The sugar beet and beet sugar

Abstract

Twelve years ago the beet sugar industry was unknown in Michigan.Last year there were in that state, roundly, 90,000 acres of land under beet cultivation, yielding 720,ooo tons of beets, which, cut in sixteen factories, turned out 90,000 tons of granulated sugar.Prior to 1899 there was not a single sugar mill in Colorado.In 1908-09 beets were harvested in the mountain state from 126,842 acres, with a total yield of 1,-252,320 tons, which, worked up in 15 mills, gave 115,000 tons or 230,000,000 lbs. of granulated sugar.Two decades ago there was practically no beet sugar industry in the United States.Now beets are grown on about 370,000 acres, yielding 3,600,000 tons of beets sliced in 63 factories, with a total annual output of 421,-000 tons of sugar.One hundred and sixty-two years ago the world did not even dream of the presence of sugar in the beet.Now there are some 1,400 beet sugar factories the world over producing over 7,000,000 tons of sugar annually.Mankind knew only cane sugar produced in the tropics and shipped from there to other countries of the civilized world until the beet appeared on the world's stage and 'inaugurated a century lasting battle with the powerful cane.