-beet tops . . . . . . . . 158

Composition of the tops, 159

Feeding and storing tops, 161

Soiling beet tops, 163

Use of beet silage, 166 Sugar-beet pulp 168

Uses of beet pulp, 169

Waste sugar-beets and root-tips 176

Sugar-beet molasses 177

Waste lime and minor by-products .... 181 xii Contents

Chapter XIII Pages

Insect pests 184

Extent of pest injury, 184

Preventive measures for controlling pests, 185

Blister-beetles, 187

Army worms, 187

The commx)7i army-worm, 188

The fall army-worm, 189

Sugar-beet webworm, 190

Cutworms, 190

White grubs, 191

Wireworms, 192

Flea-beetles and leaf-beetles, 193

Grasshoppers, 193

Beet-root aphis, 194

Sugar-beet nematode, 195

r^e 6ee< leafhopper, 197

Disease injuiy 198

Leaf-spot, 199 Heart-rot, 200 Sca6, 201 So/i-ro«, 202 Beet-rust, 202 Rhizodonia, 203 Sugar-beet mosaic, 203 Damping-off, 204

CHAPTER XIV Factors affecting quality of beets .... 205-212

What are good beets ....... 205

Conditions producing good beets ..... 208

Contents xiii

Chapter XV Pages

Importance of good seed 213

High germination 214

Sources of seed 215

Disadvantages of importing seed 217

Types of beets 219

Single-germ seed 220

Breeding 221

Chemical test of mothers, 221

Steps in selection, 222 Commercial production of seed . . . . . 223

Planting mother beets, 225

Care of seed crop during growth, 226

Harvesting and threshing, 227

Yields and profits, 228

CHAPTER XVI Need for low cost 231

Difficulty of obtaining costs 233

Cost of growing in various sections .... 234

Relation of number of acres raised to cost and profit . 237

Cost based on time 240

Examples of acre-cost 247

CHAPTER XVII Beet raising and community welfare . . . 250-257

Stability to agriculture 251

Promotes good farming 252 xiv Contents

PAGES

Increases crop yields 253

Educational value 254

Employment for children 255

Winter employment 255

Centralized population 256

Increases other business 256

National independence 257

Chapter XVIII Sugae-making 258-267

Storing "the beets 258

Washing and weighing 260

SUcing and extraction 261

Purification of the juice 262

Evaporation . . . 263

Graining 264

The Steffen process ....... 265

Chapter XIX Sugae-cane 268-274

Adaptation 270

Soils and manuring 271

Extraction of sugar . 274

CHAPTER XX Kinds of sugar and properties 275

Sugar in nature 277

Sugar as a food . . . . . ... • 279

Contents xv

PAGEB

Increase in use of sugar 283

Use in different countries 286

Source of supply 289

Future use and supply 291

Bibliography 295-311

American beet-sugar companies and factories,

Sugar statistics . 320-331

PLATES

FACING PAGE

I. A good field of sugar-beets . . . Frontispiece

II. John Taylor 16

III. E. H. Dyer 18 ^

IV. Mature beet plant ; cross and longitudinal sections 24 ''' V. Houses for labor ; pumping irrigation water . . 46 "^

VI. Soils for beets 58'^

VII. Soils ; alfalfa plowed under ; plowing . . . 66 *^

VIII. Preparation and cultivation of land . . . 108 ■^ IX. Tillage; a good stand of beets . . . .110 X. Planting; cable machinery; cultivating and

XI. Thinning beets ; cultivating 118 ^

XII. Hoeing beets ; irrigating 122 '

XIII. Experiment tanks ; ditch machine ; beets topped 142 "^

XIV. Beet lifter; topping beets 150^'

XV. Topping ; silo in field ; rack for unloading . .152 '"

XVI. Beet dumps 154 V

XVII. Bins in a beet factory 156^'

XVIII. Beet dump ; sugar factory . . . . ' . 158 ^

XIX. Silo practice 172^'

XX. Feeding cows on by-products ; feed yards . . 176"^ XXI. Sheep feeding; injury by army-worms; catching

grasshoppers 180 '^

XXII. Nematode injury; beet spot 196

XXIII. Curly-leaf ; rot in storage 200

XXIV. Well-shaped beets ; poorly shaped ; three types of

beets 206 ''

xvii

XVIU

Plates silos for mother beets:

