SUGAR SHORTAGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2144, 26 June 1920, Page 2

SUGAR SHORTAGE.

THE sugar shortage has been the subject of considerable discussion recently, and the latest suggestion as to the solution of the problem is the growing of sugar beet. In this connection Messrs F. Cooper, Ltd., make some interesting comments. To a. Post reporter a member of tho firm showed a large specimen ot a sugur mangold grown on their grounds at Blenheim. The crop ranged from 40 to 70 tons an acre, flits mangold is not the real sugar beet, but the suggestion is that if sugar mangolds, containing a large percentage of saccharine, can be grown in such quantities it is a very brief step to the growing on a wholesale scale of the real sugar beet. The experience of the firm is that sugar beet can be grown successfully in the Wellington, Hawke* Bay. and Taranaki districts. For the development of saccharine in the root, it is explained, a lengthy period of sunshine is required. Such conditions obtain in the North Island districts mentioned. Given a certain production of sugar beet, the question next to lie considered is tho provision of machinery for the ’production of the sugar from the beet.There is no reason why that machinery should not be readily available, and the general idea is that the production of sugar beet can easily be made a most profitable undertaking.