GROWING BEET FOR SUGAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 July 1920, Page 4

GROWING BEET FOR SUGAR.

The rise in the price of sugar, coupled with the shortage of supplies, has drawn attention to the desirability of steps being taken in the Dominion to grow beet for the purpose of sugar production, and to providing the necessary refining plant. A proposal in this direction has already been made, but whether it materialises will largely depend on the prospects held out to, farmers to raise this crop. It would seem that if it paid German refiners to enter into contract with English farmers (as was the case in 1910) to grow large quantities of beet for export, it wollld pay New Zealand farmers to cultivate and market beet. The result of experiments in England led to the inference that sugar-beet culture should prove remunerative, provided that sugar factories be established within a reasonable distance of the beet producing districts. Since the middle of the 18th century beet has acquired commercial importance as a sugar-yield- | ing root, over sis million tons of sugar unnually being prepared from beetroot in | Europe. The best varieties yield from 12 1 to 18 per cent, of sugar, and from 12 to 20 tons of roots per acre. Beet requires deeply-ploughed and well-worked land, moderately rich from'the manure applied to a previous crop. Both the land and the climate of Taranaki are particularly favorable for root culture. Austria-Hun-gary, France, Germany and Russia—the countries most devastated and disorganised by the war—produced over 80 per cent, of the world's beet sugar in the days before the war, so that the effect on available supplies can easily be imagined. The prime reason that should appeal to the people of the Dominion for inaugurating a beet sugar industry is that the present sugar supply is practically a monopoly, and as such is capable of being used to curtail supplies and make the price dearer than would be the case where competition takes place. That beet would be a desirable crop for rotation purposes, owing to its fertilising

effect oil the noil, farmers will readily understand, and it is quite possible that good use can be made of the pulp after the sugar has been extracted. Land near the sea coast, and having the benefit of the salt spray, should produce excellent crops of beet. It is, of course, a question of wliat the farmer is going to get for his output that will be the chief factor in his entering upon the enterprise. Possibly there may be a sufficient number of enterprising farmers who would co-operate in this matter. It must, however, be borne in mind that industry in Europe was fostered by means of State bounties, and it might be necessary for that course to be followed in New Zealand, though it "would be far better for the industry to support itself. The present seems a favorable time to launch an experiment in the Dominion, and it would be well to give it a practical trial.