7A0IKQ PAOB

steck-

XXV. Pedigreed beets

linge 220

XXVI. Good crop of seed 226:

XXVII. DiflFusion battery; carbonation and sulfur tanks 260

XXVIII. Filter presses ; vacuum pans 262

XXIX. Centrifugal machines ; sugar warehouse . . 266

XXX. Planting sugar-cane ; unloading cane . . . 270

XXXI. Vigorous growth of cane ; sugar-cane in Louisiana 272 XXXII. Harvesting cane with hand cutters; cane wagons

in Cuba 274

Chapter I General View Of The Industry

The beet-sugar industry in America has but recently passed out of the experimental stage. It was undertaken nearly a century ago by men who had more enthusiasm than knowledge concerning the raising of beets and the methods of extracting sugar from them. Early attempts to establish the industry on the Western Hemisphere were not successful, partly because of the lack of scientific methods and partly because beet-growing was first tried in unfavorable localities. It also required time to tram farmers to grow beets and experts to make beet-sugar. Legislation, also, has been a factor. When regions well adapted to beet-culture were chosen, when farmers became familiar with methods of raising beets, when methods of extracting sugar from the beets were improved, and when legislation was favorable, then was the industry able to establish itself and to pass beyond precarious infancy. This stage being passed, the industry has now entered the period of vigorous youth — the time of greatest virility and growth. The beet-sugar industry is now firmly established in America ; it is ready to take its place in the sisterhood of great American industries.

B 1

2 The Sitgar-Beet in America

The key to successful beet-sugar manufacturing is a supply of good beets at a reasonable price. The actual making of sugar can be conducted about as well in one place as in another if the beets are available. The growth of the industry, therefore, depends on an extension of the beet-producing area and on perfecting the methods of growing beets in sections where they are now produced.

Those persons familiar with the conditions necessary to beet production, and those acquainted with American geography, are convinced that only a small part of the land well adapted to beets is at present planted to the crop. Figure 1, which shows the relative number of sugar factories in Europe and in the United States, indicates that in. America the area devoted to beets may be increased many times before it will reach the limits that have been found profitable in Europe. Reference to Chapter IV, wherein the conditions for raising beets are considered in detail, will show that many parts of the United States are well adapted to the production of sugar-beets. Now that the industry is well started, it seems probable that it will grow rapidly in the next few years.

This growth will be fortunate for American agriculture, which needs stimulation of more intensive methods. Experience has shown that wherever a beet-sugar factory has been established in a community, the price of all farming land has risen. This has resulted not alone because beets themselves make a profitable crop, but because raising them promotes better farming and consequently a higher return to each acre of land. The deep plowing and the thorough tillage, so indispensable to beet-culture, increase the yield of subsequent crops on the same

Gmeral View of the Industry

Noof facforiei

Austria Hungary /9/5 ZOI

Belgium J 9/2 74

Celifornio 19/7.

Colorado ■

Idaho I,

lllinoii . .

Indiana .

lo'^a

Kansas . —

.f4 Montana /9/7 .

J5 NebraiKa.—^

_7 Nevada .

_J Ohio u

Wash\ngton^ Wisconsin.

/ Wyoming-^

0.03

Si

•a r

«i land. The cost of these tillage operations is met by the beet crop, the increase in yield of the other crops usually coming as a net profit.

Beets make an excellent crop to fit into the rotation. On account of the tillage required, they permit the eradication of weeds that persist in other crops ; they furnish, through their by-products, a large quantity of stock feed ; they are deep-rooted, and consequently bring from considerable depth plant-food that is later made available to shallow-rooted crops; the period when work is required by beets fits well with the raising of grain and alfalfa ; and, finally, they furnish a cash crop, which should be found in every rotation. Because of these conditions, beet-raising is a help to the individual farmer.

The community as a whole is also benefited by the beet-sugar industry. Considerable ready money is thereby brought into the region and the farmer is enabled to know before the crop is planted that he has a sure market at a definite price. This tends to stabilize all phases of business in the community; it gives a standard market value to all land capable of raising beets profitably. The factory furnishes work to farm hands who would otherwise be idle in winter; boys and girls find employment in the beet fields when school is not in session. This employment of the people of the community makes the industry valuable even when direct profits of beet production are small.

