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Sugar Beet Raising

Sugar Beet Raising image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
February
Year
1899
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A Factory Would Pay Out Over $200,000 a Year

BAY CITY HAS THREE

Factories in Progress of Construction, And 15,000 Acres of Beets Have Been Contracted For. - Something Concerning the Profits of Business

Washtenaw county possesses, according to well known experts, the ideal soil for beet sugar culture. The best soil for raising barley rnakes the best soil for raising sugar beets. It is to be hoped that the project for starting a beet sugar factory here will be rapidly pushed, as it would mean a tide of prosperity to Aun Arbor which would exceed any thing we have known for years.

The project now is to build a 500 ton factory, which would cost from $425,000 to 450,000. Such a factory running to its capacity for the time it could be most profitably run, would pay out to the farmers here from $225,000 to $250,000 a year. It would demand contracts for from 4,000 to 4,500 acres of beets. A moment's thought would show what this means to the farmers as well as the businessmen of this community. It would mean an increase in the value of land, by increasing the amount of money which could be made from it. It would mean an increased output by the merchant, because his customers would have more money with which to buy. It would also mean smaller farms eventually, for the small farms would prove money makers. But the value of the beet crop is not the only benefit the farmers would derive. German statistics, the most reliable in the world, show that where beets are raised on land every fourth year, this land raises from one-third to oue-half more of other crops in the other three years. Scientific farming has come to demand that a root crop should be alternated with the other crops.

In Germany beet land is worth from 250 to $300 an acre and such land rents at from $8 to $15 an acre. This indicates something of the proflt in beet culture, when it is one of the main Staples on such high priced land. And the soil of Washtenaw county has been pronounced better for raising sugar beets than this high priced Germán land. In California sugar beet laud rents as high as $6 and 7 an acre. Our own farmers would be delighted with the ability to clear $15 an acre with their own labor, while sugar beet growers in this country are clearing $30 an acre after figuring out their own labor.

Mr. P. G. Snekey, who probably knows more about beet sugar than any other man in the state, having made it a study for years, carne in from Bay City Wednesday. He reports that the people there are absolutely crazy on the subject of beet sugar. One factory is running and two more are being built and the three factories have contracts for 15,000 acres of sugar beets. He says the soil óf this section is much better than in Bay county for beet culture. He himself raised sugar beets on land here, which was not as good for the purpose as most of the land about here, which showed from 13 to 14 per cent sugar. The farmers of Bay county last year produced 15, 20 and 28 tons of beets to the acre. Last year the one factory had to go begging for contracts. This year all three factories have more contracts than they want. This is because not only did the factory make money but the people did also. The factory last year had 48 or 45 stockholders. The second factory started had only eight or nine stockholders and the third factory has only four stockholders. This indicates how capitalista have increasing confidence in the profit of beet sugar making. A. W. Wright, of Alma, is starting a factory and is putting in $450,000 in his building.

The American Sugar Trust for the last 15 years has been importing beet sugar, the statement being made that two-thirds of their sugar is beet sugar. There is absolutely no chemical difference in the sugar.

The contracts of the Bay City factory last year was for from two to 120 acres of beets from each farmer. The effects of the last season has been to double the price of farm land in Bay county. Beets can be most profitably raised and marketed for a radius of from 10 to 15 miles from the factory.

Farmers from 16 to 20 miles of Bay City, says the Free Press this morning, are writing the factories begging them to take their beets.

The prices paid for beet are $4 a ton for beet containing 12 per cent sugar and 33-and-1/3 cents a ton more for every per cent of sugar above the twelve. Fifteen per cent beets would thus bring $5.

Farmers wbo raise sngar beets can be assured months in advance what they will get for their crop. Farmers who raise wheat don't know whether it will bring 50 cents, 75 cents or 90 cents.