Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1888 — The Beet-Sugar Industry. [ARTICLE]

The Beet-Sugar Industry.

F. E. Osthausin Globe Democrat. The beet-sugar industry in Germany has grown to large proportions in the last twenty years, and has been thoroughly systemized It was introduced in Hanover in 1864, and sugar is now produced in all the southern portion of Hanover, the larger part of Brunswica, the Prussian part of .Saxony, and also in a part of the Kingdom of Saxony. Perhaps two-thirds of all the German beetsugar israised in these localities, ft requires very fertile ground to raise the «ugar-beet, and bone dust, phosphate, Ghilian saltpeter and composts are freely used. The plant is exceedingly exhausting to the soil, and farmers to preserve their ground observe strictly the rule of rotation in crops, only planting a field in beets once in seven years, as a rule. The planting is done in May. The ground is thoroughly prepared beforehand. It is plowed twice in the fall preceding, the first plowing to the depth 'of 4 inches, the second 16 or 18 inches. Then just before planting it is harrowed and rolled until it is as hard and smooth as a floor. The seed is drilled in rows

one foot apart When the young plants are about three inches high they are thinned ouj, leaving three or four in a hill, one foot apart, and these are subse-, quently reduced to one in a hill. The cultivation la done mostly by plow, the crop being plowed abqrrt four times in a season, both lengthwise and across the rows. The women and children, meantime, are constantly going over the field keeping out tjae weeds by hand. The gathering season extends from September 15th to February 15th. Men go ahead with long spades and loosen each hill, the women and children following, who lift the roots out of ground andpile them together. After the tops are removed they are either taken directly to the community factory 6r covered deeply with earth to preserve them. The factory system is a very interesting part of the business. Factories are established in each neighborhoods In all , the successful ones capitalists are rigidly excluded, and only farmers may hold shares. Each farmer must, for each share he holds, cultivate from three to five acres in beets. The average product is from 17,0C0 to 18,000 pounds per acre, for which the farmer getsabout 90 pfennig per 100. He is guaranteed a sure market for his crop at a fixed price, and gets a dividend out of the profits at the end of the season. The pulp of Abe beets, after the sugar is taken out, makes a first-class food for cattle, and this the farmer also gets at a fixed price. The cultivation is subject to inspection by the factory, and each inspector must not only be a first-class farmer, but a chemist. He must live close to tbe factory, and gets a good salary, besides a per cent, of the profits. Most of the sugar goes to the refineries at the larger cities. At each factory is also a Government inspector, who examines each lot and fixes the tax. Each wagon-load of beets is sampled by a chemist, and if they fall below a certain grading as to percentrge of sugar, they are rejected. This is to prevent the use of inferior composts, which would make large large beets with little sugar in them. One nice feature about the business is that on all the sugar which is exported the Government re 6 turns to the farmer an amount which irf equivalent to the tax. This results in a very large portion of the crop being exported.