Perhaps the greatest reason for encouraging the domestic production of beet-sugar is the greater national independence that results from having at home a supply of such an important food. In times of peace the ad-

General View of the Industry 5

vantage of this condition is not strikingly apparent, but war forces the situation home.

Within the last century the world's use of sugar has increased from about one million tons in a year to twenty million, an increase of two thousand per cent. There are many reasons for expecting this increase to continue until the world's requirement will be several times what it now is. At present the United States uses about five times as much sugar as it produces from beets. It is evident, therefore, that beet-sugar is still only a minor factor in supplying the home demand.

In view of the increasing importance of sugar as a food, that great areas of land in the United States are well adapted to beets, that only a small percentage of the sugar consumed in the country is produced at home, and in view of the many benefits of a domestic beet-sugar industry, it seems imperative that greater attention be given to the sugar-beet in America.

Chapter II

The beet-sugar industry has grown in a century from nothing to its present enormous proportions. It is a significant example of the application of science to the needs of mankind. With the demand for sugar exceeding the supply and increasing faster than could be satisfied from known sources, new and better methods of securing sugar were sought. By applying the principles of plant-breeding to the sugar-beet — a plant formerly having only a low percentage of sugar — the quantity of sugar that can be extracted from a ton of beets was increased several fold. The same incentive has also led to the application of the principles of chemistry and physics to the manufacturing of sugar. When the industry first began, beets low in sugar were the only kind obtainable, and even this little sugar had to be extracted by imperfect processes; but as time went on the beets were improved and the processes perfected, until at present sugar can be obtained from the beet at a fraction of the cost of a hundred years ago.

EARLY USE OF SUGAR

The use of sugar as an important food is confined to modern times ; formerly it was known only as a medicine 6 sold by apothecaries. In ancient times, honey was the chief source of sweet. This was supplemented by sweet fruits and sirups, but no refined sugar was extracted from any source to be used as ordinary food.

It is not certain whether the first sugar was obtained from sugar-cane or from the bamboo, which belongs to the same family. Early Greek and Roman writers mention it as a rare product. Theophrastus, in the third century B.C., refers to it as honey which comes from bamboos, and Pliny tells of sugar in Arabia and India. Very little sugar-cane was found in Bengal before the fifth century a.d., but about this time it was introduced into the Tigris Valley and soon after into the Euphrates Valley. In 627 A.D. it was found in Persia and carried westward. About the middle of the eighth century the Moors carried it to Spain, this being its first introduction into Europe. It is known to have been raised in China at an early date and has been grown there continuously ever since.

By the tenth century, sufficient sugar was produced in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates to attract traders, and it was sometimes used as food in special feasts. It was not until the middle of the seventeenth century, however, when Queen Elizabeth of England introduced it into her household, that sugar could be considered as part of the diet.

Sugar-cane went from Spain to Sicily and Cyprus in the thirteenth century. The King of Portugal in the fifteenth century sent cuttings from Sicily to Madeira and the Canary Islands, from where it went to Brazil during the early part of the next century. About the same time it also became important in the Island of San Domingo. By 1518 there were twenty-eight mills on this island. It reached Mexico in 1520, Guadalupe in 1644, and Martinique in 1650. The first sugar mill in Cuba was built in 1547. Sugar-making was brought to Louisiana in 1751 by the Jesuit fathers, but after about twenty-five years' trial it was abandoned, not to be tried again till 1791. Thus with the introduction of sugar into the diet of the people of Europe, the colonies of the European countries furnished an abundant supply. At that time the consumption was very low compared with that of the present.

When sugar first became an article of commerce, the high price prohibited its general use. As late as 1482 it sold for as much as $275 a hundred pounds on the London market, although it had been considerably cheaper a century before. By the close of the fifteenth century the price had fallen to $53 a hundred pounds in London. Competition became very keen among the English, Dutch, French, and Portuguese traders for the sugar trade of Europe in the early part of the eighteenth century. Each country was anxious to have its colonies furnish the chief supply of sugar, most of which was at that time produced by slave labor.

