Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/500

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

in Northampton, Mass., and issued a small work on the subject, entitled "The Culture of the Beet and the Manufacture of Beet Sugar." He reports that he had grown beets that would yield 6 percent of sugar which cost not more than 11 cents a pound. He made in all about one thousand, three hundred pounds of sugar.

Fig. 68.—Correct Position of a Mature Beet in the Soil.—(Farmers' Bulletin 52.)

The first factory of any considerable size in the United States was erected in 1863 at Chatsworth, Ill., but this proved to be a financial failure. A beet sugar factory was erected in the Sacramento Valley, California, in 1869, and after various vicissitudes a permanent factory was established at Alvarado, as has already been mentioned. In 1874 as much as 1,500,000 pounds of beet sugar were made in California. In 1870 and 1871 New Jersey and Massachusetts enacted legislation exempting from taxation for a period of 10 years all property devoted to the production of beet sugar. Factories were established in Massachusetts and in Delaware later on, but these all suffered financial reverses. It was not until the latter part of the 80's that the beet sugar industry in the United States was placed upon a paying basis, and even since that date many ventures in the manufacture of beet sugar have resulted in financial loss and in the abandonment of the factories.

Conditions of Cultivation.—The sugar beet in the United States does not