EARLY HISTORY OF BEETS

The fiirst use of beets as a cultivated crop is not known. Theophrastus, in the third century B.C., describes two varieties of beets grown in Greece — the deep red and the white. The barbarians who conquered Rome carried beets back and planted them in Bohemia on their return. Oliver de Serres, in 1590, seems to have been the first to record the sweet properties of the beet. He said that " the juice yielded on boiling is similar to sugar sirup." He believed that alcohol could be made by fermenting the beet. The red beet was introduced into England in 1548, but the white variety was unknown there until 1570. Four varieties were known by 1782, the small and large red, the yellow, and the white. In 1786 Abbe Commerel published a book on the value of beets as feed for stock.

Discovery of sugar in heets.

Although De Serres had suggested the sweet properties of beets, he did not obtain pure sugar from them. It was left to the German chemist, Andrew S. Marggraf, a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, first to obtain sugar from the beet. This he accomplished in 1747, but it was a half century before this discovery was put to any practical use. The methods used by Marggraf in extracting sugar in the laboratory are described as follows : "After having cut the beets into thin slices, he dried them carefully and reduced them to a powder. On eight ounces of beet thus pulverized, he poured six ounces of alcohol rectified as highly as he could obtain it, and placed the mixture over a gentle fire in a sand bath. As soon as the liquid came to a boiling point he withdrew it from the fire and filtered it into a flagon, which he stoppered and left to itself. After some weeks he perceived that it had formed crystals, which presented all the physical and chemical characters of the crystals of sugar from cane. The alcohol which remained contained sugar in solution and also a resinous matter which he abstracted by evaporation."

First commercial extraction of heet-sugar.

Karl Franz Achard, son of a French refugee in Prussia, was the first to extract sugar from beets on a commercial scale. He had been a student of Marggraf, who had turned his attention to the beet as a source of sugar. After the death of his teacher in 1782, Achard devoted himself faithfully to perfecting methods of extracting the sugar. The laboratory methods were too expensive to be used on a large scale. In 1797, after fifteen years of work, he announced his methods, and two years later presented them and samples of sugar to the Institute of France. His statements brought forth considerable ridicule, but the Institute was sufficiently aroused to appoint a commission of nine leading scientists of France to investigate the whole problem of extracting sugar from beets. On January 25, 1800, the commission made its report, which, on the whole, was favorable to Achard, although it doubted some of his claims.

In the meantime, the producers of cane-sugar had become alarmed and feared that some of their profits might be lost. It is reported that in 1796 a society in England offered Achard S30,000 if he would abandon his work and make the world believe his attempts had not been a success. Two years later a new offer of $120,000 was made and refused. An attempt was then made to destroy interest in beet-sugar through Sir Humphry Davy, the celebrated English chemist. He said that while sugar could be obtained from beets, it was too sour for food.

The early work of Achard was encouraged by financial assistance from Frederick the Great, but after his death in 1786 the work was somewhat interrupted until his successor, Frederick William III, came to the rescue. Through the aid of the latter, the first beet-sugar factory in the world was built on Cunern Estate, near Steinau in Silesia, in 1799-1801. In 1802 a factory was built near Paris for experimental purposes. These first factories experienced many difl&culties in purifying the sugar. This, together with the low sugar-content of the beets, discouraged all but the most enthusiastic.

Assistance from Napoleon.

The establishing of the beet-sugar industry on a paying basis really came as an incident in the wars of Napoleon. As a measure against England he established in 1806 a blockade in which any merchandise from England and her colonies was not allowed on the continent. This cut off the chief source of sugar ; as a result the average price from 1807 to 1815 was thirty cents a pound. At times it went much higher than this. In 1806 the French Government offered a bounty on beet-sugar, but it was not until 1811, near Lille, that the first commercial factory in France was established.

On January 12, 1812, Napoleon issued a decree providing that one hundred select students should be sent from schools of medicine, pharmacy, and chemistry to the six special beet-sugar schools that he had established the year before. He also set aside large tracts of land to be devoted to beet-raising and compelled the peasant farmers to plant sugar-beets. The decrees of Napoleon to encourage the beet-sugar industry were so liberal and the price of sugar was so high that by 1812 forty factories were in operation. These factories handled 98,813 tons of beets produced on 16,758 acres and manufactured them into 3,300,000 pounds of sugar. This may be called the real beginning of the beet-sugar industry.

From France the industry spread rapidly to the other countries of Europe, especially to Germany and Russia. In Germany, Achard established a school which was attended by students from all parts of Europe. These students carried back to their respective countries technical information which, encouraged by the success of the French manufacturers, led to the establishment of many factories.

Decline of the industry.

With the downfall of Napoleon in 1815 and the return of peace, the ports of Europe were thrown open to the cheap sugar from the colonies. As a result, the newly established industry was not able to hold its own. The quality of beets was still poor and the processes used in the manufacture of sugar were so imperfect that it was impossible to compete with cane-sugar produced by slave labor. Only one factory in Europe survived the reconstruction that followed the overthrow of Napoleon. This was the factory of M. Crespel at Arras, France.

Revival of the industry.

For some time in France the beet-sugar industry fluctuated according to the laws that were passed. In an effort to revive beet-sugar production diu'ing the period from 1822 to 1825, over one hundred new factories were built. The processes of manufacturing were improved so greatly that 5 per cent of sugar could be extracted instead of 2 per cent, as formerly.

Researches of Pelouze in 1821 led to better methods of breeding, which made progress more rapid. By 1836 there were 436 factories in operation. This alarmed the importers of cane-sugar and led to legislation which was unfavorable to beet-sugar producers. This legislation caused the abandonment in 1837 and 1838 of 166 factories. In 1840 and 1843 attempts were made by the cane-sugar interests to have the government buy the beet-sugar factories and close them, but this failed. In 1847 colonial cane-sugar and beet-sugar were taxed equally, which made it difficult for the beet-sugar to compete, because the cane-sugar was nearly all produced by cheap slave labor. The abolition of slavery in 1848, however, helped the beet-sugar industry. From 1851 to 1873 the making of beet-sugar in France was very spasmodic, since it depended almost entirely on the attitude of legislation.

In Germany, where legislation was more consistent, the industry grew slowly but surely. Considerable attention was given by scientists to the improvement both of the quality of beets and of the manufacturing processes. In 1836 Germany had 122 factories which used 25,346 tons of beets and produced 1408 tons of sugar. The average percentage of sugar extracted that year was 5.5, while in 1886 it averaged 12.18 per cent. The per capita consumption of sugar in Germany was 4.4 pounds in 1836, but had risen to 7.14 pounds in 1856, and in 1906 it was 41.08 pounds. The factory price of sugar in Magdeburg fell from 9.4 cents a pound in 1854 to 4.2 cents in 1886.

Fig. 2. — Comparison of the amount of beet-sugar produced in Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, United States, Russia, and Belgium, in different years.

In 1877 Germany had 286,000 acres of beets, which produced 378,000 tons of sugar, while in 1886 the output of sugar was more than 1,000,000 tons. Germany did not equal the sugar production of France until 1878, but since that time she has led the world in beet-sugar. She produced 2,223,521 tons of sugar in 1906. The average percentage extracted that year was 15.69.

In other countries of Europe the beet-sugar industry followed rather closely the lead of France and Germany (see Fig. 2). At present there are beet-sugar factories in all the European countries except Norway.

Ware ^ shows in the following table the relative importance of the industry in 1877-78. By this time the beet-sugar industry had become thoroughly established :

Table I. — Number of Sugar Factories in Europe, in 1877-78, WITH THE Total Production and the Per Capita Consumption of Sugar in Each Country

Countries

KiLOGBAMS Produced 1877-78

Approximate Consumption Per Capita, Kilograms

Factories Existino

Germany ....

France ....

Austria-Hungary .

Russia. . . . 1 Poland . . . j Belgium ....

Holland . • . 1 Sweden . . .

Denmark ... J

250,000,000

50,000,000

25,000,000

6 9

2 6

330 513

288 153

1 Ware, L. S., "The Sugar Beet," p. 40 (1880).

THE INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES

The first effort to grow sugar-beets in the United States was made about 1830 at Ensfield near Philadelphia. In 1836 a number of citizens of Philadelphia became interested in sugar-beet culture and sent James Pedder to France to study the business. A company known as "The Beet Sugar Society of Philadelphia" was organized with James Donaldson, the chief promoter, as president. Pedder sent home about 600 pounds of seed to be distributed among the farmers for trial. No evidence is available that a factory resulted from this effort.